Summit on Western Classical Thought and Implications for Chinese Reform Held in Beijing
Author:Unirule
Time：2015-01-04 14:14:41 Clicks:
December 27th to 28th, Summit on Western Classical Thought and Implications for Chinese Reform was held at Unirule Institute of Economics. This summit reviewed the past session of the Western Classics Class and provided a feast of thoughts on Austrian School of Economics and its influence on China’s reforms and development. On the evening of December 27th, a Q&A session was arranged for the participants of the Western Classics Class. Present at the summit were Professor MAO Yushi, Honorary President of Unirule; Professor ZHANG Shuguang, Chairman of Unirule Academic Committee; Professor FENG Keli from Shandong University; Professor FENG Xingyuan, Director of UCERC; Professor GAO Quanxi from Beihang University of China; Dr. LIU Junning, independent researcher; Professor MAO Shoaling from Renmin University of China; Professor LI Weisen from Fudan University, and Professor ZHU Haijiu from Zhejiang Gongshang University. An audience of more than 50 people including students and journalists were present at the summit.
Professor ZHANG Shuguang gave the opening speech and said that “We should all maintain our independent thinking while taking in others’ thoughts by reading which enables us to get an in-depth understanding of the classics. Everyone should have their own understanding when they read, and critiques is the beginning of progress of thoughts.”
Professor MAO Yushi spoke on “Experience and Prospect of China’s Transformation: Hayek’s Road to Serfdom 70 Years On”. He thought “individual liberty and equality are mutually the cause and effect. There will be no liberty without equality, and there will be no equality without liberty. Therefore, to protect liberty and equality is to protect market economy and harmonious development of the society. People should have their talents developed to the utmost in this society, and the same goes for materials, too.” Professor MAO emphasized that the proletarians freedom is the freedom for the privileged, while the capitalist freedom is the freedom for every one. Only when we figure these problems out, shall we know which way to take. Professor MAO said that “A utopia is not what we pursue since perfect and ideal world does not exist. What we seek for is a society that has correctible flaws, with minimum coerce. That’s what we seek for.” Professor MAO’s New Year prospect is “we need republic, not gun fights. A republic and the freedom of speech is a must. We need to protect the freedom of speech, and strive for more freedom of speech as it is not given or granted.”
Professor LIU Junning spoke on “Conservative and the Social Transition: John Locke, Edmund Burke, and Hayek”. He spoke on the relation between beliefs and the state, liberalism and conservatism. Professor LIU also summarized two key issues, one was that liberalism found it hard to tolerate traditions; and the other was that some liberals had abandoned the dimension of transcendence. Besides, he also criticized the misunderstanding between “tradition without liberalism” and “tradition without liberty”. At last, he stressed that “we need conservatism for wealth and liberty. We need to strive for liberty and conserve liberty.”
