China Focuses on Development of Philosophy, Social Sciences

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 17, 2002

China Focuses on Development of Philosophy, Social Sciences

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Researchers of philosophy and the social sciences should try to understand the world, throughout civilization, develop new theories, educate the people, advise decision-makers and serve society, Chinese President Jiang Zemin told the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) this year.

Jiang, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called for the creation of a powerful contingent of philosophy and social sciences workers and for the development of such sciences to help raise public ideals and morals.

It is believed that only when a nation is armed with evolving philosophy and social sciences, can it progress.

Chinese leaders have always attached great importance to the development of philosophy and social sciences. The current leadership, or the third generation of collective leadership with Jiang Zemin at the core, has also put the issue high on its development agenda and associated it with modernization and the renaissance of the Chinese nation.

Ren Jiyu, curator of the National Library, says that the leadership's concern for the development of philosophy and social sciences reflects their unremitting pursuit of national progress.

Major theoretical research results of China's philosophy and social sciences sector, including Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and Jiang Zemin's remarks on "party building," have contributed to the steady progress of the Chinese nation, which is best manifested by China's growing international status and rapid economic development in the last two decades, said 86-year-old Ren.

In 1956, Mao Zedong, the core of the first generation of the CPC leadership, put forward the principle of "Let one hundred flowers blossom and one hundred thoughts contend," orienting the development of philosophy and social sciences in China.

At the end of the "Cultural Revolution," a dark era for the development of humanistic studies and social sciences, Deng Xiaoping, the core of the second generation of the CPC leadership, initiated a nationwide campaign to emancipate the mind. He stressed the importance of the principle of seeking truth from facts, the essence of Marxist philosophy which Deng insisted must be the precondition of China's reform and opening-up to the outside world.

From August 2001 and July 2002, Jiang Zemin spoke three times to illustrate in a systematic way the strategic role of philosophy and social sciences in achieving socialist modernization and the renaissance of the Chinese nation.

The history of modern Chinese philosophy and social sciences isa chronicle of theoretical innovation on the basis of emancipatingthe mind and seeking truth from facts.

In the mid 1980s, Chinese researchers in philosophy and social sciences conducted a massive investigation into the country's situation to provide a scientific basis for the central authorities to hammer out guidelines and policies for the initial stage of socialism.

When the term of "market economy" was seldom uttered in China, the researchers braved the conception of the commodity economy, law of price and a socialist market economy.

In 1999, the CASS started to issue annual reports from the frontline of China's humanistic and social sciences on the latest developments in philosophy and social sciences both at home and abroad.

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