文明取向:社会学本土化的普遍性之维

Civilization Oriented:Questing for Universalities from Chinese Indigenization of Sociology

中国社会学本土化长期以来惯于用中国的特殊性来为自身寻找合法性,而本文认为应该把这一事业奠基在普遍性的基础上。为此,中国社会学需要走出"民族"和"文化"等特殊性范畴,从"文明"的视角来从事相关研究。"文明"的核心有二,其一是通过反思自身来解答终极问题,产生与现实之间充满张力的理想;其二是社会各部门的相对分化。在文明社会从事社会学的本土化,有希望形成一套具有普遍意义的知识体系。中国的本土经验将因此具有更大的理论潜力,为丰富世界社会学的理论宝库,促成社会学的多元化作出更大贡献。

For a long time, Chinese project of indigenizing sociology is justified by particularities of Chinese society. On the contrary, this essay suggests another way to set its base on universalities of Chinese civilization. Differing from the categories about particularity such as ＂culture＂ and ＂nation＂, ＂civilization＂ implicates a universal way to all of people regardless one＇s regional, ethnic or consanguine identity. By Eisenstadt＇ s definition which developed from Jaspers＇, civilization means both a reflective idealism against current situation and a fairly sophisticated society. Sociology indigenization project in a civilized society therefore indicates special potentiality to bring about another universal system of social thoughts other than western tradition. Chinese local knowledge thus could contribute to enrich and diversify theories of sociology.