Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Lucky day inquiry - What is the main content of the book An Introduction to Civilization written by Fukuzawa Yukichi?

What is the main content of the book An Introduction to Civilization written by Fukuzawa Yukichi?

In the book An Introduction to Civilization, Fukuzawa Yukichi comprehensively put forward the idea of learning from western civilization. He attributed multiculturalism in the world to three types, namely barbarism, semi-civilization and civilization, and believed that human society developed in the order from barbarism to semi-civilization and then to civilization. In his view, Japan was semi-open at that time, while Europe and America had entered civilization. Therefore, Japan must "take western civilization as the standard" and learn from Europe and America. He pointed out bluntly: "Look at the situation in Japan today, in the name of civilization, not in the name of reality; It has a civilized appearance and lacks an inner spirit. "He explained that he would be beaten if he fell behind." There are both advanced and backward civilizations, so the advanced will suppress the backward, and the backward will be suppressed by the advanced. However, Fukuzawa Yukichi did not blindly worship foreign things, but only emphasized learning "an intangible thing", that is, "the spirit of civilization". He said: "What distinguishes Europe from Asia is this spirit of civilization. Therefore, he warned people that "we should not simply imitate the appearance of western civilization, but must first have the spirit of civilization." "