虚拟享用:伦理辩护与批判

Virtual Consumption:an Argument For and Against from an Ethical Perspective

虚拟享用是人在需要及其满足方式上的一个重要环节,同时也是一种心理机制和实践行为。虚拟享用是一个悖论性的存在:在使人的各种需要得到满足的同时,既可使个体同自然、社会和自己和谐相处,也可刺激人的占有、消费和炫耀的欲望,以致超出同代和代际规定给它的伦理界限,造成奢侈和浪费。虚拟享用本身无善恶之分,但虚拟享用的实现方式却有好坏之别,关键在于社会给出的是何种样式的设置。着眼于资本运行逻辑之上的需要、欲望、虚拟享用,达于发现造成奢侈、浪费的消费观和社会设置,指明一种趋向和谐发展的可能形态,是伦理批判的终极目的,也是伦理建设的核心内容。

Virtual consumption as an important link in demand and its satisfaction is at once a psychological mechanism and an action in practice. It is paradoxical:in satisfying man's demands, it may create peace for individuals with nature, society and oneself, yet it may also stimulate their desire to possess, consume and display, so much so as to exceed the ethical limits of intra-and inter-generational norms and result in extravagance. Although virtual consumption is neither good nor evil in itself, it may be realized in good or bad ways, depending mainly upon social settings. It is the ultimate objective of an ethical critique as well as the core of ethical construction to integrate demands, desires and virtual consumption in the operational logic of capital,to identify views of consumption and social configuration that lead to extravagance,and to find a possible route to coordinated development.