TY - JOUR
T1 - Rethinking the relationship between intellectuals and nationalism
T2 - A sociology of knowledge approach to philosophers' construction of national cultural identities in modern Japan and China
AU - Chew, Matthew M.
N1 - This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - This study constructs a sociology of knowledge approach to explaining the relationship between intellectuals and nationalism, one that challenges the conventional intellectual historical approach of understanding the relationship through macro and remote factors. The sociological approach conceptualizes knowledge production dynamics as intervening variables that refract macro and remote causal impacts on knowledge contents. This study focuses on one such dynamic: a 'nationalist intellectual distinction' tactic that compels academics to produce indigenous knowledge that in turn inspires popular discourses on national culture. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through a comparative historical analysis of how early 20th-century Chinese and Japanese philosophers contributed to constructing national cultural identities. Based on primary and secondary historical data, it is found that all prominent philosophers in the two countries used nationalist intellectual distinction to build indigenous philosophies. Modern Japanese philosophers defined indigenous rationality, epistemology, and logic as aesthetical, mystical, and emotional and described indigenous ontology in terms of nothingness. Modern Chinese philosophers conceptualized indigenous rationality, epistemology, and logic in moral-practical terms and characterized indigenous ontology as this-worldly and humanistic. It is also found that popular discourses on national culture, which strongly shaped the national cultural identities of the two countries in the past 70 years, borrowed heavily from these philosophers' ideas on indigenous rationality, logic, and ontology.
AB - This study constructs a sociology of knowledge approach to explaining the relationship between intellectuals and nationalism, one that challenges the conventional intellectual historical approach of understanding the relationship through macro and remote factors. The sociological approach conceptualizes knowledge production dynamics as intervening variables that refract macro and remote causal impacts on knowledge contents. This study focuses on one such dynamic: a 'nationalist intellectual distinction' tactic that compels academics to produce indigenous knowledge that in turn inspires popular discourses on national culture. The utility of the approach is demonstrated through a comparative historical analysis of how early 20th-century Chinese and Japanese philosophers contributed to constructing national cultural identities. Based on primary and secondary historical data, it is found that all prominent philosophers in the two countries used nationalist intellectual distinction to build indigenous philosophies. Modern Japanese philosophers defined indigenous rationality, epistemology, and logic as aesthetical, mystical, and emotional and described indigenous ontology in terms of nothingness. Modern Chinese philosophers conceptualized indigenous rationality, epistemology, and logic in moral-practical terms and characterized indigenous ontology as this-worldly and humanistic. It is also found that popular discourses on national culture, which strongly shaped the national cultural identities of the two countries in the past 70 years, borrowed heavily from these philosophers' ideas on indigenous rationality, logic, and ontology.
KW - Modern Chinese philosophy
KW - modern Japanese philosophy
KW - national cultural identity
KW - sociology of intellectuals
KW - sociology of knowledge
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84898947132&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0011392114522759
DO - 10.1177/0011392114522759
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84898947132
SN - 0011-3921
VL - 62
SP - 314
EP - 333
JO - Current Sociology
JF - Current Sociology
IS - 3
ER -