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The American Intellectual Tradition and Its Crisis

The purpose of this article is to sketch the nature of the American intellectual tradition, to examine how it has been established, and to understand its crisis stemming from the challenge of Postmodernism. Mainstream American intellectuals always have started with the importance of the individual, the firm recognition of reality, and the clear understanding of historical continuity connecting past, present, and future. As the most important clement of the mainstream American intellectual tradition, such an attitude has been the dynamic, driving force in the development of the American national state and American democracy. But Postmodernism denies reality and individual and historical continuity. Disputing all underlying assumptions of the American intellectual tradition, extreme postmodern thinkers deny the social morals of America, objective knowledge about America, and even the very being of the American people. The present American society as well as American tradition are in crisis. But I believe that the crisis can and should be overcome by preserving methods and values from the American intellectual tradition. Mainstream American intellectuals have met the challenges of history In every era. but they have overcome them by adhering to traditional values and ways which have been developed on American soil. just as a seed overcomes the challenges of nature through the fertility of that which surrounds it.