The Great Civilized Conversation

Wm.Theodore de Bary is a prestigious American sinologist.This thesis is mainly based on the major works written and compiled by de Bary and employs the documentary research method,viewing from the history of ideas so as to understand de Bary's general education thoughts and practices.The paper concludes three education thoughts that promoted by de Bary,that is,anti-utilitarian education,humanistic education and multicultural education;elucidates de Bary's worries and reflection upon American education;and highlights the unique contributions made by de Bary to the establishment of Oriental Civilization courses in the general education program Core Curriculum at Columbia University and to the conversation between Eastern and Western civilizations.The thesis is composed of three chapters.The first chapter starts from the historical background of American education at the beginning of twentieth century,revealing that utilitarian education lays emphasis on professional education,practical application and the commercialization of research result.Combining with de Bary's interpretations of Zhu Xi's educational thoughts“learning for one's self”,the chapter enunciates de Bary's criticism towards the utilitarianism in American education and his highest praise to the self-cultivation advocated by Zhu Xi.The second chapter deals with de Bary's humanistic education.Columbia University,a university with the source of humanistic tradition,sets up Core Curriculum program in the early of 20~thh century and emphasizes on social humanities and reading classics for students'intellectual training.Inheriting the humanistic tradition from Columbia and inspiring from the inheritance and renewal of classics,de Bary attempts to introduce humanism in East Asia and to rejuvenate the humanistic education through translating and compiling the Oriental classics.The third chapter illustrates that in the process of Oriental studies de Bary benefits from three mentors Harry J.Carman,Huang Zongxi and Qian Mu and realizes the drawbacks of the Western cultural centralism.By establishing a series of Oriental Civilization courses in general education program he made an attempt to build a bridge between Western and Eastern civilizations.