孙本文与20世纪上半叶的中国社会学

作为20世纪上半叶居于主流地位的社会学综合学派的代表人物,孙本文在其从事研究的近30年间对中国社会学的早期建设做出了突出贡献。留学美国哥伦比亚大学和芝加哥大学的经历直接影响到他从文化和心理因素入手,建构社会学综合学派的学术努力,这使他的学说带有鲜明的文化决定论和心理还原主义的色彩。在社会动荡、战争频仍的年代,孙本文充当了中国社会学建设者和评论者的双重角色,最早尝试用社会学理论来推动苦难中国的社会建设,并致力于创建一种中国化的社会学理论体系。这些努力,既反映了知识分子面对危机时的天真与无奈,也反映了社会学家介入现实时的执拗与不甘。而1949年革命胜利之前由他个人写成的《当代中国社会学》,庶几也就成了即将黯然退场的旧中国社会学家们的集体谢幕词。

Sun Benwen and the Chinese Sociology in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

As a representative of the comprehensive school of sociology,Sun Benwen occupied a mainstream position in the first half of the twentieth century,and contributed remarkably to the early development of Chinese sociology during his nearly three-decade research.Being directly influenced by his learning experiences in Columbia University and the University of Chicago,he started with cultural and psychological factors in his endeavor to establish the comprehensive school of sociology,which endowed his theories with a significant touch of cultural determinism and psychological reductionism.In an age plagued by turmoil and wars,Sun Benwen played the dual role of constructor and reviewer of Chinese sociology.He took the initiative to advance social construction in tribulated China with sociological theories and devoted himself to establishing a Sinicized system of sociological theory.All these efforts not only reflected the intellectuals’ naivety and helplessness in the face of crises,but also the sociologists’ willfulness and unreconciledness in intervening in social realities.Meanwhile,Modern Chinese Sociology,his monograph written prior to the foundation of the PRC in 1949,virtually became the closing speech of all those Chinese sociologists who had outlived the Republic of China and who would have to accept a gloomy collective withdrawal.