[Philosopher·Memorial]
The main pioneer and founder of the study of Marxist epistemology in contemporary China
- Research on Xia Zhentao’s philosophical thoughts
Author: Zhu Huabin (Associate Editor and Reviewer of China Social Sciences Press) Guo Zhan ( School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China Honorary first-class professor)
The epistemology research boom that emerged in the 1980s has become a research hotspot in Marxist philosophy and even the entire field of philosophy in my country after the reform and opening up. Xia Zhentao (1931.4-2014.12), honorary first-level professor of the School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, is one of the most representative scholars in this research field. He has not only made outstanding achievements in epistemology research, but also has made great achievements in practical materialism, humanities and Chinese philosophy. He has conducted pioneering research in all fields and achieved fruitful results. He is the main pioneer and founder of contemporary Chinese Marxist epistemology research.
1. First entry into philosophy: a tortuous and arduous road to study
On April 1, 1931, Xia Zhentao was born in Fu, a small mountain village with traffic congestion, Erdu Township, Anhua County, Hunan Province (today Yangjiaotang Town ), a poor and backward mountain village. Bamboo Village. In one of his poems, he wrote: "I am a Shanshui Lang in central Hunan" and "Young people don't know how big the world is, but old people know how much knowledge they have." During the Anti-Japanese War, Anhua County escaped Japanese imperialist aggression and became a safe haven for many schools. Some schools in occupied areas, including the Hunan Provincial No. 5 Middle School, have moved here, and many intellectuals, including university teachers from Changsha and Wuhan, have also come here to teach, which has greatly improved the level of teachers and the quality of teaching here. Xia Zhentao was very lucky to receive a good basic education in such a learning environment, which laid a solid foundation for her own growth. In middle school, he was attracted by some seemingly esoteric problems and developed a strong interest in philosophy.
In January 1950, Xia Zhentao worked as a primary school teacher in the village for half a year after graduating from high school. In July of the same year, he left his hometown for the first time and went to Changsha to participate in the first college entrance examination after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Because of the long distance, inconvenient transportation, and lack of money, his journey to the college entrance examination was very difficult: he had no money to stay in a hotel, so he slept in the classroom of Hunan University at night; he had no money to eat, so he only ate in the morning and evening A bowl of rice noodles; if you don’t have money to buy a return boat ticket, you go to the Hunan Provincial Department of Education to get a certificate so that you can take a boat home for free; after walking on the waterway, you still have to walk 180 miles of mountain roads to get home... Because of my special liking for philosophy, When he filled out his application for the college entrance examination, he applied for the philosophy departments of two famous universities, Peking University and Wuhan University. With his solid basic skills, he was admitted to both universities at the same time. Considering that his family is not well off and Wuhan University is close to home and can save money, he chose Wuhan University. In August 1952, due to the nationwide restructuring of departments, the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University was merged into the Department of Philosophy of Peking University. He came to Peking University to continue studying philosophy.
At that time, the Philosophy Department of Peking University was full of stars, including Jin Yuelin, Tang Yongtong, Feng Youlan, He Lin and other philosophical masters. Xia Zhentao's desire for knowledge was aroused even more intensely, and she was full of expectations for her future study life. However, at the beginning of the new semester, he was transferred by the Ministry of Education to graduate early and work in the Political Teaching and Research Section of the Beijing Institute of Geology. His study plan at Peking University was interrupted. Fortunately, in December 1952, he was recommended to the Marxist-Leninist Research Department of Peking University for postgraduate study, where he mainly studied the history of the Communist Party of China (Bolsheviks) and the history of the Chinese revolution, political economics, dialectical materialism and historical materialism. Waiting for political theory class. In 1954, he graduated with excellent grades and returned to the Political Teaching and Research Office of Beijing Institute of Geology to teach courses on the foundations of Marxism-Leninism and dialectical materialism. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1956.
