“现代性”研究的回望与反思

Reflections on the Research on "Modernity" in China

自20世纪90年代以来,对现代性的研究构成了国内学术界的一个热点,其论争的焦点关涉到两个根本的问题:一是有关中国国情及其相应的现代性性质的判断,二是有关西方启蒙思想与价值观念的普适性问题。反思这段时期的研究,它基本上属于借用西方的有关概念与框架来分析问题的阶段,这一情况在有关"自由主义"思想的实质及其对当代中国的意义的理解上显得尤为突出。现代性研究方面的困惑,说到底在于我们无法从哲学的层面上提供一种概念框架,以帮助人们从学理上将"问题语境"、"普适性"之类的难题说清楚。

Since the 1990s, the research on 'modernity' has become a focus of Chinese scholars and centered on two key issues, one being the evaluation of the national situation of China and the nature of its corresponding modernity; the other being the universal value of Western Enlightenment and values. The research of this period is mainly a borrowing of related Western concepts and approaches, which finds full expression in the understanding of the nature of liberalism and its significance to contemporary China. The dilemma in this research has its root in the failure in providing a conceptual frame at the philosophical level in order to give a theoretical explanation of such terms as 'problem context' and 'universality'.