The Cultural Theory Of Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is one of the most important thinkers of the United States with his most influenced three ideas: "the End of Ideology", "Post-industrial Society" and "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism". With his study of the various changes of contemporary Western economic and social class status and political characteristics,Daniel Bell discussed the possibility of the end of "Cold War" in the ideological field, issued that the "left" or "right" debate between capitalism and socialism had lost its original meaning, and asserted that ideology had already gone to the end. "The Advent of Post-industrial Society" is put forward by Bell as a trend forecast of social development. He keenly sensed some changes of Western developed countries since World War II,and observed the changes of cultural with the coming of post-industrial. Bell put forward the "Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" and said that there were separation and antagonism between the three areas of the capitalist society, irreconcilable contradictions between the field of culture and social structure, and even there were many contradictions in the field of culture. For these contradictions, Bell found a solution of religious revival and the public family. The three "big ideas" of Bell which have been the important part of the contemporary social and cultural thought have already deeply influenced the direction of development and evolution of the thinking of contemporary social and cultural. His cultural theory is very important for us to observe contemporary Chinese society, do Chinese Cultural Studies and create outstanding socialist culture. But the cultural theory of Daniel Bell have obvious limitations including the narrow understanding of the definition of Ideology and Culture and the solution for the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism which lead to lasting controversy.