On The Certainty Of Dialectical Thinking

In an era of scientism, philosophy is facing unprecedented challenges. Philosophers have in various forms announced that philosophy has arrived at its end, the essence of which is to reject and deconstruct the dialectical thought that is different from the scientific thinking mode. So, in order to deal with the scientism's challenges, the rebellion from dialectical system itself and the influence from post-modern culture, one problem must be solved: the certainty of dialectical thinking.The four major parts of the present thesis are as follows:Chapter one: Differentiation Between Philosophical Truth and Scientific TruthScientific knowledge cannot provide man with the ultimate truth. From the perspective of thinking mode, there are different cognitive fields corresponding with cognitive (or scientific) thinking and dialectical (or philosophical) thinking. From the certainty of knowledge, Quine's "Two Dogmas of Empiricism" indicates that the certainty of scientific truth is not complete, that is to say, scientific cognition is not the only way to the truth. And that has left a theory space for dialectical thinking in a certain sense. From the test Standard, scientific truth is different to philosophical truth. As long as science could prove its value as the tools of description and prediction, it will be universally accepted. The philosophical truth is neither verified in the sense of empirical science, nor operated as experience knowledge. The certainty of dialectical thinking lays a kind of logical necessity beyond cognitive thinking. So, it is not analytic necessity, but an inevitable logical progress in the most abstract and philosophical areas.All these indicate that scientific truth is finite definiteness, which would leave a theortical space for dialectical thinking in a certain sense.In this part,according to Lenin's "Dialectics is Epistemology", some definitions of dialectics are presented. Dialectics is the theory of how thought reflects the movement of objects, whose main contents is to probe into the dialectical movement of concept itself. In this sense, dialectics is a kind of connotative logic.At the same time, dialectics is also a kind of theoretical thinking mode. It insists on the objectivity of observation and thinking on the basis of admitting the dynamic nature of thinking rules. So, it is not only a science on the thinking rules and epistemology, but also the ontology and world view about the nature of the world. Dialectics is a kind of relative truth about the absolute. In the contemporary era, it takes the form of mental indoctrination, communicative and dialogue practices.Chapter two: Principle of Consistence between History and LogicAccording to Hegel, though Kant was aware of the philosophical themes about universal and pure thoughts, he could only acquire the abstract, subjective and formal definitions of universal thinking and was unable to reveal the general truth, because he was away from the realistic and historical experiences and thoughts and was confined within subjectivism and formalism. So, Hegel criticized Kant's dialectics as transcendental illusion, and established his own logic on the movement of thinking content so as to solve the problem of metaphysics as the evidence of knowledge. By doing this, he united the phenomenological and the ontological worlds as well as the form and content of thinking, which had been formerly split by Kant.Hegel took thinking prescription as that of being itself, which provided the realistic standards for the objectivity of thinking. To set up the foundation of thinking objectivity, Hegel put forward the principle that history is consistent with logic. He believed that the objectivity of thinking content lies in its logical necessity when it showed itself in its own historical development; the history of philosophy, knowledge and science proves that the prescription of thinking is adequately effective to the realistic world; and the evidence on thinking objectivity lies in nowhere other than in the process of the whole cognitive history of human being.Chapter three: Practical Verification of Marxist DialecticsAlthough Hegel's dialectical logic realized the identity between thinking and being, but, as Husserl believed, it is still a kind of dogmatism. It transcendentally established the identity between the thinking and being, without reflecting how the subject can reach the object and the subjective basis of entities outside our objective beliefs. As metaphysics is inherent in our ideas, its evidence did not come from outside. Therefore, revealing the basis of this unity, we must transcend this kind of metaphysics first.By introducing practice---as perceptual activities---into philosophy, Marx had limited the scope of dialectical ration. In this sense, Marx had broken away from the shackles and constraints of Hegel's dialectical philosophy, and found the real root to the evidence of ration. Here in Marx's theory, philosophy had experienced a fundamental shift, and completely returned to the real life. In this way, Marx had made philosophy an ideological weapon, through which proletarians could be liberated. Yet, the evidence of theory must be testified in the revolutionary practice of the proletarians. As the theory for the liberation of the proletarians, Marx's practical dialectics had changed the political map of the modern times. Marx had revealed the state of alienation in the capital society, and provided the ideals of freedom and liberation. Today, it is still a kind of secular social ideals, which could not be transcended. In the context of the post-modern philosophy, Marx's "specter" emerges constantly, which is the evidence to prove the objectivity of dialectics.Chapter four: The Evidence of "Experiencing"By introducing practice---as perceptual activities---into philosophy, Marx established the thinking mode of practical view, and achieved the great revolution on Weltanschauung. That made the evidence of thinking contents base on the objectivity of perceptual activities. Then, practice had become the Archimedean Point of theory. Because the standard of practice has two sides, the evidence to truth must go into inherent consciousness and make concept obtain the evidence. That is to say, what we want to prove is still inherent in our self-consciousness. Here, we return to Hegel once again. We must transcendent abstract dialectics of Hegel, and seek the perceptual evidence. According to Husserl, we could find the proof of inherent consciousness only through the eidetic intuition of phenomenology, and then establish the beliefs about the objectivity.But, Husserl's intuition is directed only to one thing, one kind of things, or one field. He did not made it clear that whether intuition could be applied to the logical realm of the pure movement of thought. In this sense, the phenomenological method cannot provide the foundation for the certainty of dialectical thinking.Personally I believe that we should turn to "Experiencing" to prove this kind of certainty, because "Experiencing", which is different from"experience", is a kind of non-definite thought. Namely, it is perceptual method to grasp things, and that is a kind of metaphysical thought. It prefers to grasp the overall perceptual experiences, and stresses the overall Spiritual Meaning. So, things and ego, as well as man and nature, are unified in the empirical style of metaphysics in this kind of thought. Thus, as a kind of metaphysical thought, "Experiencing" has gone beyond the antagonism between experience and transcendence, and has become the intuition throughout our life. Of course, the whole subject of philosophers conducts the experiencing process, and its evidence comes from the rational choice in the community of philosophers. The later Heidegger's thought about poetry, Merleau-Ponty's "perceptual philosophy", and the "generative theory" of traditional Chinese Philosophy taking "Taoism" as its core---all these philosophical thoughts have provided fundamental illustrations to the evidence of metaphysics in realistic life.Conclusion: Philosophy: An Endless ExplorationToday, we are living in a grand era of science, but the value and function of philosophy cannot be replaced with science. Firstly, philosophy is rooted in the metaphysical nature of human beings, which represents man's universal and ultimate pursuit of certainty and will not automatically disappear although there is no scientific answer to it. Secondly, philosophy bears the reasonability in the cultural forms. As a way for human beings grasp the world, philosophical thinking and theories have become a part of human life. So it cannot be deconstructed. Furthermore, as long as there are human in the world, philosophy will never end. Last but not the least, philosophical studies related to the ultimate meaning of human life, which influences our real life in the most fundamental way. In this sense, as man's perpetual metaphysical pursuit, philosophy---concerned with human life and the meaning of the world---will always coexist with human beings.