During his studies, Xia Zhentao studied Marxist philosophy classics, Chinese philosophy history and other original philosophical works assiduously. After working, he often used his spare time to attend courses taught by philosophy masters at Peking University, such as Russell's philosophy taught by Jin Yuelin, Hegel's philosophy taught by He Lin, and the history of Chinese philosophy taught by Zhang Dainian, etc. While studying hard, he actively wrote articles and used the theoretical knowledge he learned to analyze some hot issues in reality.During the "Cultural Revolution", he was sent to the Ministry of Geology's Jiangxi "May 7th" Cadre School to work. In March 1973, he was transferred to the Political Department of the General Bureau of Geology of the State Planning Commission. Because he was attached to the career of philosophical research, in September 1975, he applied to be transferred to the Institute of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1976, the "Gang of Four" fell, and the national philosophy and social science research gradually got on the right track. From then on, he began his beloved philosophy research career.
2. Interpretation and exploration: Promote theoretical research on practice structure
On May 11, 1978, " Guangming Daily" published a special commentator article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth", triggering a discussion on the issue of truth standards, and then opening up This marked the beginning of national ideological emancipation. Almost at the same time, Xia Zhentao published "Truth is Concrete - Reading Notes" in the 5th issue of "Philosophical Research" in 1978. The article explains in detail Marx's view that "people should prove the truth of their thinking in practice". "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" is a philosophical proposition. This discussion has been carried out in depth in the philosophical community, triggering self-reflection in the academic community and a re-understanding of the basic categories and principles of Marxist philosophy. Among them, the research and discussion on the connotation of practice promoted the ideological emancipation of Chinese Marxist philosophy, which began to get rid of the shackles of "left" ideological constraints and gradually embarked on the right track of theoretical development. Immediately afterwards, marked by the discussion on practical materialism, the academic community set off a climax of exploring the true spirit and innovative development of Marxist philosophy, among which Xia Zhentao was one of the representative figures.
First, re-examine the practical meaning and propose the practical general structure theory . At the end of 1979, the discussion on the standard of truth caused scholars in the philosophical circle to conduct in-depth discussions on the meaning and elements of practice. Xia Zhentao published the article "Elements, Characteristics and Criteria of Truth of Practice" in the 5th issue of "Philosophical Research" in 1980, proposing that "purpose is an element of practice" and taking the lead in re-examining the meaning and elements of practice, which aroused the academic circles highly anticipated. A commentator article "Carrying out in-depth theoretical research on practice standards" published in the same period by "Philosophical Research" pointed out that the study of practice theory has great practical significance and theoretical value, and it is necessary to continue to conduct in-depth research on the scope of practice, the role of practice factors, and how practice Issues such as the relationship between testing truth, practical testing and logical testing. As a result, research on practice theory has rapidly expanded in the philosophical community. Since then, Xia Zhentao has written and published articles such as "What is Practice", "Re-discussing the Meaning and Elements of Practice", and "On Purpose" to elaborate on the meaning of practice and general structural theory in more detail. Editor-in-chief Wang Yuheng of the magazine "Philosophical Research" once said: "Xia Zhentao's theory on the general structure of practice is not only a breakthrough in theoretical research on practice itself, but also plays a great role in promoting academic research in the theoretical community. This role Not only at that time, but also later in the theoretical circles, the research on many theoretical issues such as practice function, practice classification, and the historical development of practice can also be said to have been triggered by the discussion of practice structure issues. "
Xia Zhentao believes that practice is the subject and the The dynamic process of interaction between two material forces of object, purpose, means and results are the basic elements of practice. For the first time in the academic world, he clearly put forward the view that "purpose is an element of practice" and deeply analyzed the role and mechanism of purpose in the practice process, which was questioned by some scholars. At that time, some scholars were bound by the concept of the struggle between the two ideological lines of idealism and materialism before the reform and opening up. They mistakenly believed that taking purpose as an element of practice would lead to "dualism" in the view of practice and would eventually lead to idealism. They advocate excluding the purpose factor from the concept of practice and materialistically "purifying" the view of practice to make it a purely objective material activity process. However, if the purpose element of practice is eliminated, the subjectivity of practice will be eliminated, and the concept of practice and material concepts will also be confused. It can be said that the proposal of practical purpose restores the initiative of dialectical materialism and the principle of subjectivity of the concept of practice, and becomes a breakthrough to break the rigidity of academic thinking.We know that the practical point of view is a theoretical cornerstone of Marxist philosophy. Xia Zhentao's interpretation of the theory of purpose categories and general structure of practice is of great significance in breaking through the narrow ideological concepts of mechanical materialism, breaking the shackles of dogmatism, and achieving order in the philosophical world and emancipation of thought. Since then, my country's philosophical community has no longer been limited to mechanically preaching and interpreting the texts and thoughts of Marxist classic writers under the traditional framework. Instead, it has begun to think independently and correctly examine and interpret the categories, ideas, and systems of Marxist philosophy.
