概念史与比较文学中的思想和方法——访谈欧洲科学院院士方维规

Ideas and Methods in Conceptual History and Comparative Literature:An Interview with Fang Weigui,an Academician of Academia Europaea

院士跨界高端访谈栏目旨在探索面向未来的科技人文问题。本期访谈欧洲科学院院士、北京师范大学方维规教授,围绕概念史与比较文学中的思想和方法等问题展开。方维规教授认为,概念史研究通过查考特定概念的历史语境和语义可以更好地体认历史,亦可透过概念演变的历史,考察各有来历的概念同“当今”的可能联系。概念史在中国正在成为一门显学,我们的固有文化中有许多值得查考和阐释的概念。概念史作为一种跨学科研究,有其特定的追求和方法论思考,将之用于比较文学,也会是另一番景象。当下,数字人文和可视化技术对人文科学研究产生了巨大影响,但量化分析难以完全满足概念史研究的需要,重数据轻人文的做法容易淹没人文的复杂性。

The Column of Transdisciplinary Top Interview of Academicians aims to explore future oriented issues in science,technology,and humanities.This interview with Fang Weigui,the member of Academia Europaea and distinguished professor of Beijing Normal University,focusing on ideas and methods in conceptual history and comparative literature.Professor Fang believes that the study of conceptual history can better understand history by textual research on the historical context and semantics of specific concepts,and can also study the possible connection between concepts with different origins and“today”through the history of conceptual evolution.Conceptual history is becoming a prominent subject in China,and there are many concepts worthy of investigation and interpretation in its inherent culture.As an interdisciplinary study,conceptual history has its specific pursuit and methodological thinking.It would be a different scene to apply it to comparative literature.At present,digital humanities and the visualization technology have had a great impact on humanities research,but quantitative analysis is not fully competent for conceptual history research,and the practice of emphasizing data over humanities tends to drown out the complexity of humanities.