Research On Controversy Concerning Humanitarianism And Alienation In China From 1978 To 1984

In our country, the humanitarianism had ever been regarded as the distorted Marxism by the bourgeois and the revisionism and been ignored for a long time. And the correlative issues such as human nature and alienation had further been considered as the ideology fallacy of the landlord and bourgeoisie and had fiercely been attacked. The ultra-left haze covered completely the related academia had not dispersed until"the-Gang-of-Four"was crushed in October 1976. Then, the forbidden ground about the human nature,the humanitarianism and alienation was also broken through along with the crushing"the-Gang-of-Four". The people especially sensitive artist and writer started to examine carefully and reconsider the"Great Cultural Revolution". There emerged a series of so-called"the trauma literature"at the historic moments, which deeply exposed invading human rights and devastating human nature during the"Great Cultural Revolution". In addition, the versions of"Manuscript of Economics and Philosophy in 1844","German Ideology"and"Critique of Political Economy outline (draft)"by Marx had published one after another from the 1930s, so that, there was a wave of researching Marx early works all over the world, which gave prominence to researching human nature,humanitarianism and alienation. The transitional domestic environments and the profound international backgrounds provided a controversial academic atmosphere, therefore a heated discussion about humanitarianism and alienation took place in Chinese academic circles. For the time being, there was no agreement among many views, letting a hundred of school of thought contend.There was an important developing process about this controversy. Firstly, the literati commented on the literary works revealing human nature. Secondly, the scholars deeply studied the abstract theories about human nature,humanitarianism,alienation,the relationship between Marxism and humanitarianism and so on. Thirdly, the scholars gradually linked these abstract theories and reforming practice together, which made the complicated controversy of it. Finally, the controversy climbed the height of political belief. This controversy occurred after the"Great Cultural Revolution", at the beginning of reform and opening-up, it has certain historic inevitability and practical rationality, and its positive significance can not be denied. But of course it also has deficiency and imperfection because of kinds of reasons, for example, the lack of theory preparation, the relatively weak capability of psychology etc. Today, when referring to the controversy about humanitarianism and alienation, I do not mean to glorify virtue or censure vice, and I have no intention of judging good or bad. Just standing the height of 21st century, let us carefully recall this period of history, learning from it. I hope it give us some enlightenment or implication by recalling this controversy. We should treat with Marxism with science attitude, insist to integrate theory with practice and to push forward theory innovation, and boost the development of the philosophy and social sciences.