The second is to reveal the rich connotation of practical scope. In the late 1980s, with the continuous deepening of research on the category of practice, the academic circle's reflection on Marxist philosophy rose from an important category to an overall theory, triggering discussions on practical materialism. This discussion had a profound impact on the development of Marxist philosophy in my country.
At that time, many scholars participated in this discussion, and they had different understandings of practical materialism from different perspectives. Based on the basic thoughts of Marx, Engels and other classic writers, and taking the historical coordinates of the development of modern philosophy as a reference, Xia Zhentao believes that it was with the scientific view of practice as the basis for establishing a new philosophy that Marx and Engels achieved a revolution in the history of human philosophy. Xia Zhentao insists on taking the subject and object as the framework and the relationship between man and the world as the content. He believes that the meaning of practice should be scientifically explained and defined from the perspective of dialectical materialism's initiative, and that practice should be understood from the principle of subjectivity and practice as a relationship between man and the external world. The most basic way to transform matter, energy and information. He believes that practice is not only the basic form of human existence as a social existence, but also the basic content of this existence, the most realistic expression of human universality, and the activation state of the relationship between human beings and the external world. He advocates a practice-based understanding of people, their world, the relationship between people and the world, and the characteristics of the times. The main social function of practical materialism is to guide people's theoretical and practical criticism of the existing world in a philosophical way. It is from this foundation that Xia Zhentao formed his own general logic for philosophical research: using the relationship between man and the world as the frame of reference to reinterpret the objects, characteristics and functions of philosophy, and based on this philosophical view, he also carried out the study of Marx. Marxist philosophy has made provisions and interpretations, and on this basis, research has been carried out in different fields such as epistemology , humanities, Marxist philosophy system reform and textbook reform.
The third is to explore the reform of Marxist philosophy textbooks. In the 1980s and 1990s, with the continuous development of Marxist philosophy, the call for change became louder and louder. The reform of Marxist philosophy textbooks in China has become a hot issue in the academic world. Scholars have conducted heated discussions on the essence, form, system, structure, function and historical destiny of Marxist philosophy around this issue. The reform of textbooks is closely related to the debate on practical materialism. It can also be said that the two are essentially the same issue. The premise and key of textbook reform is how to understand the essence of the transformation of Marxist philosophy. Some major issues such as whether the traditional textbook system needs to be reformed and how to reform it are the focus and breakthrough point of textbook reform. Scholars have proposed different textbook reform plans based on different understandings of practical materialism.
Xia Zhentao, on the basis of re-understanding Marxist philosophy based on the relationship between man and the world, advocates "taking practical materialism as the theoretical cornerstone, modern social practice as the basis of reality, and the overall relationship between man and the world, man The conscious and active mastery of the world and the conscious and active creation of the human world are the basic clues and basic contents, which internally unify ontology (including historical perspective) and epistemology (including practice theory and methodology). Exploring a new system of Marxist philosophy in the unity with reality." Although the textbook reform at that time was not finally completed, it was of great significance in promoting the development of Marxist philosophy in our country.
