Bertrand Russell's visit to China : selected texts on the centenary of intercultural dialogues in logic and epistemology
Abstrakt
Written and compiled in commemoration of the centenary of Russell's visit to China (1920-1921), the anthology Bertrand Russell's Visit to China: Selected Text on the Centenary of Intercultural Dialogues in Logic and Epistemology offers a focused account of reception of Bertrand Russell and his thought in China. Set in the time of Russell's stay in China, the selection of texts revolves around the initial reception of Russell as a person, philosopher, and scientist in Chinese intellectual world.
As a retrospective anthology concerned with the reception of Russell's thought in China, the work is comprised both of translations of articles and essays written by Chinese intellectuals and other public figures at the time of his visit there, as well as a few contemporary studies analysing the reception and propagation of Russell's ideas in China in the abovementioned period. Following a general introduction to Russell's visit in China, the subsequent sections of the anthology cover a wide spectrum of original documents and secondary studies, including the welcome addresses, reports from the Russell Study Society established in late 1920 in Beijing, introductions to Russell's philosophical thought and, in the main part, interpretations of Russell's humanistic thought, mathematical logic and epistemology by two Chinese contemporary philosophers, Zhang Shenfu and Zhang Dongsun.
The section on Zhang Shenfu explores his earliest relationship with Russell's philosophy and his notion of mathematical logic, whilst the section on Zhang Dongsun aims at casting some light on his critical reading of Russell's logicism on the one hand and the disparities between their models of structural perception on the other. As such the anthology provides a unique insight into the intertwined influences of Russell's humanistic, philosophical, and logical thought on the Chinese intellectual landscape in the aftermath of the May Fourth events.
This volume of the Studia Humanitatis Asiatica series was edited by Jan Vrhovski and Jana S. Rošker.
The foreword was contributed by Vera Schwarcz, a professor emerita at Wesleyan University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.