The Chinese nation is a nation full of wisdom and has made important contributions in the history of human thought, culture and science and technology. But since modern times, the development of science and technology in China has been in a relatively backward state for the west. One of the reasons is the elimination factor in China's traditional concept. China people's national character is rigid and conservative, which affects and restricts the cultivation of China people's creative spirit and innovative ability.
First, China's values of valuing "human feelings" over "science and technology" influence and restrict innovation.
After comparing Chinese and western civilizations, the British philosopher Russell pointed out that "the special contribution of western civilization is scientific method, while the special contribution of China civilization lies in a reasonable outlook on life", which is quite accurate. Anyone who is slightly interested in China's culture, history and philosophy will know that in China's vast cultural heritage, knowledge of literature, philosophy, history, humanities, ethics and interpersonal relationships are absolute advantages. Liang Qichao, an enlightenment scholar, believes that China's academic focus lies in the study of interpersonal ethics from its infancy. In ancient China, it also involved the study of the relationship between man and nature. However, this research is not from the perspective of taking nature as the object of human transformation, but from the perspective of how human beings explore nature, master the laws of nature, and thus conquer nature. However, with the theory of "harmony between man and nature", we regard heaven as a part of human society and think that it is human nature. Explain human society with the virtue of heaven, and sublimate human virtue into the law of nature. China people also talk about "thinking more", but the purpose of "thinking more" is not to explore the unknown areas of nature, but to "understand things" so as to handle interpersonal relationships and behave appropriately. This theory of "harmony between man and nature" ignores nature, man and society, and denies that the object is the subject, which leads to giving up man's exploration and transformation of nature. Since subject and object are one, who are we going to conquer? Therefore, people return to self-reflection on human moral and ethical principles from the discussion of the external world, and turn people's practical activities of transforming nature into people's moral practice. Even a few people's scientific theoretical research can't get rid of the norms of personnel ethics, so it is difficult to understand nature as the objective object of science. And the so-called "knowing from things" is just understanding the truth of life and society from things. This traditional concept led to the tendency that most intellectuals in ancient China valued human relations over science and technology. They think that "ancient writing" is the only authentic thing, and the others are just deviant and petty. Therefore, in ancient China, all scholars who can be called great scholars were basically famous for their achievements in humanistic ethics. People who studied natural science were little known at that time, even though they had made great achievements. Of course, in the long history of China for thousands of years, there were times when science and technology were ahead of the world, but some people made such a statistical analysis: in China's scientific and technological achievements, the score of technical achievements was as high as 80%, the score of theoretical achievements was 13%, and the score of experimental achievements was less than 7%. This shows that the level of ancient science and technology in China is mainly reflected by the technical level. The more important reason for technological invention is its practicality and its close relationship with people's lives. Science, marked by theory, focuses on the study and exploration of the natural laws of things, which is far from people's real life, and is of course not taken seriously.
In today's society, the traditional values that attach importance to interpersonal relationships and ignore technology still have great influence. Of course, compared with the past, scientific knowledge, mathematics and physics are naturally much more popular, but their proportion in the overall thinking of individuals and society is still very low. Even some educated young people, if you examine his knowledge structure, you will find that the knowledge of liberal arts is magnificent and the knowledge of natural science is pitiful. In the fifties and sixties, there was a saying among young students that "learning mathematics, physics and chemistry is not afraid to travel all over the world". On the surface, they seem to attach great importance to natural science knowledge, but this emphasis is largely from the perspective of utilitarianism and personal future development, and how many components really want to dedicate their lives to arduous scientific research. Many students apply for science and engineering in the college entrance examination every year, but how many are interested in exploring and studying nature itself? Many of them entered politics and business after graduation and gave up their majors. It is rarely heard that someone has spent several years studying a theorem and law, because it is too far away from reality, too irrelevant and too useless. This kind of traditional values not only affects and restricts the exertion of individual innovation consciousness. It also affects the formulation of some policies, which makes us lack the incentive mechanism for innovators for a long time, thus causing this abnormal social phenomenon that studying atomic bombs is not as good as selling tea eggs. Besides, unhealthy social atmosphere makes people do whatever they want. To deal with any problem, we should start with interpersonal relationship and make suggestions on interpersonal relationship, so that normal interpersonal relationship will become more complicated and mysterious, so the ability to prevent and trick people will have a market, and making a fuss about "people" will become the most direct and effective means. Some literary and artistic works describe, render and spread this with great interest; Skill, strategy, politics, calculation. A set of methods of employing and controlling people came into being. China people are too rigid in this respect. How much energy can they have to make inventions?
Secondly, China's values of "group" rather than "individual" influenced and restricted innovation.
