On The Fever For Scientific Methods In Humanities And Its Historical Context In 1980s

The key topic mainly focuses on the fever for scientific methods employed in humanities in China in the 1980s. To a few scholars, the fever for scientific methods was somewhat blindfolded since such methods adopted from natural science lacked rationality and legitimacy in humanity studies, rendering them highly open to skepticism. I intend, however, to justify that the fever for scientific methods was, in the real sense, an inner part of the Chinese modern experiences in the last twenty years of 20^th century. The scientific methods were problematic not because they were, in themselves, illegitimate in humanity studies, but rather that the employment of them was, in one way or another, convoluted due to its intricate connection with the State discourse.In the realm of literary criticism, for instance, it was the old "three theories" (system theory, cybernetics and information theory) as well as their utility in particular that tangled with the dominant ideology at the expense of eliminating any other divergent intellectual voices, thus turned out to be another 'political' manipulation. The "Stepping into the Future" (or the "Futurist") school, named after a book series edited by Jin Guantao and his fellow intellects, was the most prominent advocate and introducer of those scientific methods and ideas from overseas, the aim of which could be perceived, in certain way, as relevant to and originated from the 'school of scientism' early in the 1920s. Furthermore, the 1980s fever for application of scientific methods to humanities in China served as a State representation of its eagerness to participate in the whole process of modernization of the modern world in late 20^th century.