2020 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society for Historical Materialism Focuses on "Great Historical Changes: Scientific Worldview and Methodology in Unconventional Situations"
From November 6 to 8, 2020, the 2020 Annual Conference of the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism was grandly held at the Boya Building of the University Town Campus of Chongqing Normal University. The conference was hosted by the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism and Chongqing Normal University, and organized by the School of Marxism of Chongqing Normal University, the Chongqing Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, the Chongqing Research Center for Civic Morality and Social Development, and the Chongqing Research Center for Party Building and Policy Consulting in Universities. It was co-organized by the Research Center for National Cultural Security and Ideology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the editorial department of the journal Marxist Studies (Marxisim Yanjiu). The theme of this annual conference was "Great Historical Changes: Scientific Worldview and Methodology in Unconventional Situations." Attendees included Professor Hou Huiqin, President of the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism; Vice Presidents Professor Wu Fulai, Research Fellow Feng Yanli, Professor Yang Haifeng, Professor Yan Xiaofeng, Professor Jiang Yingchun, Professor Yuan Yinchuan, and Professor Yang Shengping; Secretary-General Research Fellow Zhu Jidong; Professor Meng Dongfang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Chongqing Normal University; as well as standing directors and directors of the Society, representatives of selected paper authors, and teachers and graduate students from the School of Marxism at Chongqing Normal University, totaling more than 160 participants.
The opening ceremony of the annual conference was held on the morning of November 7, presided over by Research Fellow Zhu Jidong, Secretary-General of the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism and Executive Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Research Center for National Cultural Security and Ideology at CASS. Meng Dongfang and Hou Huiqin delivered speeches on behalf of the host organizations. In his address, Meng Dongfang expressed a warm welcome to experts and scholars from all over the country and sincere gratitude to the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism for its trust in Chongqing Normal University. He also introduced the university's outstanding achievements in recent years, including its designation as a doctoral degree-conferring institution, the construction of discipline clusters, the establishment of the National Center for Applied Mathematics, receiving the second prize of the National Natural Science Award, and cultural development. In his speech, Hou Huiqin welcomed and thanked the representatives who traveled great distances for the prosperity of the Society and the study of Marxist truth. He expressed heartfelt thanks to the faculty and students of the School of Marxism at Chongqing Normal University for their hard work and warm service. He further provided an in-depth interpretation of this year's conference theme, analyzing the causes of the current world's fissures, divisions, and chaos, and criticizing the falsity of capitalist ideology. He emphasized the need to use Marxism as a "telescope and microscope" to observe the real world, human history, and the future. He called for maintaining strategic resolve, promoting the spirit of revolutionary struggle and criticism, strengthening self-revolution, and transforming the subjective world while transforming the objective world.
From November 7 to 8, the conference featured one keynote report, two plenary thematic sessions, and three sub-forum thematic presentations and exchanges. Professor Chen Hong, Director of the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism and Dean of the School of Marxism at Chongqing Normal University, and Professor Jiang Yingchun, Vice President of the Society and Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Information Management at Nanjing University, presided over the keynote and plenary sessions respectively.
Professor Hou Huiqin, President of the Society and Director of the CASS Research Center for National Cultural Security and Ideology, delivered a keynote report titled "Engels' Contributions to Marxist Philosophy." He pointed out that Engels was the first person to uphold the fundamentals and break new ground in Marxist philosophy. His primary contributions lay in bridging ontology and epistemology, solving the mystery of Kant's "thing-in-itself," founding the dialectics of nature, and laying the foundation for materialist dialectics, thereby making a unique contribution to the New Materialism. Engels also bridged the history of ancient and modern philosophical thought, established the fundamental question of philosophy, and set an objective standard for correctly conducting the struggle between philosophical ideas. Furthermore, he bridged German classical philosophy and Marxist philosophy, providing a scientific synthesis of the latter. Hou then provided a detailed and in-depth explanation of how these scientific connections were forged, highlighting Engels' great contributions.