3. Creation and foundation: Constructing a Marxist epistemological theoretical system
From the 1950s to the mid-1970s, Xia Zhentao’s research interests were mainly in Chinese philosophy. He mainly studied the social nature of the Western Zhou Dynasty, slavery in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the destiny of the Duke of Zhou. Thoughts etc. He also conducted specialized research on Xunzi's thoughts and published his first book - "On Xunzi's Philosophical Thoughts" in 1979. After being transferred to the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xia Zhentao originally wanted to continue researching the history of Chinese philosophy, but the unit leader assigned him to the Dialectical Materialism Research Laboratory based on work needs, and was later assigned to the epistemology research group by the laboratory leader. In 1978, when the Institute of Philosophy enrolled its first batch of graduate students, he was responsible for supervising graduate students in epistemology. From then on, Xia Zhentao set her research direction in the field of epistemology and began her academic career in epistemology research. In 1985, Xia Zhentao was transferred to the Philosophy Department of Renmin University of China to teach and continue to engage in epistemology research.
Xia Zhentao is one of the earliest scholars to invest in epistemology research. He has been deeply engaged in this research field for decades, and among the scholars engaged in this field at that time, he achieved the most fruitful academic achievements. Although many scholars have put forward insightful views on one or some epistemological issues, Xia Zhentao's achievements are all in terms of the quantity and quality of the results, as well as the systematicness, pioneering and influence of the results. biggest. Xia Zhentao combines history and theory with both innovative research on epistemological principles and a systematic review of the history of epistemological thought. It not only covers almost all important issues discussed in epistemological research in my country in the new era, but also is groundbreaking in its research on many issues. , leading. Professor Yang Xuegong of Peking University pointed out: "From the overall situation of epistemology research, Xia Zhentao's achievements are the most outstanding...representing the academic level of epistemology research in the new era." It can be said that Xia Zhentao has contributed to the rise and prosperity of epistemology in my country in the new era. He has made significant contributions and is the main pioneer and founder of the study of Marxist epistemology in my country in the new era.
First, conduct pioneering research into epistemological principles and construct a systematic epistemological ideological system. Starting from the research purpose category and practical theory, with the scientific view of practice as the cornerstone, Xia Zhentao studies the nature of cognition, the system structure of cognition, the subject-object correlation law of cognition, the occurrence of cognition, the process of cognition, thinking activities, truth and A comprehensive and in-depth study has been conducted on the basic principles of epistemology such as value.
In 1986, Xia Zhentao completed the book "Introduction to Epistemology" based on previous research results. This is the earliest academic monograph and textbook on epistemology after my country's reform and opening up. In 1991, this work won the first prize of Beijing's Second Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award. Editor Wang Yuheng pointed out in his review of Xia Zhentao's book: "As far as we know, it is the earliest monograph published in my country after the 'Cultural Revolution' to comprehensively and systematically expound Marxist epistemology. It takes subject and object as the basic categories, and Practice is the cornerstone, and the materialist dialectical method is used to construct a new epistemological system with unique insights and profound theoretical analysis." Basic issues related to epistemology such as the occurrence of knowledge, the form and method of realizing knowledge, the process of knowledge, the conceptual purpose and practical purpose of knowledge are put into this dynamic system to think and solve, revealing the path of knowing oneself and constituting oneself. This work draws a clear blueprint for Xia Zhentao's systematic research on epistemology. It also opens up the problem domain and clarifies the development direction for epistemological research in the entire academic community.
The cognitive system structure based on the relationship between subject and object is the core issue of Xia Zhentao's epistemological research, which runs through the entire process of his epistemological research. At the end of the 1980s, he published "On the Cognitive System", "On the Cognitive Settlement of the Subject", "On the Subject-Object Correlation Law in the Cognitive System", "On the Object Basis of the Subjectivity of Cognition" and "Human Subject status and subjectivity in object-oriented activities" and other papers, and in 1996, he finally completed and published the monograph "The Subject-Object Correlation Principle of Cognition".Xia Zhentao introduced the general structure theory of practice into epistemology, taking a system composed of subject, object and intermediary as the basic elements as the basic structure of cognition. He deeply analyzed the meaning, content and importance of the three subsystems of subject, object and intermediary, and from The dialectical perspective analyzes the correlation and internal connections between the three subsystems and describes understanding as a dynamic and continuously developing process. The epistemological system is the core of the entire study of epistemological principles and is also the most discussed issue in the academic community. Xia Zhentao wrote the most in this field, explained it most thoroughly, and was therefore the most representative.
