學術環境與跨文化理解

Contextualization and Cross-Cultural Understanding

語言的意義是在上下文的語境中確定的，任何學術研究也都有其語境和學術環境。我們提出的見解和看法都是回應已有的論述，構成一種對話和交流，而這一語境對我們自己的論述也會有相當影響。二十世紀西方的理論闡述，無論哲學、歷史、社會學、人類學或文學批評理論，都有過度強調差異的普遍傾向，而此傾向即構成我們重新思考人文及社會科學研究基本預設的學術環境。明確揭示當代理論話語中具決定性的潛在因素，就有助於我們打破既定的「思想框架」，尤其在東西跨文化理解中，克服某些過渡強調文化差異的謬誤。

Meaning in language is always contextual, and so is the intellectual pursuit of any kind. In making a case in any scholarly discourse, we always respond to a prior argument in the form of a dialogue or intellectual exchange and communication, and that in significant ways determines the orientation of our own argument. In 20th-century theorizing in the West, be it philosophical, historical, sociological, anthropological, or literary-critical, a tendency toward overemphasizing difference becomes prominent, and that forms the context within which we need to rethink the basic assumptions in the humanistic and social scientific studies. To make explicit what contextual determinants govern contemporary intellectual discourse is a way forward to think 'outside the box,' so to speak, and to rectify some of the excesses, particularly in East-West crosscultural understanding.