Professor Wu Fulai, Vice President of the Society and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection at Renmin University of China, gave a thematic presentation titled "Methodological Research on the Formulation of Intra-Party Regulations." He analyzed the attributes, characteristics, and steps of formulating intra-Party regulations, noting that they possess both legal and practical attributes, and are characterized by purposiveness, practicality, procedural nature, and interdisciplinarity. He suggested that the legislative path for intra-Party regulations can be divided into two steps: adopting a problem-solving methodological path and conducting further demonstration of regulatory suggestions from the previous stage.
Professor Yang Haifeng, Vice President of the Society and Dean of the School of Marxism at Peking University, spoke on the theme "A Knowledge Map of the Contemporary Development of Marxist Philosophy." He stated that Marx established the concept of historicity, which laid the theoretical premise for political economy and Marxist philosophy. He emphasized that philosophy has its historical determinations; one must pay attention to the significant differences in philosophical manifestations across different eras and focus on the processes of social change and theoretical development.
Professor Jiang Yingchun, Vice President of the Society and Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Information Management at Nanjing University, delivered a presentation titled "Analysis and Critique of the Liberal Historical View." He argued that the "great changes unseen in a century" [1] represent a historical contest between capitalism and socialism, as well as between Marxism and liberalism. It is an interaction between the overall strategy of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and these global changes, and an overlapping interaction between China’s period of strategic opportunity and the "strategic anxiety" period of Western countries led by the United States. He pointed out that the philosophical foundation of liberalism is idealism and metaphysics, manifested in replacing the whole with the part, reality with imagination, and essence with phenomena.
Professor Yan Xiaofeng, Vice President of the Society and Dean of the School of Marxism at Tianjin University, spoke on the theme "Adhering to Bottom-line Thinking: An Important Methodology Under Unconventional Situations." He emphasized the need to understand bottom-line thinking [2] from six aspects: it contains "metrics thinking" for precise determination of the boundaries of things; "scientific thinking" for accurately grasping the absolute and relative nature of "the degree" [3]; "value thinking" for preventing errors, seeking correctness, avoiding harm, and pursuing benefits; "creative thinking" for giving full play to subjective agency; "foresight thinking" that recognizes knowledge originates from practice yet precedes it; and "global thinking" for mastering major events and managing risks.
Research Fellow Feng Yanli, Vice President of the Society and Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophy at CASS, gave a presentation titled "'Justice as Fairness' and 'Fairness as Justice'." He compared the books Justice as Fairness, The Fairness of Justice, and The Two Sides of Justice. He pointed out that Justice as Fairness was John Rawls's response to academic criticism of A Theory of Justice and his revision of the two principles of justice and their justification. The other two works both sought to transcend Rawls and, in fact, succeeded in doing so. However, he argued that the concepts of justice held by these three authors did not reach the height of Marx, as they failed to see the importance of production determining distribution, nor did they explain conceptual things starting from material practice. Feng suggested that research on justice should be deepened by studying the dialectics of equality and justice, actively constructing a disciplinary, academic, and discourse system for philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics.
Professor Yuan Yinchuan of the School of Marxism at Wuhan University and Vice President of the Society spoke on "On Engels' Theoretical Contributions to the Basic Principles of Marxism." He discussed three major contributions: co-founding the basic principles with Marx; enriching and developing these principles in the areas of Marxist philosophy, political economy, and scientific socialism; and resolutely defending these principles in the struggle against dogmatism and revisionism after Marx's death.
Professor Yang Shengping, Vice President of the Society and President of the Capital Normal University Press, delivered a speech titled "Grasping the Overall Situation of Historical Development with the Idea of the Unity of Historical Regularity and Selectivity." He elaborated on the deepened understanding of historical regularity and selectivity and the interpretation of the "Great Changes," emphasizing the need to correctly understand the Marxist view of the era and properly handle global and international relations, as well as the interplay between the international and domestic situations.