Xia Zhentao believes that epistemology is not only the study of ready-made knowledge that has been formed, but also the occurrence of knowledge, exploring and revealing the preconditions, foundations, mechanisms and processes of the origin and occurrence of human cognitive systems. In 1982, he proposed and presided over the study of epistemogenesis, and published the book "Epistogenesis" in 1991. Xia Zhentao and others adopted the method of understanding that "human anatomy is a key to monkey anatomy". They first studied the components and structures of high-level cognitive forms, and then went back to explore their role in low-level primitive cognitive forms and even pre-cognitive forms. The symptoms and germs revealed in the form can be traced back to its original origin, occurrence and construction process through reflection on the existing cognitive form. The occurrence of knowledge is an important topic in the study of epistemology. This work is the first monograph in my country that specifically studies the issue of the occurrence of knowledge. It has high theoretical value in contemporary Chinese Marxist epistemology research.
Thinking is the object of research in many disciplines, and it is also an area that attracts more attention in Marxist epistemology research. In 1992, Xia Zhentao, together with Li Huaichun and Guo Zhan, co-edited and published "Introduction to the World of Thinking - An Epistemological Investigation of Thinking", which included thinking into the cognitive process from an epistemological perspective and conducted an in-depth analysis of the occurrence, structure and function of thinking. , the nature of thinking, thinking activities and methods, the thinking world and artificial intelligence, the development of the thinking world and other issues. The academic value of this achievement was groundbreaking at the time. In 2004, it won the first prize for outstanding achievements in philosophy and social sciences in Beijing, and in 2005, it won the first prize for outstanding achievements in humanities and social sciences research from the State Education Commission.
In addition, Xia Zhentao also earlier raised and studied the issue of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty in human understanding. He pointed out that in the past, we only understood people’s understanding from the perspective of truth-seeking, but people understand the world according to the principle of subjectivity. Understanding must not only realize the mastery of the essence of the external world, but also reflect people’s value needs, and must also follow the principle of subjectivity. Follow the laws of beauty. Therefore, we should understand the nature of cognition from the perspective of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty, reveal the specific form and internal mechanism of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty in the cognition process, and study the internal connection between truth, goodness and beauty in the content of cognition and the knowledge and emotion in the subject's cognitive setting. He demonstrated the conceptual and practical ways in which people grasp the world, as well as their functions and characteristics in pursuing and creating objects of truth, goodness and beauty; from a genetic perspective It examines the biological premise of the principle of the unity of truth, goodness and beauty; it also examines the original expression of truth, goodness and beauty.
The second is to systematically review the history of epistemology to provide solid theoretical resources for epistemology research. While conducting research on epistemological principles, Xia Zhentao also attaches great importance to sorting out the history of epistemological thought at home and abroad. Together with Cui Jianjun and Ji Humin, he co-translated "A Brief History of Western Epistemology" written by the famous British philosopher D.W. Heimlen, and introduced the research results of Western epistemology at an early stage.
