General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "accelerating the construction of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics is, in the final analysis, the construction of China's independent knowledge system." The so-called knowledge mainly refers to the sum of knowledge and experience gained by people as practical subjects in the process of transforming the world. Knowledge derived from practice forms concepts through abstraction, induction, deduction and other methods, and individual and specific knowledge concepts form a knowledge system with stable structure and internal links through system integration. In the process of the advancement of simple intuitive experience knowledge concept knowledge system, practice is not only the source of knowledge generation, but also the power to promote knowledge renewal, and plays an important role in the construction and development of knowledge system. To construct China's independent knowledge system, we need to adhere to the practice orientation, cultivate and explore knowledge growth points and innovation sources based on China's practice in the new era, and sublimate China's theory with China's practice.
The theoretical system of Marxism has obvious practical characteristics
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the viewpoint of practice and the viewpoint of life are the basic viewpoints of Marxist epistemology, and practicality is the prominent feature that distinguishes Marxist theory from other theories." The concept of practice in the perspective of Marxist philosophy has distinctive materialistic characteristics, Understanding the essence of practice from the perspective of social historical activities based on material production focuses on the objective reality and its changing process. The materialistic characteristics of practical activities determine that the construction of knowledge system should start from the objective reality of reality and its development and changes. At the same time, the concept of practice in the perspective of Marxist philosophy also has distinctive dialectical characteristics, emphasizing that social practice is not static, but constantly moving and changing. This determines that the construction of knowledge system should start from the internal contradiction movement process of historical practice. In addition, the concept of practice in the perspective of Marxist philosophy also has distinctive characteristics of the people, emphasizing that practical activities are subjective activities seen in objective activities, and are also the sum total of practical activities of real individuals in specific social and historical relationships. The subject of practice is the people who promote historical progress. The people's subjectivity of practical activities determines that the construction of the knowledge system should follow the people centered value orientation.
Historically, Marxist classical writers constructed the knowledge system of Marxist philosophy, setting a model for adhering to the practice orientation and promoting theoretical innovation. For example, when facing Bruno Powell's understanding of the nature of historical activities from the perspective of "spirit" rather than "mass" in Holy Family, Marx clearly pointed out that historical activities are mass activities, and with the deepening of historical activities, it will certainly be the expansion of the mass team. This clarifies the people's subjectivity of practice and plays an important role in the formation and development of historical materialism. In German Ideology, Marx and Engels emphasized the importance of the objective materiality of practical activities. In their view, slavery could not be eliminated without the steam engine and the Jeanne spinning machine, and serfdom could not be eliminated without improved agriculture. This view strongly promotes the original construction of Marxist philosophy practice view system. In Das Kapital, facing the wrong view that bourgeois economists interpret capitalist economic relations from the empirical level and draw the conclusion that capital relations are natural and eternal, Marx introduced the standpoint and method of materialist dialectics into the study of political economy, which not only clarified the historical temporality of capitalist production relations, It also profoundly reveals the internal contradictions of capitalist production relations. It can be said that it is the emphasis on the materialistic dialectics of real economic practice that Marx made a panoramic theoretical analysis of the capitalist economic process, showing the theoretical charm of Marxist political economy.
Lenin, in the process of inheriting and developing Marxist theory, also attached great importance to the materialistic dialectics and people's subjectivity of practical activities, and clearly pointed out that practice not only has the character of universality, but also has the character of direct reality. During the historical periods of revolution, construction and reform, the Chinese Communists firmly adhered to the practice orientation to promote theoretical innovation, took practice as the only criterion for testing truth, unified the adherence to Marxism and the development of Marxism, and achieved a series of major theoretical achievements in the modernization of Marxism in China.
Building China's independent knowledge system based on China's practice in the new era
China in the new era is undergoing the most extensive and profound social change in our history, and is carrying out the most ambitious and unique practical innovation in human history. This unprecedented great practice has provided a strong impetus for knowledge innovation, theoretical creation and academic prosperity, and opened up vast space and created important opportunities for building China's independent knowledge system. China's independent knowledge system has a distinctive cultural subjectivity. It is the result of the Chinese people led by the Communist Party of China in promoting Chinese experience into Chinese theory in practice. It is impossible to emerge from a dogmatic or external theoretical framework, nor to construct it by mechanically copying or applying certain theories. China's independent knowledge system has distinctive and continuous innovation, which is the summary and summary of China's practice. It is constantly enriched and developed through theoretical innovation based on practice, so as to better guide China's practice. To construct China's independent knowledge system, we must adhere to the practice orientation, and constantly promote theoretical innovation based on practice in the great cause of comprehensively promoting the construction of a powerful country and national rejuvenation with Chinese style modernization, and guide new practical activities with theoretical innovation to achieve mutual promotion and progress between theory and practice.
