| Abstract |
The theme of this article is the characteristics of the pragmatism of Hu Shih (1891-1962) and its power to work on his idea of history. The foundation of the pragmatism of Hu Shih is a methodological individualism and nominalism. In Hu Shih’s point of view, the basic factors of human society and history are the interests, wills, goals, and experiences of the individuals as the free agents. Therefore, the most important capacity of the individual is the Creative Intelligence, and the most important thing of the individual is the formation of the Intellectual Individuality. The intellectualism of Hu Shih is nominal, open, future-directed, and the intellectualism of Confucianism is realistic, closed, pastdirected, there is a revolutionary rupture between the two. The genetic method is the core of Hu Shih’s pragmatic idea of history. He takes the present as the key position and the turning point of the historical progress. For Hu Shih, the critical attitude, as the Nietzschean transvaluation of all values, is the most important thing in the historical studies. But, respect the real facts is the first principle of the historical studies, and also the essence of the scientific spirit and the scientific method. For Hu Shih, history is created by the individuals as the free agents, history is fragmentary, there is no such a thing as the necessary totality of history, history is an adventure without guarantee. |
