一如果说本世纪之初的五四新文化运动是一次世纪性的文化选择的话,那么,90年代的文化选择无疑为下一世纪的文化发展拉开了帷幕。在这个意义上似乎可以说,90年代的文化选择是一次跨世纪的文化选择。纵观文学、哲学等人文学科领域,有人提倡后现代,有人则张扬新国学。有人呼吁中华性,有人又推广新理性。几乎每一种产生影响的文化主张,都可视为不同的知识分子所作出的不同的文化选择。它和80年代人文学科热衷于选择各种新方法论不同,是把选择的层次转移到知识构成的本体论上。这是一道眩目的文化风景,有必要对它进行一些学理上的思考。不难看出,几乎任何一种文化选择,在它自身所构成的知识语境内,都可以是自洽的、圆融的,言之成理的。但不同的文化选择之间,却又往往是矛盾的、冲突的、互相龃龉的。究其因,是每一种文化选择都想使自己能够成为一种代表性的“时代文化”。在这里,时代这一因素非常重要。因为迄今为止知识 If we say that the May Fourth New Culture Movement at the beginning of this century was a century-long cultural choice, then the cultural choices of the 1990s have undoubtedly started the cultural development of the next century. In this sense, we can say that the cultural choice of the 1990s is a cross-century cultural choice. Throughout the literature, philosophy and other humanities, some people advocate postmodernism, while others promote the new Sinology. Some call for China, some promote the new rationality. Almost every kind of influential cultural ideas can be regarded as different cultural choices made by different intellectuals. Unlike the liberal arts disciplines of the 1980s, which were keen on the selection of new methodologies, they shifted the level of choice to the ontology of knowledge formation. This is a dazzling cultural landscape, it is necessary to make some academic thinking about it. It is not hard to see that almost any kind of cultural choice can be self-consistent, harmonious and reasonable in its own intellectual context. However, between different cultural choices, they are often contradictory, conflicting and mutually coveted. The reason is that every cultural choice wants to make itself a representative “culture of the times.” Here, the factor of the times is very important. Because so far knowledge