如何奠定历史唯物主义的“理论哲学基础”——一种基于“蕴相殊”理论的重构方案

The Reconstruction of the Metaphysical Foundation of Historical Materialism by Virtue of the Trope Theory

关于历史唯物主义的理论哲学基础,恩格斯借由"自然辩证法"所给出的"补足"工作,一直受到西方马克思主义者的诟病,以至于像马尔库塞这样的西方马克思主义者甚至还得出了"辩证唯物主义即历史唯物主义的另一名词"这样的判断。但从当代分析哲学的视角看,实践哲学面相鲜明的历史唯物主义体系,不可能不在诸如"个体""人性""国家""交换价值"等议题上给出此种或彼种的本体论承诺,因此,经由这些承诺而为历史唯物主义重塑形而上学话语框架的研究规划,也完全可以在今日分析形而上学的新语境中得到重启。具体而言,由威廉姆斯、坎贝尔等澳大利亚唯物论者提出的"蕴相殊"理论,便可以为重塑历史唯物主义提供必要的形而上学资源,因为这种同时拒斥了亚里士多德实体论与柏拉图共相论的当代唯名论理论,能够较为顺畅地解释历史唯物主义者何以在政治哲学与政治经济学的层面上能够同时拒斥实体主义与柏拉图主义的种种变种。蕴相殊论与马克思主义的这种联合,最终还将帮助后者化解一部分反马克思主义者对于马克思主义的"相对主义指控",由此使得马克思主义的立场更容易得到辩护。

From the perspective of analytic philosophy, varieties of ontological commitments, especially those related to the confirmation or disconfirmation of the ontological statuses of individuals, human nature, states and commercial values, are unavoidable for historical materialists even when they are working on the level of practical philosophy only. Thus, it is still feasible for analytically and metaphysically oriented Marxists to find a most suitable ontological framework to accommodate the afore-mentioned ontological commitments, but without any intention to involve Engels-style dialectical materialism again. The trope theory, elaborated by Australian materialists like Donald Williams, Keith Campbell, etc., is supposed to be such an ontological framework, in which both the Aristotelian notion of ＂substancc＂and the Platonic notion of ＂universal＂should be rejected at the very beginning. Marxists＇ acceptance of the trope theory, in this sense, would immediately facilitate their interpretation of Marx＇s own ontological commitments, especially those undermining the ontological statuses of individuals, human nature, states and abstract commercial values, etc.. In addition, a trope-theory-inspired Marxist could even more convincingly respond to a widely-known accusation against Marxism, namely, the accusation that Marxism is another form of relativism.