More importantly, he has been working quietly for more than ten years, using the relationship between man and the world as a clue to explore traditional Chinese philosophy, and using Marxist epistemology as a reference, he summarized and summarized the epistemological thoughts of more than 50 thinkers in Chinese history. After sorting it out, he completed the "History of Chinese Epistemological Thought" (volumes 1 and 2). This work won the second prize of the Third Humanities and Social Sciences Research Achievement Award of the Ministry of Education in 1998.Xia Zhentao believes that the relationship between heaven and man, the relationship between subject and object, the relationship between form and spirit, the relationship between name and reality, the relationship between speech and meaning, the relationship between learning and thinking, and the relationship between knowing and doing, etc. in traditional Chinese thought, although they do not all directly discuss epistemological issues, they already include the influence of modern epistemology. The study of illuminating signs, embryos and germs has involved epistemological issues such as the nature, conditions and sources of cognition, the process, methods and purposes of cognition, the content and form of cognition, the testing and evaluation of cognition. Xia Zhentao's excavation of it not only helps us understand and master traditional Chinese epistemological thoughts, but also provides us with rich theoretical resources for constructing new epistemological principles.
At that time, many scholars in the academic community believed that there was no epistemological thought in traditional Chinese thought. Xia Zhentao clarified this with this large work, filling a major gap in the study of the history of Chinese epistemology. Xia Zhentao spent more than 10 years alone to complete this royal masterpiece, which not only reflects his persistent academic attitude and tenacious perseverance, but also reflects his profound foundation in Chinese philosophy. The famous philosopher Shi Jun commented: "There are currently many scholars studying the principles of Marxist philosophy in Chinese academic circles, and they have made great achievements and made important contributions. However, they also study the history of Chinese philosophy and have profound attainments. There may not be too many, but Professor Xia Zhentao from the Department of Philosophy of Renmin University of China is one of these very few experts. "
The third is an outstanding contribution to the study of epistemology in the new era of our country. Marxist classic writers such as Marx and Engels did not construct a special epistemological theory. They only provided us with basic views, basic principles and basic methods of epistemology. Before the reform and opening up, influenced by Soviet textbooks, my country's traditional epistemological research failed to correctly understand the connotation of the practical category and attach importance to its position in Marxist philosophy. Instead, it explained human cognition from the perspective of materiality and objectivity, and regarded practice as cognition. To understand it as an external link, it fails to take practice as the basis and starting point for understanding human cognition, and fails to construct a scientific epistemological theoretical system. Xia Zhentao incorporated the scientific view of practice into epistemology, deeply analyzed the nature of cognition and related principles, not only restored the general principles of epistemology founded by Marx, but also interpreted and recreated Marxist epistemology based on contemporary social practice, and constructed a systematic The epistemological ideological system has filled many theoretical gaps in the long-term research on Marxist epistemology in my country and made significant contributions to the research on contemporary Marxist epistemology in China.
Throughout the 1980s of the 20th century, epistemology has been the focus of research in the Chinese Marxist philosophy community and even the entire philosophy community. It was an undisputed research hotspot in my country's philosophical research at that time. The rise and prosperity of epistemology research in China has profound social and historical reasons. It is rooted in the needs of the practice of my country’s socialist modernization construction. Before the reform and opening up, my country's socialist construction practice encountered setbacks, forcing us to find the reasons cognitively, and then emancipate our minds and re-understand some major theoretical and practical issues in socialist construction. This major ideological change and historical Transformation inevitably requires guidance from scientific epistemological theories. It can be said that the upsurge in epistemology research in my country in the 1980s and 1990s played a very important role in promoting ideological emancipation across the country. Therefore, from the perspective of the great historical process of my country's reform and opening up, as a representative figure of this research boom, the theoretical contribution and practical significance of Xia Zhentao's epistemological research results also have the characteristics of the times.
4. Reflection and response: Enrich Marxist philosophy of humanities thought
In the late 1980s, in response to the tendency of "seeing things but not people" in Marxist philosophical research at that time, Xia Zhentao devoted himself to humanistic research and achieved fruitful results. He co-edited the "Dictionary of Humanities" with Huang Zhisen and Chen Zhishang of Peking University, participated in the writing of "Principles of Humanities" chaired by Chen Zhishang, and did a lot of basic work for the academic community to carry out humanities research. In addition, he has also written humanities monographs such as "What is Human" and "Human: The Development of Relational Activities". Xia Zhentao has been the vice president of the Chinese Society of Anthropology for a long time and is an important representative figure in contemporary Chinese anthropology research.
