美学如何成为一种社会批判?——从哈贝马斯的省思看批判理论价值论设的失落

How Does Aesthetics Become a Social Critique—The Decline of Values of Critical Theories As Is Seen from Habermas’ Reason

在批判理论中,审美主义是社会理论之价值论设的一部分,它和意识形态批判的还原性分析一起,构成批判理论内部的批判性张力。本文以哈贝马斯的省思为引导,揭示这种批判作为价值论设的根本失落:一、它的社会学还原导致其与自然法的纽带发生断裂;二、在理论陈述和社会批判中缺失打量法理性的规范性视野;三、严重低估西方现代社会体制的合法性基础;四、以审美主义的价值批判取代法理批判。意识形态批判从社会学还原的角度消解法理性,审美主义则从价值要求的角度将这种消解延伸到对权利、对社会规范的价值同化,由此造成批判理论对社会理论之规范性维度的持续性消解。因此,我们截取批判理论价值陈述的任何一个层面都必须小心。

In Critical theories, aestheticism is one of the values of social theories and, together with the reductive analysis of ideological critiques, forms the critical tension within critical theories. This paper, prefaced by interpretation of Habermas’ reason, tries to disclose essential decline of this critique as a theory of values. First, its reduction to sociology leads to its disjuncture with natural law; second, it lacks normal vision to measure the reason of law in its theoretical statements and social critiques; third, it seriously underestimates the legitimate basis of modern Western social regimes; and fourth, it takes aesthetic value criticism to replace legal critiques. From the point of view of social reduction, ideological critiques undo the reason of law, and aestheticism extends this undoing to the value assimilation of rights and social norms so as to meet the requirement of values, the result of which is critical theory’s contained undoing of the normative dimension of social theories. We should therefore be very careful in taking any level of value statement from critical theory.