ON ACADEMIC CRITICISM

Chinese academic modernization requires the prosperity of academic criticism. Creative academic criticism should be based on a sound concept of academic criticism. Academic is a traditional Chinese word which contains philosophical and scientific import, while criticism is a word from Japanese. To clarify and enrich the meaning of the term academic criticism is one of the goals of this paper. According to both the Western and Chinese academic history, academic criticism is an organic part or a link of academic activities, and its prosperity and decline make a mirror to the rise and fall of the academics. The progress of criticism method, which symbolizes academic development, embodies a concentrated reflection of the progress of academic criticism. Criticism of this kind is a rational dialogue conducted by scholars in front of the truth, whose only winner will be truth itself instead of any scholar. Academic criticism, in nature, is self-criticism with truth as the standard. It is believed that true academic criticism should be democratic, scientific, concrete, historical, and objective. It should be an integrated criticism with responsible, rationale, revolutionary, constructive, creative, and truthful sense. It should be an organism integrating the quality of being theoretical, practical, national, and global. Besides, academic criticism is an organic unity composed of scientific criticism, historical criticism, and philosophical criticism.