Xia Zhentao believes that Marx and Engels took real people as their fundamental starting point to investigate and analyze the objective world and human history, with the liberation of human beings as their theoretical purpose. Marxist philosophy inherently contains rich humanistic thoughts. In "What is Human", he conducts a comprehensive and thorough exploration and analysis of human beings from the aspects of human beings as natural beings, social beings, conscious beings and active beings. He emphasized that human beings are the unity of multiple stipulations. The most fundamental way to examine human nature is to comprehensively examine how people create their various states of existence and stipulations through human activities, that is, practical perceptual activities, and how they create their own states of existence and stipulations. Achieve your own evolutionary development. In the book "Human: The Development of Relational Activities", he based on Marx's basic theoretical views on real people, combined with the idea of "studying the relationship between heaven and man" in traditional Chinese philosophy and the survival and development issues faced by contemporary mankind, from the perspective of relationships It has a relatively systematic and holistic understanding of people from the perspective of dialectical unity of activities, activities and development, especially analyzing people's new development methods, people's values and ideals, the universality of people, as well as people's limitations and transcendence methods, and people-oriented It puts forward many viewpoints with high academic influence and theoretical value on issues such as the free and comprehensive development of people, the development of contemporary Chinese society and people.
Xia Zhentao not only enriched Marxist philosophy and humanistic thoughts, but also gave a more thorough and systematic explanation of Marxism from a humanistic perspective, clarifying the view of practical materialism on human beings: human beings are practical beings. “Man, as a perceptual, social and active person, constantly produces his own various human lives and creates his own through material perceptual practical activities and the various activities developed on this basis. A rich and colorful human world, and enables people to obtain reality and stipulations that are compatible with this diverse human life and this rich and colorful human world; therefore, humans become a reality with realistic characteristics and essence. Generally speaking, people express their existence and life through their own activities, and how they express their existence and life is what they create through their own activities. in the human world”.
The study of humanities is a premise for Xia Zhentao's entire philosophical research, and it also makes Xia Zhentao's entire philosophical research more complete. Xia Zhentao believes that, like other disciplines, philosophical thinking is based on the existence and development of living people, and philosophy takes the relationship between people and the world as its research object. He regards human studies as a starting point and consistent method for his philosophical research: "The relationship between man and the world is not only a general topic that philosophy should focus on and study, but also a general frame of reference for philosophical thinking and solving problems in different fields. "Starting from the relationship between man and the world, he not only adhered to the humanistic premise and historical materialism of Marxism, but also adhered to the materialist dialectics of Marxism. Starting from relationships is the opposite of starting from entities. He is opposed to philosophy that takes entities as the starting point. He believes that this substantive way of thinking and ontological thinking will eventually lead to a mechanistic world view and a mysterious creation theory.
Xia Zhentao has written many books and made outstanding achievements. He devoted his whole life to his beloved philosophical career, and used philosophy to interpret and enrich his life, achieving the perfect unity of philosophical life and philosophy of life. As he said in his poem: "The inner and outer worlds correspond to each other, and when they meet, the spring veins are deep. They breed wisdom and create civilization, but they also seek beauty, goodness, and truth." He has his motherland in mind and always With philosophical thinking, he pays attention to the major practical issues in my country's socialist modernization construction; he has high aspirations and diligently pursues the path of philosophy, and has built firm academic beliefs and lofty academic ambitions; he is a low-key and modest person, indifferent to fame and fortune, and is simple and harmonious. He silently climbs the peak of philosophy in simplicity; he likes a quiet, elegant, contented life, and explores the beauty of philosophy in the blending of things and myself; he is tireless in teaching, and has cultivated many outstanding talents for the development of philosophy in my country. Xia Zhentao’s philosophical thoughts, as well as his realm and spirit as a student, a person, and a teacher will always be admired by future students.
"Guangming Daily" (Page 15, March 29, 2021)
Source: Guangming.com - "Guangming Daily"
