反启蒙者沃格林

Eric Voegelin:A Counter-Enlightener

启蒙以对理性的倡导而著称,但这带来的是激情对心灵的主导,而一个经过启蒙的典型现代人对理性的运用其实只是使其服务于这种主导。沃格林指出,古典哲人将人身上从开端和超越两个方向感受到来自神性实在之牵引的那个部分用“理性”(nous)这个符号来表达。在古典经验中,理性对心灵的主导体现为积极探求生存本原(arche)的生活,这种生活是秩序所在。无论是在前现代社会,还是在现代社会,都会出现有序经验(哲学、灵性经验、科学)畸变为教条的现象。由于启蒙强调人的主体性,对科学设置了关于形而上学的禁忌,并出于弘扬人本主义的立场而对人的欲望、激情进行正当化论证,从而助长了科学在现代社会的畸变,以及现代人对这种畸变之后的“科学”的接受。由此带来的后果是,作为有序人生之标志性特征的均衡状态遭到破坏,进而使人无从追求不朽。同时,启蒙对自由的极致追求、对“历史的意义”的人为建构,也都反映出对实在的畸变,导致了现代社会的无序。

The Enlightenment is known for its promotion of reason,but it actually causes domination of passion over mind.For a typical modern enlightened man,whenever he makes use of his reason,what he does is no more than making it serve the domination.Voegelin pointed out that the classic philosophers symbolized as nous(reason)that part in them which could sense the pull by diving reality from the Beginning and the Beyond.In the classic experience,the domination of reason over mind was reflected in the life which enthusiastically explored the ground(arche)of existence and was thus recognized as the ordered life.Whether in pre-modern society or in modern society,we can witness the phenomenon that the experience of order,be it philosophy,pneumatic experience,or science,is deformed into doctrine.Because the Enlightenment emphasizes the subjectivity of human being,it imposes on science the taboo on metaphysics and justifies human desires and passions for the purpose of promoting humanism,both of which contribute to the deformation of science in modern society as well as the acceptance of deformed“science”by modern people.The consequence is that the balance state as the characteristic feature of ordered life is destroyed,making it impossible for people to pursue immortality.At the same time,the extreme pursuit of freedom and the artificial construction of“meaning of history”by the Enlightenment also reflect the deformation of reality and result in the disorder of modern society.