In China's traditional concept, people attach great importance to groups, which is obviously not wrong. This is the strength of China's traditional concept, because people are gregarious animals and must live in groups. However, if this group concept develops to the extreme, it will undoubtedly have a repulsive effect on individuals. The consequences of this exclusion will undoubtedly stifle the vitality of the individual, so that any behavior of the individual should be considered from the norms, psychology and habits of the group, and dare not cross the line. Anyone who wants to do something new and innovate may be isolated and attacked by the group, which will lead to the fear and dependence of the individual on the group. This dependence has seriously hindered the development of people's innovative spirit. Judging from the history of science and technology and social development, any innovation is based on groups and takes individuals as the breakthrough. Any innovation must have the personality characteristics of the creator, from Newton to Einstein, from Plato to Hegel, without exception. This requires us not only to advocate group consciousness, but also to encourage people's individuality and creativity, and to pay attention to stimulating individual vitality. The innovation of natural science needs to encourage people's personality, and the innovation of social reform needs to encourage and protect individual creativity. The most convincing thing in this respect is the rural economic reform in China. Under the people's commune system, land is completely managed by collectives, and people have to do the same work. It is not allowed to run an enterprise or engage in diversified operations according to individual wishes, and no one will do it according to collective requirements. Whoever takes the capitalist road will be punished. This highly centralized and highly collectivized mode of production has left rural areas in China in a state of poverty and backwardness for a long time. After the rural reform and the contracted economic responsibility system, the individual vitality of farmers was stimulated, and the Eight Immortals crossed the ocean to show their magical powers, which made the rural economy in China full of vitality. Another example is the current institutional reform. Everyone thinks that the organization is bloated, overstaffed and inefficient, but each unit is unwilling to start from itself. Whoever wants to go ahead will be innovative, and whoever will be disturbed and attacked inside and outside the unit will become the target of public criticism. Therefore, in the personnel reform of units owned by the whole people, promotion and demotion will only stay in oral propaganda. Finally, we have to wait until the central and higher authorities have the documents, and then the subordinates will follow up. In the implementation, due to the different situations of each unit and the different practical problems encountered, it is also necessary to make innovations and breakthroughs in solving their own problems. In this case, whether the next leader has the courage and boldness to innovate depends largely on the support of the group and superior departments to the unit leaders. Today, we are experiencing an era of reform. In the process of reform, we encounter many new situations, new problems and new things, which requires us to call for innovation with unprecedented passion. To innovate, we must change the traditional concept of one-sided emphasis on groups and contempt for individuals. Especially under the condition of market economy, this should be emphasized, because a fundamental difference between market economy and planned economy is that market economy respects the display and publicity of human personality, while planned economy obliterates human personality and emphasizes "overall unity", making the original vivid "human" a symbol and tool, suppressing human personality vitality and making people's innovative spirit impossible to talk about.
Thirdly, the influence and restriction of China's "Great Unity" values on innovation.
In the historical process of China for thousands of years, the value concept of "great unification" was especially advocated. A leader can only go down in history and be praised by future generations if he unifies the country, laws, ideology and culture. This concept of "great unification" formed in history has played a positive role in safeguarding national unity, national unity and people's stability. If a society lacks "order" and stability, it will fall into inevitable self-contradiction and form a fragmented situation. Therefore, the concept of "great unification" has its positive and reasonable side in the process of social individualization, but its negative side conflicts with the innovative spirit we advocate and needs to be adjusted. Because the core of "great unification" is to put order first and personality second, in order to maintain order, personality can be omitted. Dealing with problems according to this kind of values will inevitably lead to the overall planning and unity of everything, and people are not allowed to innovate and be unconventional outside the scope of "unity", which will inevitably stifle people's innovative spirit. Because any innovation must break the original stability and balance. The original things have been very stable and balanced, but when you find new problems and conduct new research. It is bound to deny the original conclusion and break through the original rules and regulations, which will inevitably lead to the disorder of "order", conflict and opposition with the traditional "unified" values, and will inevitably break the old balance and establish a new balance. Today, China has entered a historical period of reform and opening up. Although the word "unification" can only be found in history textbooks, the negative influence of traditional values on people's thinking and social personality is far from being eliminated.
Cultivating teenagers' innovative spirit and ability can start from these aspects.
First, cultivate young people's innovative consciousness
Innovative consciousness belongs to the category of attitude towards reality in personality structure. It is characterized by active thinking, originality, creativity and criticism, and unique spirit and pursuit of innovation. Only with a strong sense of innovation can we dare to think about things that our predecessors have never thought about and create careers that our predecessors have never created. The cultivation of teenagers' innovative consciousness mainly includes the following four aspects.
