杜威实验主义与“五四”哲学论辩

John Dewey’s Experimentalism and Philosophical Debates during the Period of May Fourth Movement

在"五四"时期,一些现代中国思想家用"实验主义"或"试验主义"称呼杜威的哲学理论。在访华期间,杜威的实验主义在认识论、方法论、人生观、社会哲学上展现其多重内涵,以直接或间接方式参与多个哲学论辩,使实验主义巧妙进入了现代中国哲学话语体系。杜威实验主义参与哲学论辩的文本生成是一个合作实验的过程,这些文本在某种程度上是一种再创作的作品,不能简单看作是对杜威已有英文文本的重版,而是包含了中国思想元素的杜威哲学文本。在知行关系之争中,杜威通过与孙中山的讨论,引介詹姆士的真理论,以实验释行动,提出实验的认识论;在"问题与主义"的论战中,杜威的实验方法被应用于社会问题的讨论;在科玄论战之前,杜威展示实验主义人生观的内涵,比丁文江更早举起了科学人生观的旗帜,有力支援了科玄论战中科学派的立场;在社会改造的论战中,杜威构想出一套实验主义社会哲学体系,主张改良渐进的社会改造路径。在"五四"时期的哲学论辩中,实验(实践)成为一个关键词,成为现代中国哲学的主要话语之一。

During the period of May Fourth Movement in 1919, some modern Chinese intellectuals called John Dewey’s philosophical theory "experimentalism." During his visit to China, Dewey’s experimentalism showed its multiple connotations in the field of epistemology, methodology, outlook on life and social philosophy, and participated in various philosophical arguments in a direct or indirect way, so that experimentalism entered the modern Chinese philosophical discourse system cleverly. Dewey’s Experimentalism texts generation in modern China is a cooperative experiment. To some extent, these texts are a re-creation of works, cannot simply be regarded as a reprint of Dewey’s existing English texts, but are the Dewey philosophical texts that contains the elements of Chinese thought. In the dispute of the relationship between knowledge and practice, John Dewey, through the discussion with Sun Yat-sen and the introduction of William James’ s truth theory, put forward the experimentalism epistemology which claims experiment as main form of action. In the debate of "problems and doctrine," Dewey’s experimental method is applied to the discussion of social problems. Before the debate between science and metaphysics, Dewey showed the connotation of experimentalism views of life, raised the banner of scientific outlook on life before Ding Wenjiang, and strongly supported the position of the scientology in the debate between science and metaphysic.