超越现代和传统:发展的第三种模式

Beyond Modernity and Tradition: A Third Way for Development

我们怎样理解世界(即我们形而上学的前提),在很大程度上决定了我们怎样对待世界。而我们怎样对待世界构成了我们的基本形态,这个形态影响着我们所做的每一件事情,我们的整个文化也来源于此。本文区分了三种基本形态:第一种是建立在宗教基础上的前物质主义社会或传统社会的形态,这是一种诉求的形态,即从超自然的资源中寻求帮助;第二种是物质主义社会或现代社会抑或非宗教社会的形态,这是一种工具主义形态,它主张按照人类的需要来主宰、统治和重塑世界;第三种是未来的(即将来的)后物质主义社会的形态,这些社会是后宗教的,但不是后精神的,它们的形态是让世界按照其本性自然发展,进一步说,是在人类意愿和非人类生命意愿之间寻找一种创造性的协同,参照道家的“无为”观点可以很好地阐述这种协同。

How we understand the world （our metaphysical premise ） determines, to a large degree, how we treat it. How we treat our world constitutes our basic modalities. The first is the modality of pre-materialist or traditional, religion-based societies. This is a modality of importuning, the seeking of assistance from supernatural sources. The second is the modality of materialist or modern, secular societies. This is a modality of instrumentalism, involving mastery, control and a will to re-make the world in accordance with human ends. The third is the modality of prospective or post-materialist societies. These societies would be post-religious but not post-spiritual. Their modality would be one of letting the world unfold according to its own nature, and, by extension, finding creative synergies between human and nonhuman desire. This modality of synergy is explicated by reference to the Daoist notion of wu wei.