(A) to maintain young people's thirst for knowledge
Curiosity is the desire to learn, understand and master new knowledge, including the desire to explore the unknown. In psychology, it can also be called the motivation of seeking knowledge. In real life, when a person finds that the knowledge and experience between himself and others, the gap between known information and unknown information is too large or the unknown thing is his own interest, he will have a psychological imbalance in his heart, thus forming the need to eliminate this imbalance as soon as possible, so as to germinate and act quickly and take some appropriate methods to rebalance. This is a thirst for knowledge. A person who is not aware of his knowledge structure and level defects is prone to complacency and has little demand for knowledge. In this way, it is impossible to learn and accumulate the necessary knowledge and experience, so there is no innovation.
Knowledge society is a society based on knowledge. In the knowledge society, the key resource in the economic operation order is knowledge, and the inequality of knowledge in the social operation order has become a big challenge. The innovation and accumulation of scientific and technological knowledge plays an increasingly important role in technological progress and even economic development. Countries with advanced knowledge monopolize upstream industries, thus occupying international competitive advantage. In this era of knowledge explosion and information explosion, young people's thirst for knowledge is particularly valuable. The new way of production and life will greatly change people's view of nature and produce new moral concepts. The increasing proportion of new knowledge and science and technology in economic growth is one of the fundamental reasons for promoting the knowledge society. In order to meet the requirements of knowledge society, contemporary youth should have a high degree of diligence and knowledge-seeking spirit, and constantly learn new knowledge to adapt to the ever-changing changes in science and technology. Without a high degree of diligence and knowledge, there will be no broad vision, no high academic attainments, and no solution to complex problems. Learning should run through one's life. Learning and creation, creation and learning are the fundamental ways of innovation.
(B) concerned about the curiosity of young people
Curiosity is a kind of psychology that people produce in order to bridge the gap between existing knowledge and unknown fields. It is a sense of freshness and excitement caused by not knowing things. Curiosity is often manifested as a concern for novelty. In order to find out their reasons, why do you ask? Curiosity is a concrete manifestation of curiosity and a potential creative factor. Generally speaking, the strength of curiosity is directly proportional to the strength of curiosity. The more curious you are, the more eager you are to learn, and always seek answers. Curiosity plays an important role in promoting people's cognitive development: through psychological activities such as surprise and questioning, curiosity induces people to selectively and actively contact objective things that produce novelty; Then inspire people to try to find the internal connection of this objective thing. In the process of understanding, curiosity urges people to deepen their understanding until they grasp the essence of things. Ordinary children have ignorant curiosity. However, with the growth of age and the disappearance of childhood, most people's curiosity has not increased, but has gradually disappeared. Einstein said: "The spark of pure curiosity will gradually die out" beveridge said: "If curiosity is not successfully transferred to intellectual interest, it will begin to weaken". Young people who are interested in the innovation and development of knowledge society should cultivate and exercise their curiosity in practice and change it from ignorance to knowledge, which is an important link to persist in and develop curiosity. Be good at asking questions in front of the phenomena you are exposed to, especially the novel phenomena. Don't be afraid of simple questions and ridicule. Families, schools and society should cherish the curiosity of young people. Confusing young people's curiosity with ignorance and fantasy, or even thinking that young people who are curious are "eccentric by nature" or "silent" because of ignorance, is a suppression of young people's curiosity and creativity.
(C) to stimulate young people's creative desire
Creative desire stems from the need of creation. This is a kind of strong desire that is not satisfied with the quality and function of ready-made ideas, viewpoints, methods and objects, but always wants to make some innovations and inventions on the original basis, which is manifested as being uneasy with the status quo, not sticking to the rules, and being very interested in creative activities. There is often a question in my mind, "Can you look at the problem from another angle?" Are there any simpler and more effective ways and means? "Creative people are not comfortable with the answers in books, but try to find out the differences from books. This quality is more important than intelligence.
China has a long period of feudal rule and a long history of closed doors. Due to the comprehensive influence of politics, economy, culture and other fields for a long time, many people have gradually formed a backward frame of reference in their deep psychological structure, resulting in an emotional psychology, accustomed to vertical comparison, rarely horizontal comparison, easy to produce cheap satisfaction, poor creative motivation, only seeking safety and comfort, not thinking about reform and enterprising, and inhibiting the development and impulse of creative desire. Today's reform and opening-up environment provides favorable conditions for stimulating young people's creative desire. The vigorous development of the new technological revolution requires young people to improve their creative desire. They should rethink what has become a fait accompli, or deepen their understanding, or give them new ideas in an effort to rediscover or develop it, and cultivate their good mentality conducive to creative thinking.
Encourage young people to question boldly.
