Born alongside building E, the fountain with the rotating sphere has become a familiar sight to me whenever I venture into the grounds of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The sphere is an integral part of the overall architecture of the university's rear section. For years, the sphere diligently rotates whenever the university welcomes visitors. And not just for welcoming guests; perhaps on a whim, someone in charge, in some unknown room, might switch on the electricity, sparing no expense, just to make it rotate. It spins amidst a whirlwind of water jets, sometimes lively and playful, sometimes languid and hesitant.Whether the spinning ball rotates fast or slow, the water jets high or low, every time I enter the schoolyard and see the water fountain in motion, I still enjoy it. Where there is water, there is life. The rotating stone, the flowing water—that is movement. And only with movement can there be existence. Movement brings development, signals of innovation and creativity. If I don't see the spinning ball in the schoolyard on a particular day, I don't feel stimulated, I don't feel that excitement in my heart. Early in the morning, when I go to class and see the ball dormant, my lectures become somewhat hesitant, my speech slow, and I easily offend others and ruin things. It turns out that the ball has become a symbol of the school for me, a second heart, silently influencing my productivity. Then one day, entering the schoolyard, I was startled to see many people gathered around the water fountain. A strong man was poking a stick into the water. Was there an accident or something? I hurried closer, worried. It turned out the ball was stuck and wouldn't turn. I jokingly asked, "Is it on strike?" No one responded to my ill-timed and seemingly "unconstructive" joke. Everyone fumbled with the pole, trying to find a fulcrum to lift the ball from its base. As if afraid of damaging the pink heart, the person holding the pole hesitated to use force. Without a firm support, without a secure point of leverage, the task seemed hopeless. The ball, bearing the logo of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, remained stubbornly in place, as if challenging everyone. Having no time to spare, I left, my heart filled with uncertainty.
That evening, a journalist friend, a classmate from Quang Binh, called my mobile phone to chat. He was a very active and enthusiastic journalist for many years, now a leading writer on Central Vietnam for several major newspapers. “Anything new?” he asked. I hesitated, “Anything noteworthy today?” I thought for a moment, then blurted out: “The water tank sphere at our school is stuck.” My journalist friend exclaimed in shock: “Oh my God, I’m having a headache over the order to go to Truong Sa, I’ve been angry about so many things all day, and you’re just sitting around the schoolyard. Oh, are you still teaching Nam Cao? You old-fashioned teachers!” Before I could retort, my friend hung up. He didn’t take his work seriously at all. I felt resentful. After another late cup of coffee, I tossed and turned all night. The image of the water tank sphere in the schoolyard haunted me again. My friend from Quang Binh's sarcastic remark brought back a flood of memories and rambling thoughts. Doing social science and humanities work these days is incredibly difficult. It's just like the image I saw on campus this afternoon – a highly symbolic image. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and social sciences and humanities in general, must find a fulcrum to contribute to saving life and the planet. In the past, Archimedes, while studying the principle of the lever, made a famous statement: "If you give me a fulcrum, I can lift the entire Earth." That was a confident statement based on solid scientific theoretical foundations. It was also based on similar theoretical scientific achievements that an American scientist once suggested to the US President that the Academy be dissolved. According to him, the most fundamental laws of the natural world had been discovered; the problem lay in their application. The technological age has begun, signifying that the Academy of Sciences has completed its journey and fulfilled its function… This proposal is confidently in the spirit of Archimedes. However, both statements contain a degree of simplicity. A simplicity stemming from the simplicity of the subject matter itself. It is true that at some point, the laws of the natural world surrounding humanity will be fully grasped. A meticulous scientific picture of the material world will be constructed, reaching a state of perfection. Scientific concepts, categories, and laws, like "meshes," will eventually densely cover the organic and inorganic world surrounding humankind. Only the "internal" world of humankind will remain untouched by any scientific net. Human social life is the subject of study for social sciences, while the spiritual world is the object of reflection and study for art and the humanities. As long as humanity exists and develops, the spiritual world will remain open as a vast, dynamic, complex, and infinitely expanding realm. The study of human life, social sciences and humanities, appears as an act of self-observation, and therefore it is difficult to escape subjectivity and misconceptions. From a holistic perspective, science today is vastly different in direction from that of ancient Greece and Rome. At that time, natural and social sciences were unified in a single perspective. Mathematicians and astronomers were also philosophers and linguists, many of whom were also poets. The development towards specialization in science has increasingly fragmented the world. A deep chasm has emerged separating philosophy, history, sociology, and natural sciences. Husserl and the phenomenologists of Tran Duc Thao's generation were startled to realize that philosophy and the exact sciences only joined hands until the Middle Ages. Before that, both were established on the standpoint of seeking the meaning of things, not pursuing the purpose of using things or nature. Starting with Galileo, a new style of science emerged, dominating everything. The world was observed from a mathematical perspective, thoroughly digitized. Modern science only uses the world. Technological advances pushed human needs and living standards higher, while simultaneously hanging humanity on the brink of extinction day by day.
