Dialectics versus Enlightenment-based Positivism

The philosophical debate behind the new projectment theory

Abstract

We present a program of philosophical studies that seeks to rethink the rela- tionship between theory and practice through the lens of the new projectment theory and its elaboration on the profound transformations within the Chinese socialist experience. This work thus aims to make explicit and deepen the gno- seological foundations that sustain and operate within the conceptual archi- tecture of the new projectment theory, reaffirming the political imperative to mobilize a new methodological grammar in which technical development and theory are subordinated to the practice of social and national liberation. We highlight the necessity of overcoming the current epistemic regime of Enligh- tenment-positivist scientificity in favor of a higher synthesis, thereby reframing the relationship between science and philosophy. This requires emphasizing the lines of connection that animate and actualize Hegel’s conceptual critique of Kant—particularly the dialectical overcoming of the a priori structures of understanding and its consequences for notions of the epistemic subject, the logic of identity, and the conditions of possible experience. Our concern, there- fore, lies with the dialectical engendering and operationalization of categories that transcends the dichotomy between the development of techno-scientific forces and the flourishing of emancipatory social policies.