Visiting Scholar of “Qilu Study and Research Residency Program”, Professor of History of Philosophy, Tor Vergata University of Rome

Cultural innovation is a supplement to social and technological innovation. In Europe, the goal of cultural innovation is to promote the well-being of individuals and groups, aiming to provide citizens with a space to share experiences and access common resources. These spaces can be public places such as libraries, museums, and science centers, as well as research infrastructure. In China, cultural innovation originates from the interaction between tradition and modernization. Among them, Confucianism has typical creativity and can provide valuable solutions for bridging traditional and modern problems and solving modern challenges. For example, in Confucianism, the universe is regarded as heaven and earth, where "heaven" plays a leading role as the creator and maintainer, and "earth" is the planet containing wisdom. And the heart can be used to communicate with heaven and earth, and harmonize the world. This kind of thinking has a great enlightening effect to some extent. Therefore, it is necessary for us to break free from the constraints of Euro-centrism and include Confucius and Laozi in the scope of philosophical and historical research.