Demonstrate autonomy. The successful practice of Chinese style modernization was pioneered by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China through independent exploration. It has Chinese characteristics and conforms to China's reality. As a modernization with a huge population, the Chinese style modernization is unprecedented in difficulty and complexity, and its development path and promotion mode must have its own characteristics. As the modernization of common prosperity for all people, Chinese style modernization has transcended the polarization of the West and opened up a new direction in the history of human civilization. As a coordinated modernization of material civilization and spiritual civilization, Chinese style modernization transcends the expansion of western materialism and links modernization with the free and comprehensive development of human beings. As the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, Chinese modernization has created the relationship between man and nature in the dimension of life community. As a modernization that follows the path of peaceful development, the Chinese style modernization has completely abandoned the old way of achieving modernization through war, colonialism and other ways of benefiting others at the expense of others, and opened up a new road of modernization that holds high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and win-win results. To construct China's independent knowledge system, we should not confine our thoughts to the western theoretical paradigm, mechanically apply the western knowledge system and discourse system to understand and interpret China's practice, but get rid of the mentality of "saying must be Greek", so that theoretical research and innovative practice of Chinese style modernization are in the same direction and frequency, The autonomy of the knowledge system is demonstrated by the Chinese characteristics based on the practice of Chinese modernization, and the original contribution of Chinese modernization to the modernization of human society is reflected by the autonomy of the knowledge system.
Strengthen systematization. Promoting the practice of Chinese style modernization is a systematic project involving economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, ecological civilization construction and other aspects. Building China's independent knowledge system should also work hard systematically. With the continuous advancement of China's practice in the new era, the discipline system, academic system and discourse system that highlight the characteristics of China's theory have been constantly improved. In this process, Chinese academia has conducted in-depth discussions on the significance, methods, paths and other issues of building China's independent knowledge system, and has formed a series of research results. At the same time, it should be noted that in some fields of philosophy and social sciences, there is a problem of emphasizing knowledge breakthrough and ignoring knowledge system construction to varying degrees. Compared with practical innovation, the construction of knowledge system still lags behind. The systematism of knowledge system and the integration and coupling within knowledge system need to be further strengthened. These are the problems that need to be focused on and solved in building China's independent knowledge system. Of course, these problems cannot be solved overnight and once and for all. Strengthening the systematization of China's independent knowledge system is a process that continues to deepen with the deepening of China's practice. We need to maintain historical patience and continue to explore the integration points and innovation sources of the knowledge system in the benign interaction between theoretical innovation and practical innovation, Let China's independent knowledge system more comprehensively and comprehensively cover and integrate multiple knowledge, concepts, methods, propositions and theories, and lay a solid foundation for the construction of philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics.
Focus on innovation. General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "our promotion of theoretical innovation is a theoretical innovation based on practice, not a fantasy sitting in an ivory tower. We must adhere to discovering and developing truth in practice, and use practice to realize and test truth." To build a Chinese independent knowledge system that matches China's practice, we should take China as a mirror and the times as a mirror, Based on China's reality, we should constantly promote knowledge innovation, theoretical innovation and method innovation in practice. On the one hand, we should maintain the confidence and vitality of innovation, insist on proceeding from reality in everything, focus on solving the practical problems of reform and opening up and socialist modernization in the new era, constantly answer the questions of China, the world, the people, and the times, and explore new ideas, new words, new mechanisms, and new forms for building China's autonomous knowledge system. On the other hand, it is necessary to maintain the determination and sobriety of innovation, constantly deepen the understanding of the discipline development law of philosophy and social sciences and the talent training law, overcome impetuosity, avoid being eager for quick success and instant benefit, and ensure that the construction of the knowledge system can stand the test of practice and history. In addition, we should also adhere to an open and inclusive academic research vision and feelings, learn from and learn from all the outstanding achievements of human society with an open mind that embraces all rivers, make the past serve the present, make foreign things serve China, integrate China and foreign countries, and connect the past and present to promote philosophy and social science with Chinese characteristics to the world, and contribute Chinese wisdom to the progress of human civilization.
(Author: Tang Zhengdong, Professor of Philosophy Department of Nanjing University)
