让“我”回归:从学术视角看陈寅恪的“独立精神”

Let the “ Self” Return: CHEN Yin-que ’s “ Independent Spirit” from the Academic Perspective

“独立之精神、自由之思想”是陈寅恪的名言。过去这一言说常被误解,需要多从学术视角去认识。它不是陈寅恪一人所见,而是当年相当一些人的共同取向,牵涉到时人关于学术与“我”之关联的认知,以及近代从历史研究中“人”的隐去到学术表述中“我”的消失这一发展进程。陈寅恪对学生再三强调“读书一定要独立”,强调“我”的主体性,意味着主观和客观可以是互补的,不必以客观取代主观,在当时的学术环境中有其特殊意义。至少在学术表述层面,我们需要让“我”回归。

“Independent spirit and free thought” is CHEN Yin-que’s famous saying. However, it has been misunderstood for a long time,so we need to understand it from the academic perspective. At that time,it wasn’t the unique insight of CHEN,but many scholars shared the same value. The idea involves scholars’ understanding of the relationship between the academics and the “self” and the absence of “humanity” in historical research and the disappearance of the “self” in academic writings. CHEN emphasized many times that “we should keep our mind independent when we do academic work” and highlighted the subjectivity of the “self”. It implies that subjectivity and objectivity are complementary to each other and it is unnecessary to replace the former with the latter,which brought special significance to the academic environment at that time. At least at the level of academic expressions,we need to let the “self” return.