经济学理论、实践与本土化——兼谈中国自主的经济学体系构建

Theory,Practice and Indigenization of Economics:Construction of China's Independent Economic Knowledge System

构建中国自主的经济学知识体系,需要经济学实现具备中国特色的本土化。本文反思西方经济学为追求科学化而丧失实践传统,造成经济理论与经济实践分裂的过程。从经济学方法论视角探讨西方经济学理论与实践的关系,审视借鉴西方经济学来构建中国自主的经济学知识体系的路径。西方经济学只是一种准科学、准现实的研究,作为地方性知识只具备有限的普适性。理论和实践存在内在关联但不存在同一对应的关系,经济实践需要多因素的平衡与多理论的指导。西方经济学中占主导地位的逻辑实证主义,是一种理论优位的科学哲学。经济学需要提高实践的地位,将理论还原于实践情境,并在实践情境中构建理论。中国自主的经济学知识体系可以且理应在中国持续推进的经济实践中得到构建与完善。

The concept of“indigenization”in economics is not unfamiliar to the Chinese economic academic community.Since the beginning of the new century,there has been an increasing scholarly interest in“Chinese economics”.Over the past two decades,although some representative achievements have been made in relevant research,there stil remain some unsatisfactory areas,and efforts are needed to construct China's independent economic knowledge system.Chinese philosophy and social sciences with their inheritable and national characteristics possess three resources:Marxism as the principal content,the extremely valuable Chinese traditional culture,and helpful foreign philosophy and social sciences.Currently,research has mainly focused on constructing a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics,discussing why and how to borrow from Western economics,or analyzing how to introduce indigenized factors to innovate Chinese economic theories based on the framework of Western economics.This paper reflects on the process in which Western economics,in pursuit of scientific status,has lost its practical tradition,resulting in the separation of economic theory and practice.From the perspective of economic methodology and focusing on the relationship between Western economic theory and practice,this paper examines the feasible approaches to drawing on Western economics to promote the indigenization of economics and construct China's independent economic knowledge system.It posits that Western economics is only a quasi-scientific and quasi-realistic inquiry,functioning as a local knowledge with limited generality.While there is an intrinsic link between theory and practice,they do not correspond in a one-to-one relationship,and economic practice requires a balance of multiple factors and guidance from diverse theories.Logical positivism,which dominates Western economics,is a theory-dominant scientific philosophy.Economics needs to elevate the status of practice,recontextualize theories within practice,and construct theories through praxis.By restoring the tradition that“practice is the purpose of theory”,rather than treating practice merely as a means to confirm or falsify theoretical propositions,China's independent economic knowledge system can and indeed should be constructed and improved through continuous advancement in Chinese economic practice.Diverging from existing literature,this paper follows the path of Western economic thought history and attempts to reflect on the evolving relationship between theory and practice within the development of Western economics from an economic methodological perspective.It examines the viable approaches of learning from Western economics to promote the indigenization of economics and construct China's independent economic knowledge system.This line of research originates from a reflection on Western economics and runs parallel to the efforts to draw indigenous nourishment from Chinese traditional philosophy and the history of Chinese economic thought.This paper's methodological approach perspective is distinct from the reflection on constructing China's independent economic knowledge system based on a socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics and the framework of Western economics.This paper innovatively proposes that it is necessary to encourage the formation of a content-rich and stratified China's independent economic knowledge system,alongside the development of diverse and inclusive indigenous economic theories.Indigenization of economics does not merely entail using Chinese experience to verify and refine the theoretical system of Western economics,nor does it involve simply rejecting Western economics,or replacing one theory with another.Instead,it requires integrating and referencing various economic theories in economic practice.Such an approach can reconcile the conflicts between economic theory and practice,bring theory back into the context of practice,and construct indigenous economic theories within that context.Practical philosophy could even become the philosophical foundation for China's indigenous economic theories.Therefore,building China's independent economic knowledge system involves not only clarifying the differences between Chinese and Western perspectives but also exploring the potential for convergence between Chinese and Western philosophies,thereby demonstrating the possible generality of China's independent economic knowledge system.