从博兰尼的默识理论看中西绘画

The Differences between Western and Chinese Paintings from the Perspective of Tacit Knowledge Theory

博兰尼的默识理论如今被广泛运用在认识论和经济学等领域的讨论之中。根据这一理论 ,博兰尼对西方具象派绘画做出了令人信服的解释 ,认为西方绘画是由对自然图像的集中意识和对人工痕迹的辅助意识综合而成的崭新图像。本文认为 ,博兰尼近乎完美的分析中忽略了一种可能性 ,即集中意识到人工痕迹的同时辅助地意识到自然图像 ,并指出这种被忽略的情形刚好符合博兰尼的理论不能解释的中国绘画和现代抽象绘画 ,从而可以有力地显示出中西绘画之间的巨大差异。

Tacit knowledge is an important form of knowing discovered by Michael Polanyi, a distinguished philosopher, chemist, and economist of the 20th century, and has been applied widely to contemporary discussions of epistemology and economics. Based on the theory of tacit knowledge, Polanyi has convincingly explained the western paintings of the Concretists, and believed that western painting is a grand new image resulting from integrating the focal awareness of natural images with the subsidiary awareness of the canvas. This paper tries to point out a possibility neglected by Polanyi's theory that the focal awareness of the canvas may be simultaneous with the subsidiary awareness of natural images, which explains the reason why Polanyi's theory cannot be applied to Chinese and modern abstract paintings, thus demonstrating the great differences between Western and Chinese paintings from a powerful new perspective.