从“眷注死亡”到“献身生命”——托马斯·曼对“德意志性”的反思

From “Sympathy with the Death” to “Devotion to Life”:——Thomas Mann's Reflection of “Germanness”

《论德意志共和国》(1922)标志着托马斯·曼由保守派转变为民主派,是其思想生涯的决定性时刻。托马斯·曼超越了此前以"文化"对抗"文明"、亦即以"德意志"对抗"西方"的思想框架,以"爱欲"和"人性"概念为中介,试图促成德意志传统与启蒙主义的和解,进而获得一种以德意志传统为基础的政治现代性方案。这种思想转型,最重要的机缘在于,他在20世纪20年代之后,全面接受了歌德所代表的人文主义精神。在这种基础上,他重新解释"德意志性",从"眷注死亡"的浪漫派传统中发现了"献身生命"的人文主义精神。沿着人文精神的路向,他也开始对三位保守主义思想的精神偶像——瓦格纳、叔本华以及尼采——进行重新阐释。

“On the German Republic” （1922） marks Thomas Mann’s transformation from an adherent of the conservatives to a devotee of the democrats , implying a decisive moment in his career as an intellectual.Thomas Mann has overcome the earlier ideological framework of “culture” against “civilization”, i.e.of the“German-ness” against “West” .Instead he built the concepts of “eros” and“human nature” as an intermediary , in or-der to try to contribute to the reconciliation of tradition and Enlightenment in Germany , and thus to obtain a mod-ern political program based on the traditions of Germany.The most important opportunity for this ideological transformation was that in the 1920s he fully embraced the spirit of humanism represented by Goethe.On this foundation , he reinterpreted “Germanness” by departing from the “sympathy with the death” of the Romantic tradition and realizing the spirit of humanism of “devotion to life” .In the direction of humanistic spirit , he also began to reinterpret three conservative intellectual idols —Wagner , Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.