杜威中国之行对"五四"思想界的影响

Effects of John Dewey′s Visit to China on the Academic Circles in 1910s and 1920s

五四时期,美国实用主义哲学家应邀来华讲学,广泛传播了实用主义哲学、政治学、教育学和伦理学。杜威的民主自由思想成为五四知识分子追求民主自由的精神动力;他的实用主义怀疑方法,对中国当时的思想启蒙运动产生了深远的影响;他所推行的民主教育、实业教育,对中国文化普及和新文化运动的平民化发展,都有着不可低估的历史意义。但由于实用主义有其固有的弱点,不可能为中国社会的现代化提供切实的方案,最终被马克思主义所取代,而淡出历史舞台。

John Dewey, the famous American pragmatist, was invited to China to give lectures during the May Fourth period, propagating his pragmatist philosophy, politics, pedagogy and ethics. His democratic and free thoughts had become the motive for the intelligentsia to pursue democracy and freedom; his pragmatical skepticism had great effects on the then ideological enlightenment; the democratic education and industrial education he advocated had farreaching historic significance in the Chinese culture popularization and the New Culture Movement′s universal education. But pragmatism couldn′t propose any feasible plans for Chinese modernization because of its own shortcomings, and was replaced by the Marxism at last.