What will save humanity? A prophetic 19th-century writer declared: Beauty will save the world. He placed his faith in the transformative power of art. But that was the 19th-century answer to the decay of morality. Today, we face not only the decay of morality but also the decay of the environment and the entire attitude of humanity towards nature and towards our fellow human beings. So where can we find the answer to the current threats and challenges? What will save humanity? In the 19th century, people still placed their faith in aesthetic principles. In this century, beauty has also been technologized, and that faith has diminished. We are left with only one belief: in the social sciences and humanities. It is the social sciences and humanities that will sustain this earth. The image of the stuck sphere and the staff of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities struggling to find a fulcrum to lift it back up haunts me. Archimedes probably only thought of a single, suitable fulcrum to lift the Earth. But the social sciences and humanities may have to find many fulcrums to save life and ensure the future development of humanity. It must assume the responsibility of regulating the pace and direction of science and technology. It must be cautious, wise, and subtle in defusing the fuses of war, easing religious and ethnic conflicts. It must be skillful in avoiding collapse, seeking stability and safety, like someone holding a pole by a water tank, trying not to let the sphere get scratched or damaged. Even in the first years of peace in the North, the social sciences and humanities of Hanoi University truly demonstrated its immense social role. Patriotic intellectuals, veteran scholars and teachers, along with a new generation of pioneering young lecturers, sacrificed themselves in the struggle against the "Humanist-Literary Movement." The right and wrong, the gains and losses in this struggle all bear historical significance. Most commendable is that the young and old social scientists at that time truly lived their lives to the fullest, contributing to clarifying the most appropriate path for the country, predicting and laying the groundwork for a long process of historical understanding. At that time, the humanities, and the University of Hanoi, were envisioned as a spiritual battlefield, an ideological fortress. During the years of the war against the US, social sciences and humanities also gloriously fulfilled their noble historical mission. But in that fierce war for national independence and freedom, issues of scientific methodology were too clear, even too simple. The greatest goal of the struggle allowed us to easily divide the world into two blocks: right and wrong, red and black, revolution and counter-revolution, light and darkness. Those who studied and taught social sciences and humanities could freely traverse the pre-determined ideological avenue, as long as they maintained their revolutionary faith and enthusiasm. That was a historical period where social sciences, in terms of methodology, did not need to worry about choices. Today, with the country under our control, with the world system changing from a bipolar to a multipolar state, with international relations that once seemed as solid as a rock suddenly crumbling and undergoing unpredictable changes, social sciences and humanities must truly face daily information storms and confront unavoidable challenges in choosing appropriate methodologies and processing information. More than ever, genuine social scientists must be accountable to future generations for the decisions of the Party and State today in all fields: economics, politics, and culture. The prosperity or decline of a nation, from a macro perspective, does not depend much on science and technology, but fundamentally on social sciences and humanities. It is social sciences and humanities that must dedicate themselves to answering the numerous complex questions arising daily, revolving around issues ranging from national sovereignty, land security, and the environment, to the degradation of character and the crisis of faith and life philosophy. Social sciences serve as a cornerstone for a life elevated to a higher level of democracy, stability, and development.
The challenge for teachers in the social sciences and humanities today lies in overcoming contradictions to achieve a harmonious combination of their roles as educators and scientists, between training and research, between immediate political awareness education and the development of scientific thinking methods and worldviews. The expansion of professions and training fields (to meet the ever-increasing demands of society) inevitably leads to a fragmentation of scientific research. A research university model of regional and international stature cannot allow our institution to remain forever in the tradition of an ideological fortress, but must live in the proud position of a scientific castle… The first decade of the new century is passing. What is the most impressive image from the past year, 2009? For me, perhaps the most impressive is the water fountain in the schoolyard that day. I don't expect the sphere to always spin in the water. I'm not romanticizing the sphere. Because it's so familiar to me, I consider it like a colleague: attending classes, meetings, and also needing time to rest. The spinning ball, tired, stops, rests, and reflects. But even if it thinks differently from me (thinking like a ball), it still thinks: No one is forcing it to go to Hoa Lac.
