20世纪二三十年代,西方哲学界的新实在论运动在中国得到积极的回应,并形成了中国的新实在论学派,其主要代表人物是金岳霖、冯友兰和张岱年。中国的新实在论者与其说着意于西方新实在论思想在中国的传播,毋宁说更着意于新实在论思想在中国的创新;他们基于中国的哲学传统,对知识与价值的关系问题采取了“划界”的处理方式,强调哲学应面对认识论和形而上学两个世界。

In the 1920s and 1930s, neorealism in western philosophy was actively echoed in China, and China's neorealism school was formed with the representatives such as Jin Yue lin, Feng You lan and Zhang Dai nian. China's neorealists intended more to innovate neorealism in China than to merely spread the idea. Based on the tradition of Chinese philosophy, they adopted the means of "division" to deal with the relation between knowledge and values, and emphasized epistemology and metaphysics in philosophy study.