关于哈斯克尔的“经验主义”的再认识

Reflection on Francis Haskell's Empiricism

英国艺术史家哈斯克尔是西方艺术社会史中"赞助人"研究的重要代表人物。由于他承认自己是经验主义者,反对用宏大的理论和抽象的教条来说明艺术并强调"特定时空中的具体的事件"艺术原则,被某些评论家称作是"经验主义的一个孩子",并被指责他的专著缺乏理论阐释,只关注一些逸闻趣事。实际上,哈斯克尔和传统意义的英国经验主义有所区别,与那种事实编撰的艺术史家不同,哈斯克尔按照一定的原则对大量的材料进行了取舍,另外他的历史责任感和广阔的视野也是导致这种不同的重要因素。

English art historian Francis Haskell has always been deemed as leading researcher of ＂art patron＂ in western arts sociology. Self-dubbed empiricist, against deliberating arts with theories and doctrines while advocating the artistic princi- ple of ＂specific events in a particular time and space＂, Haskell had been jokingly called ＂a child of empiricism＂ by some crit- ics, who disapproved of his monographs＇ lack of theoretical elaboration and focus on anecdotes. In truth, the empiricism advocated by Haskell is different from the traditional English empiricism doctrines in that he screened through voluminous literature rather than recorded historical facts word for word, which resulted from his sense of historical responsibility and broad horizon.