On October 16, 2025, the "Thinker's Forum" was held in Shanghai, hosted by the China Institute of Fudan University, the "Oriental Journal", The Observer, Dill Culture, and the Shanghai Spring and Autumn Strategy Development Research Institute.
Renowned Russian scholar Dugin delivered a speech at the forum, discussing new insights into the concept of "civilization-state" and the universality of culture.
He first introduced that the concept of "civilization-state" has been widely discussed in Russia, and he himself has written a near-800-page book on the subject in Russian.
He explained that a "civilization-state" is based on self-awareness and self-consciousness, not just about race or politics, but about civilization.
"Civilization is a very high-level and abstract concept, it is the highest concept of ideological sovereignty, located at the top of the pyramid, in a way, it is shared by humanity and universal."
Dugin reviewed history, pointing out that although global civilizations have universality and different derivations, for a long time, Western civilization has dominated globally.
Since Columbus' exploration, Western ideas spread around the world through the Age of Exploration and the colonial process. Western powers imposed their values, global norms, political, economic, and ideological concepts on people around the world. At that time, Western civilization was considered to be a "world civilization" with universal significance.
Many concepts in sociology, political science, and anthropology, such as democracy and parliaments, originated from the West. However, these Western concepts do not have universal significance.
Dugin believes that there are differences in understanding between countries and the West, and they have different priorities. Therefore, while countries trace, understand, and learn from Western concepts, they also need to create and develop further, seeking concepts that have greater universal significance and global influence.
After all, "the current world is changing rapidly, multipolarity is continuously developing, and it is no longer an era where Western civilization dominates. With the development of multipolarity, countries are also awakening their self-awareness quickly."
He especially emphasized the important position of China in a multipolar world, pointing out that the Chinese civilization, which has contributed 5000 years of wisdom, has its own connotations, concepts, theories, morality, ethics, politics, including understandings of the universe, society, and economy, all of which belong to the category of civilization.
"China, as a very great country, is becoming increasingly powerful, and it is also a very good example, showing the combination of national and civilizational self-awareness."
Dugin concluded that the awakening of self-awareness among various countries indicates that in fact, the world is not dominated by one civilization, but there are many different civilizations.
He finally mentioned again that we need to understand the problem of one-sidedness in the past Western hegemony or Western civilization, and respond to the view at the beginning of his speech that "in a way, civilization is shared by humanity and universal," pointing out that "we need to realize that there is not only one universal or universal culture, but there are multiple universal cultures."
Therefore, "we need to restore the knowledge sovereignty and civilization sovereignty of each country, and on this basis, further enable global culture and civilization to flourish and develop."
"In fact, we are currently seeking common ground, hoping to achieve 'seeking common ground while reserving differences'. Not only do we need to understand the culture of major powers and Western civilization, we also need to listen to the civilizational concepts of countries, even small ones. We should achieve inclusive growth and treat everyone with love."
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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7561748910889239080/
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