《我们共同的朋友》中的自然选择与自由选择

Natural Selection and Free Choice in Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend

在《我们共同的朋友》中,狄更斯用写实的手法,通过对伦敦下层多个人群生活状态的描写,展现了一幅弱肉强食、竞争与淘汰不断更替的自然场面,呼应了达尔文在1859年发表的《物种起源》中关于自然选择的论述。然而这种上帝缺失的场景以及由此带来的道德沦丧,也让狄更斯产生了深深的忧虑。因此在象征层面,狄更斯创造了似乎能够超越自然法则,独立进行"自由选择"的人物和情节,以期进行道德的重构。从思想史的角度看,《朋友》一书探讨了在世俗化进程中,人逐渐失去"上帝的安排"(design)这个依托之后,如何能够不被"生态系统"的游戏规则左右,做出独立、自由的道德判断。

The article attempts to argue that Dickens's last published novel Our Mutual Friend is conducted on two levels.On the realistic level,Dickens portrays the society of London in Darwinian terms where Providential "design" is absent and competition for survival is fierce,a world where only Natural Selection reigns.On the symbolic level,Dickens creates characters who,on the one hand,are entangled in this e- cosystem but,on the other hand,can also transcend it in order to make free moral choice.Despite Dickens's interest in contemporary scientific developments,this article conjectures that Dickens is disturbed by the philosophical presupposition and moral consequence of Darwin's evolutionary theory.