作为文明研究的社会学

Sociology as the Study of Civilization

社会学的开创者,无不以现代性的文明化进程为入手点,对社会构造的总体特征给出既具有实证基础又具有整全视野的分析和判断。中国社会学的兴起以及在学术进步中所坚持的发问方式,始终与中国文明的思想基质、制度形态、文化模式、民族属性和政治框架之总体结构紧密联系在一起,也始终与中国同整个世界交往、沟通甚至相互塑造的方式紧密联系在一起。就此而言,西方经典社会学家的思想方法和问题视域,与其说给了我们值得效仿的路径,规定了我们的思考轨迹,不如说正是他们在思想上的非凡努力,激发了中国社会学面向自身文明与现代世界接壤和碰撞处所展现的蔚为壮观的思想图景。当前,中国社会的发展正面临着世界历史前所未有的大时代,社会学应以时代赋予的使命,将古今中外仍在发挥着活的社会演变效应的文明要素纳入自身的视野内,以长远的眼光来审视中国与世界正在发生的一切。若要将中国的现代化探索从学理层面上升到人类根本处境的高度,创造人类文明的新形态,社会学需要开拓出全新领地,返回经典的视域。

The founding fathers of sociology all used the civilizing process of modernity as a starting point for their provision of an empirically grounded holistic analysis and judgment of the overall character of social construction.The emergence of Chinese sociology and the way questions are raised in the course of its academic progress have always been closely linked to the overall structure of Chinese civilization in terms of its intellectual foundations,institutional forms,cultural patterns,national identity and political framework,and also to the way in which China interacted with and communicated with the world and their mutual shaping.In this regard,the intellectual approaches and problem horizons of the classical Western sociologists,rather than giving us a path to follow and defining the way we think,have inspired,through their extraordinary intellectual efforts,the spectacular intellectual landscape that Chinese sociology presents at the point where its own civilization meets and collides with the modern world.At present,the development of Chinese society is facing an era unprecedented in world history.Sociological studies in China should take on the mission given by the times and incorporate into its perspectives those elements of civilization that have played and are still playing a living role in the evolution of society,and should take a long-term view of what is happening in China and the world.If China’s modernization quest is to be elevated from the theoretical level to the level of the fundamental human condition and is to create a new form of human civilization,sociology in China needs to break new ground while returning to the classical realm.