The Intellectual History Of Pluralism: From The Counter-Enlightenment To Russian Golden Age

As one important topic in the history of ideas,Pluralism is interpreted in two kinds of discussion,Value Pluralism and Multiculturalism contemporarily.This dissertation shows the abstract misinterpretations of these two discussions and plurality by liberalism which are represented by Habermas' theory respectively,and concentrates the topic on the plurality of subject,and illustrates a history of Pluralism comprehensively,finally establishes the theory of Polyphonic Pluralism.I illustrate a history of Pluralism on the basis of the relative research of Isaiah Berlin but more coherent and deeper than his research,as well as expand and transcend the confines of Berlin's relative research by combining the theory of Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin,finally establish the theory of Polyphonic Pluralism.I give a clue of Pluralism in detail by five stages and show the development of Pluralism comprehensively.Firstly,I illustrate the emergence of Pluralism,and the rise of the Counter-Enlightenment: I propose the topic of the plurality of subject by giving the refutation to rational monism.The Counter-Enlightenment thinkers refute the idea of I-cogito,Scientism and the paradigm of monism by resorting to the plurality of subject,so that the idea of Pluralism can be generated.Secondly,I describe the process of Romantic thinkers exploring questions of the plurality of subject from two perspectives,which means the Romantic revolution of subject.One perspective derives from the split of subject and its byproduct,the evaluation of subject,which is included in Idealist philosophy;the other derives from the free will of subject which is included in Bildung.These two ideas become two main chains of the history of Pluralism which are theorized by Romantic thinkers clearly.Thirdly,I discuss the influences of the Romantic revolution of subject in nineteenth century Russia,which are the idea of the split of subject in Slavophiles' thought,led by the idea of Khomyakov,and the idea of the free will of subject in Westernizers' thought,led by the idea of Belinsky.I analyze the predicament of these two schools which is due to that they absorb the idea of the split of subject or the free will of subject unilaterally,by explaining the problem of the ideological opposition between Slavophiles and Westernizers,as well as show the indivisible and organic relationship between the split of subject and the free will of subject.Fourthly,I interpret the process of Tolstoy's exploration of the idea of the free will of subject and his touch of the truth of the split of subject unconsciously.I illustrate four steps of the exploration of the free will of subject gradually: first,Tolstoy's thought of the free will of subject;second,his idea of Bildung which is based on the free will of subject;third,the interactive Bildung and its practice between the master and the slave;fourth,the master-slave dialectic of the one-dimensional will.I explain the problem that Tolstoy faces the trouble of the split of subject when he is exploring the idea of the free will,and finally point out that Tolstoy faces the predicament of Pluralism because the idea of the free will in his thought is only one-dimensional which cannot interact with the idea of the split of subject consciously.Fifthly,I interpret comprehensively Dostoevsky's Pluralism which is built on the interaction between the idea of the split of subject and the idea of the free will of subject: First,the free will of subject is endowed with plural dimensionality and objective characters are transformed into subjective consciousness by that Dostoevsky reforms the paradigm of writing of predecessors,which means he transforms images-description into voices-expression.Second,in Dostoevsky's works,the idea of the free will can interact with the idea of the split of subject consciously.All kinds of subjects' split mental conditions are uncovered,which is stimulated by subjects' free will.Third,Dostoevsky demonstrates free expressions among split subjects and creates plural dialogues of variant inter-subjectivity.Fourth,Dostoevsky provides many spheres of plural dialogues of variant inter-subjectivity,so plural dialogues can be started naturally in relaxing circumstances.The last part of this thesis is devoted to the establishment of the theory of Polyphonic Pluralism.On basis of the history of Pluralism,I illustrate the abstract misinterpretations of Pluralism by liberalism which are represented by Habermas' theory and criticize three ideas in Habermas' theory,homogenized inter-subjectivity,universal pragmatics and the public sphere from three perspectives,inter-subjectivity,speech and sphere,to establish the better position of Polyphonic Pluralism,which is practiced by the collaborative interaction of variant inter-subjectivity,polyphonic conversation and public spheres,than that of Value Pluralism and Multiculturalism.