比较方法与新多元比较主义

比较方法处于人类推理的核心地位，它永远存在于对世界的观察中。由于诸多原因，比较研究已经在社会科学家的工具箱里占有了一席之地。全球化曾是一个重要因素，它增加了对其他文化的教育交流与求知的愿望和可能性。信息技术为比较研究创造了更多的定量数据，国际交流技术为信息更容易地传播提供了便利。比较研究是在全球化(globalization)，跨文化和跨文明语境(intercultural and trans-civilizational context)中进行多维性全方位研究的方法。比较研究主要为社会科学和人文科学的研究方法，其目的是进行不同领域，不同国家，不同文化，不同文明之间的比较。从规范的角度看，比较法作为一种工具，对各种社会与文化现象的分类以及是否存在共有的现象，可用同样原因加以解释。对于许多社会学家和文化学者，比较法为探究和解释社会和文化的差异和特殊性提供了一个分析框架。比较研究可以运用于几乎所有的领域与学科。比较研究有多种类型，如个案比较研究，文化传统比较研究，跨国或跨文化比较研究以及多国多文化比较研究等。比较研究还有多种资源，如实地考察比较，跨国调查比较，文字资料比较，量化数据比较以及概念意义比较等。比较方法的特质在于作为一种多元性的方式(diversity-oriented approach)。在东西方研究领域，越来越多的学者试图通过西方哲学诠释学，应用新的或现代的比较主义，建立有效的范例。我们可揭示出这种比较主义的主要倾向。文章试图从一、比较方法的历史渊源；二、比较方法的概念界定；三、比较方法的学科运用；四、比较方法的分类形式；五、从比较主义到新多元比较主义等五个方面加以再审思。 

Comparative Method and New Diversity-oriented Comparativism

The comparative method is at the core of human reasoning and always exists in the observation of the world. For a number of reasons, comparative research has held an extremely significant position in the humanists’ and social scientists’ tool-box. Globalization has been an important factor in increasing the demands and possibilities of cultural exchanges and communi-cation. Information technology has provided an abundance of quantitative data for comparative research, and international com-munication technology has significantly facilitated the dissemination of information. Comparative research is a multidimensional and comprehensive approach in the context of globalization, cross-culture and trans-civilization. Comparative research as meth-odology for the humanities and social sciences carries out the comparisons between various areas, countries, cultures and civili-zations. From a normative point of view, the comparative method as an instrument can also be utilized for the classification of various social and cultural phenomena. For many sociologists and cultural scholars, the comparative method provides an analyti-cal framework to explore and examine social and cultural differences and specificities. Comparative research can be applied to virtually all fields and disciplines. We may apply many types of comparative studies, such as comparative case studies, compar-ative studies of cultural traditions, cross-cultural and multicultural comparative studies. Comparative research also comprises many kinds of resources, such as comparison of field investigation, comparison of transnational investigation, comparison of text data, comparison of quantitative data, comparison of conceptual meanings, and so on. The comparative method can be charac-terized as a diversity-oriented approach. In the field of East-West research, more and more scholars try to establish effective paradigms through the application of new comparativism. We may reveal the main tendency of this new comparativism. As such this paper discusses the following:1. the historic origins of the comparative method;2. the definition of the comparative meth-od;3. the application of the comparative method; 4. the classification of the comparative method; and 5. the transformation from traditional comparativism to new comparativism.