An Analysis Of Zhang Dainian's Methodology In The History Of Chinese Philosophy

Zhang Dainian is a famous philosopher and historian of Philosophy in modern China.His academic research in his life is mainly divided into three aspects:first,the study of the history of Chinese philosophy;second,the study of philosophical issues;third,the study of cultural issues.This paper mainly studies the methodology of the history of Chinese philosophy.Zhang Dainian is the main theoretical representative of the school of analytical dialectical materialism.He advocates that the study of the history of Chinese philosophy should be based on dialectical materialism,and believes that the development of Chinese philosophy must follow the integrated innovation road of the integration of Chinese philosophy,Western philosophy and Marxist philosophy.Although Zhang is deeply influenced by Russell's logical analysis and Marxist materialist dialectics,his methodology of Chinese philosophy history is also the product of the integration of western philosophy's logical analysis and Marxist materialist dialectics,but Zhang Dainian pays more attention to highlighting the characteristics of Chinese philosophy.From the 1930s to the 1940s,Zhang Dainian wrote the book "outline of Chinese philosophy",This book not only created the writing model of Chinese philosophy history of problem history and category history,but also preliminarily proposed that his methodology of Chinese philosophy history was "examining its basic tendency","analyzing its meaning of life"(analytic method),"observing its system of organization" and"identifying its development origin"(dialectical method).From the 1970s to the 1980s,Zhang Dainian organized his lecture notes into volumes and published the book "the methodology of Chinese philosophy history",which further enriched and improved his methodology of Chinese philosophy history systematically.During this period,his research methods were "class analysis method","theoretical analysis method" and"the unity of history and logic".The author compares the methodology of Zhang Dainian's earlier period with that of his later period,and finds that Zhang Dainian pays more attention to the use of class analysis method in his later period as well as his later period supplementary explanation of the inheritance of philosophical heritage and the research of historical materials.Then,by comparing the methodology of Chinese philosophy history put forward by Zhang Dainian and other philosophers in the same period,we can see that different scholars will study Chinese traditional philosophy from different perspectives and methods.For example,when studying Chinese philosophy,Zhang Dainian saw more"differences"between Chinese and western philosophy,while Hu Shi valued more"similarities" between Chinese and western philosophy.For example,Zhang Dainian used the critical inheritance law to distinguish the essence and dross in China's traditional philosophy.But Feng Youlan inherited the abstract proposition in China's traditional philosophy by "abstract inheritance".Therefore,we can have a more comprehensive understanding of Zhang Dainian's methodology of the history of Chinese philosophy.At last,this paper discusses the contribution and limitation of Zhang Dainian's methodology of Chinese philosophy history.His methodological contributions are as follows:first,it is helpful to establish the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy;second,it is helpful to establish Chinese philosophy with Chinese characteristics;third,it is helpful to promote the development of Marxism in China;fourth,it is helpful to establish a new philosophy path of comprehensive innovation.While studying the contribution of Zhang Dainian's methodology to the history of Chinese philosophy,the author also finds that Zhang Dainian's methodology reflects some disadvantages due to the limitations of the times,and that Zhang Dainian's evaluation of individual theories is not objective enough.Through the above research,we can see that Zhang Dainian's methodology of Chinese philosophy history not only provides us with more methods and ways to study Chinese philosophy history,but also helps to set up the subject of Chinese philosophy history.At the same time,Zhang Dainian also provides some experiences and lessons for the development of Chinese philosophy in the future.