杜威的五四观及其影响

杜威于五四运动爆发前夕应邀来华讲学,对五四运动的意义和存在的问题作出了理性的评价,对其未来走向给予了前瞻性引导,深刻地影响了五四运动的发展。杜威对五四运动中表现出来的感情色彩表示担忧,主张感情与理性相互配合。既反对一味的守旧,也反对盲目的趋新,提出中西文化折衷调和的主张。由于中国近代社会缺少和平建设的环境,也由于杜威自由主义实用哲学与马克思主义缺少理性的对话,杜威思想不可能承担起改造中国社会的历史责任。

Dewey's Understanding and Instructing on the May Fourth Movement

John Dewey was invited to China to give lectures just before the May Fourth Movement, and thus was able to make a rational comment on the May Fourth Movement's significance and problems and directed its future and made great effects on the further development of the May Fourth Movement. Dewey worried about its emotionality and advocated the combination of the emotionality and reason. He advocated the combination of the Chinese and western cultures and opposed both conservatism and blind updating. There being neither the circumstance of peaceful construction in the modern China, nor the rational dialogue between Dewey's pragmatism and Marxism, Dewey's thought couldn't bear the historical responsibility of remaking the Chinese society.