杜威对胡适的影响

Dewey's Influence on Hu Shi

胡适曾多次强调杜威思想对他的全面影响 ,但不少学者觉得此言不那么能尽信。对胡适是否以及在多大程度上了解和掌握了杜威的实验主义 ,学界迄今仍存争议。综观胡适一生 ,他不但在哲学方法上把握了杜威思想的基本精神 ,更像杜威一样希望把哲学从“哲学家的问题”中解放出来 ,使它变作“一般人的问题” ;其主张用“科学方法来研究社会改造社会” ,尤其是杜威思路的亲切体会和运用。不过 ,胡适也把他通过严复接受的天演学说的竞争性和破坏性融铸进了他的“杜威方法” ,使其更加激进 ,故其所谓的“杜威方法”恐怕是个集大成者。

Hu Shi stresses on several occasions the influence of Dewey thought on him, but quite a few scholars do not think the influence creditable. Up to now, there is still dispute in the academia whether or to what extent Hu Shi understands and masters Dewey's experimentalism. This article holds that, judging by Hu Shi's whole life, he not only masters the essence of Dewey thought in the respect of philosophical method, but also like Dewey wishes to free philosophy from 'philosopher's issues' and make it 'ordinary people's issues', and his opinion of employing scientific methods to study and reform society is especially intimate realization and application of Dewey's mentality. However, Hu Shi fuses competitiveness and destructiveness of the theory of evolution he accepts from Yan Fu into 'Dewey method' and makes it more radical. Therefore his 'Dewey method' is likely eclectic.