“新人文主义”再探讨

Restudy on Babbitt's Humanism

20世纪初,美国思想家白璧德提出了新人文主义。白璧德希望用人文主义来调节一与多的关系,反对极端的多元论,唤起对“一”的信心。以培根为代表的科学的人道主义导致了人类对于科技进步的迷信,使物的法则压倒了人类自身的法则;以卢梭为代表的情感的人道主义忽视道德约束本身,使人陷入了碎片化的生活。这两种人道主义要为教育和社会领域的混乱无序负责。在道德重建的历程中,文学艺术理应担当起把人由低级自我提升到高级自我的重要使命。教育印象主义使大学教育的水平下降,人文学者陷入了过分专业化甚至学究化的危险,白璧德提倡闲暇和业余性,真正的学者要处在一种无为而有为的状态之中,坚守反思和批评的立场。

in the early 20th century, Irving Babbitt advocated New-Humanism. Babbitt hopes to readjust the relationship between the one and the many by adopting the theory of Humanism and refuting radical pluralism, thus to call back people＇s trust in the one. Scientific humanitarianism of which Francis Bacon is an eminent promoter, has brought out a fetish of science, while Sentimental humanitarianism, represented by Jean Jacques Rousseau, has put people＇ s life in a fragmented style because of its neglect of moral restriction. Both of these two types of humanitari- anism are responsible for the chaotic situation in education and society. In the process of moral reconstruction, literature and liberal arts should be responsible to take on the salvation of the mass from the lower self to the higher self. Educational impressionism has engendered a slump in the quality of higher education, and scholars of humanities are at the risk of over-specialization and pedanticism. According to the theory of leisure and amateurism claimed by Babbitt, a real scholar should hold his stand as a re-examiner and critic by living in the style of activity in repose through inactivity.