What do the slogans of democracy and science mean?

The word "democracy" is called "Demokrasi" according to the transliteration during the May 4th Movement. The concept of democracy, like the concept of the people, has different contents in different times. There have been various democratic systems in history, such as the military democratic system that transformed primitive society into class society, the slave-owner democratic system of ancient Greek city-States, the citizen autonomy democratic system of medieval cities, the modern bourgeois democratic system and the contemporary proletarian socialist democratic system.

Democracy belongs to the political category and is rooted in certain social and economic relations. Bourgeois democracy is the product of capitalist commodity exchange relations. The main theoretical basis of bourgeois democracy is the social contract theory and natural human rights theory represented by Rousseau, a famous French enlightenment thinker in the18th century. Rousseau also regarded his ideal democracy and country as a "rational" kingdom. Engels said: "The social contract between a rational country and Rousseau can only be manifested as bourgeois democracy and the country in practice." 1 is the opposite of bourgeois democracy and proletarian democracy. It is the most extensive people's democracy in history, based on the socialist public ownership economy that eliminates exploitation.

During the Revolution of 1911, the revolutionary democrats in China attempted to realize the ideal of a bourgeois democratic country in China, and their democratic views belonged to the nature of old democracy.

The democratic trend of thought during the May 4th Movement was characterized by the transformation from old democracy to new democracy. Before Marxism was introduced into China, the slogan of democracy was basically the slogan of the old bourgeois democratic revolution. After the spread of Marxism, the slogan of democracy has new content and the nature of new democracy.

The word "science", transliterated during the May 4th Movement, is called "Sains". In Europe, with the emergence and development of capitalism, a revolution has taken place in natural science. This revolution began with the publication of Copernicus's theory of celestial movement. Before that, science only served as the handmaid of medieval theology. The publication of Copernicus' immortal works marked the beginning of the liberation of natural science from theology. Since then, science has gradually established an independent system and no longer depends on theology. From Copernicus, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Newton and Darwin, the revolution of natural science has gone through three centuries. Because natural science itself is completely revolutionary, we have to oppose the development of religious theology. The development of natural science and its struggle with theology not only provide an important foundation for the development of philosophical materialism, but also often make it the forerunner of political revolution. After the bourgeoisie successfully gained political sovereignty, natural science strongly promoted the capitalist industrial revolution and made the social productive forces develop rapidly.

The science mentioned during the May 4th Movement mainly refers to the natural science in the modern west. Including classical mechanics and new discoveries in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics since the second half of the 19th century, among which Darwin's theory of evolution and Einstein's theory of relativity are the most important. But at that time, many people regarded the western bourgeois idealism philosophy and other social and political theories as "science" and supported them. In fact, after Marxism was introduced into China, real social science began to exist.

In modern China, democracy opposed feudal absolutism, and science opposed feudal idolatry and all ignorant and backward ideas. Democracy and science are not only anti-feudal ideological weapons, but also express the requirements and wishes of modernizing people's political life and thoughts. However, as China is a semi-colonial country invaded by imperialism, under such historical conditions, the slogan of democracy and science also contains the desire to seek national liberation and national independence and prosperity, which is of anti-imperialist and patriotic significance.