Pavlov said: "Doubt is the thought of discovery, the driving force of exploration and the premise of innovation". Asking questions is the forerunner of acquiring knowledge. Only by asking questions can we solve problems and enhance understanding. Observe things with questions as the guide, and then pay attention to a cognitive object consciously. That is to observe things with a skeptical attitude, so as to grasp some new trends in the development of things more keenly and quickly.
In order to make doubt play a correct and maximum role in the process of youth innovation, we should pay attention to two points: one is to be good at doubt, and the other is to dare to doubt. The so-called good doubt is to advocate rational doubt, not blind doubt. Deliberate, cautious and positive doubt is the forerunner of scientific discovery and technological invention. Without thinking, I doubt everything and deny that everything is the enemy of innovation and invention. The so-called dare to doubt is not superstitious about authority. Traditional ideas are not all truth, and authoritative figures make mistakes. Blindly believing in authority and celebrities and taking every word of them as the golden rule and eternal truth will stifle your creativity and stop at the level of your predecessors. In the process of exploration and creation, young people, especially when they are still unknown, must build and improve their self-confidence with an unstoppable pioneering spirit. They should respect celebrities and authorities, learn from their rich knowledge and experience with an open mind, and dare to surpass them and make new creations on the basis of their creative work.
You should be brave in questioning and always follow others, and you will never achieve anything. If a person can't stand up beyond authority and dare not cross the tradition, he won't have any original opinions. We should encourage young people to dare to deviate from orthodoxy, challenge authority, and dare to raise objections to prevailing habits. Courage, courage, bold questioning and innovation.
Second, help young people overcome the psychological barriers to innovation.
Psychological obstacles that hinder the formation of teenagers' innovative consciousness mainly include the following:
(A) a sense of timidity
"Failure is the mother of success" is a proverb that people often say, but it is difficult for people to understand because of time and people. Laughter or "sympathy" is common around losers, and inferiority and discouragement are most common in losers themselves. "Once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the straw rope" forms a conditioned reflex to suppress the mentality. Because of fear, I don't want to try any innovation, even because of failure. Even if I have new ideas, I don't want to say them to avoid being laughed at. Timidity has a strong inhibitory effect on teenagers' innovative consciousness, and it is the most common and universal psychological obstacle for teenagers' innovation. Innovative thinking is an exploratory thinking. Facing the unknown world, it is impossible not to make mistakes or experience failures. When young people encounter failures or setbacks in the process of innovation, we should help them get rid of the emotional state of inferiority and discouragement as soon as possible, help them correctly attribute, comprehensively compare, adjust expectations, foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and motivate themselves.
(2) Mystery
We regard innovation as an innate "divine power" and believe that innovation can only be achieved by a few geniuses with superior intelligence. Don't be so arrogant as to make much ado about nothing. The mystery of innovative behavior and the conclusion that the biological genetic process is absolutely relative hinder the formation of many teenagers' innovative consciousness, resulting in a complacent mentality of being willing to be mediocre and retreating despite difficulties. We acknowledge the differences in IQ, but there are both connections and differences between IQ and intelligence, intelligence and innovation ability. To solve the mystery of teenagers' creativity, we should vigorously publicize the mode of "genius comes from diligence", publicize the growth path and brilliant innovation achievements of masters who have made outstanding contributions to the development of China's society and natural sciences with the strength and depth of singers and movie stars, publicize advanced figures and their deeds who have made extraordinary innovations in ordinary jobs around teenagers, and organize a certain scale of conceptual innovation, technological innovation, management innovation and marketing innovation. Infiltration irrigation can cultivate the consciousness of "innovation-everyone can" through practice, which can gradually break the mystery and enlighten young people's innovative thinking.
(C) sense of obedience
In real life, all social classes have a generally similar standard for judging young people, that is, "obedience and obedience." This standard has a far-reaching impact on the formation of youth values. When "obedience and obedience" become virtues, they gain their own interests; When unconventional and independent thinking becomes "complacency" and is hurt by mind and interests, except for a few young people with strong personalities, most people will enter a conservative state in self-correction. Following conservative thoughts becomes a mode of thinking. Young people who were once full of vigor and vitality became mature and narrow-minded. The ability to feel new things and absorb new knowledge will inevitably weaken, or even exclude new things, leaving them in a state of self-isolation. Under this mentality, there is no room for innovation. Influenced by this mentality, no outstanding people can be produced. A smart generation of young people will become a large number of "smart people". This group of "smart people" will create a vivid new generation.
There are subjective reasons for young people's psychological obstacles to innovation, but the most important thing is the internalization result of external influence and guidance. To overcome this psychological barrier, it is difficult to achieve results only by one region or young individuals. We call for bringing up a large number of young people with innovative consciousness and action, so we must correct misleading and need a more free social environment.