Research Fellow Zhu Jidong, Secretary-General of the Society, spoke on "From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping: Changes and Continuities in Adhering to the Principle of 'Statesmen Running Newspapers'." He combined the characteristics of the New Era, where the connotation is deeper, the extension is higher, the positioning is more elevated, and the tasks are heavier. He argued that adhering to the principle of "statesmen running newspapers" [4] is an important principle to be remembered and upheld; that the Party's management of ideology is the key to this principle in the New Era; and outlined "four essentials" for implementation: maintaining the correct orientation of public opinion, strengthening the workforce in news and public opinion, focusing on the "key minority" [5] of leading officials, and vigorously strengthening capacity-building in ideology.
Professor Lin Jinping, Standing Director of the Society and Dean of the School of Marxism at Sun Yat-sen University, presented on "From Communist Morality to the Construction of Marxist Ethics." He reviewed representative figures and major theories that contributed to the study of communist morality in history. While affirming the theoretical contributions of Marxist ethics, he also questioned the validity of deriving value demands from necessity and elevating the disclosure of moral essence to value norms within the history of Marxist ethics.
Professor Zhang Zhidan, Standing Director of the Society and Dean of the School of Marxism at Shanghai Normal University, spoke on "The Human Nature of Revolution." He proposed that revolution itself contains human nature, the revolutionary process manifests human nature, and the social system established after a revolution helps to enhance, optimize, and guarantee human nature. He argued that evaluating the human nature of revolution must adhere to the Marxist historical materialist view, combining human nature standards with historical evaluation standards.
Professor Zhang Shihai, Director of the Society and Dean of the School of Marxism at Shandong University, spoke on "Accurately Grasping the Methodological Principles in Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era." He emphasized three combinations: Chinese standpoint with a global vision, realistic needs with historical reflection, and partial interpretation with holistic understanding.
Professor Li Changtai of the School of Marxism at Chongqing Normal University and Vice President of the Chongqing Ethics Association, spoke on "Marxism and the Reconstruction of the Subjectivity of the Chinese Nation." He explained this through five dimensions: the ancient strength of Chinese national subjectivity is the historical Chinese manifestation of Marxist subjective characteristics; the modern predicament of Chinese national subjectivity was the objective reason for calling for Marxist subjective consciousness; the modern pursuit of Chinese national subjectivity is the power source for accepting the Marxist subjective spirit; the process of the Sinicization of Marxism is the great practice of the return and revitalization of Chinese national subjectivity; and the practice of deepening Marxist subjectivity in the New Era is the great reconstruction of the subjectivity of the Chinese nation.
On the afternoon of November 7, the conference established three sub-forums to conduct theoretical discussions and exchanges through a combination of thematic and free speeches. The themes included "Contemporary Chinese Marxism, 21st Century Marxism and the World's Great Changes Unseen in a Century," "Scientific Worldview and Methodology Amidst Great Changes Unseen in a Century," and "The Adherence, Inheritance, Development, and Innovation of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era."
According to the conference arrangements, group reports were made by each sub-forum. Professor Tan Qunyu of Sun Yat-sen University, Professor Jiang Guifang of Zhengzhou University, and Research Fellow Fu Erji of the Shanghai Institute of Development and Reform reported on behalf of the first, second, and third sub-forums, respectively. Vice President Professor Yuan Yinchuan presided over the reporting session.
Professor Chen Hong presided over the closing ceremony. Research Fellow Zhu Jidong summarized the conference, stating that it was well-organized, thoughtful, and effective—a high-level, high-efficiency, and high-standard gathering. President Hou Huiqin noted in his closing remarks that the theme had a grand vision and, through the platform of the annual conference and everyone’s joint efforts, the meeting was solid, pragmatic, and successful. It reflected a good conference style, characterized by the unity of academia and politics and the combination of theory and practice. He emphasized that the study of Marxist philosophy is never-ending and expressed hope that everyone would strengthen their research into the Marxist philosophical worldview, focusing on its integrity, revolutionary nature, and scientific rigor to create more new theoretical achievements.
Following the scheduled agenda, on the evening of November 6, the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism held the second plenary session of its Eighth Member Representative Assembly and the second plenary session of its Eighth Board of Directors. The meeting discussed and approved the revised "Constitution of the Chinese Society of Historical Materialism," decided on the hosting units for the 2021 high-level forum and annual conference, and elected additional directors.
Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net (CSSN) Web Editor: Xin Ran