论“现代性”的基本特征及其伦理价值

On the Basic Features and Ethical Value of "Modernity"

随着现代化历史进程的不断推进,对"现代性"的概念阐释一直是极具争议的学术问题。对"现代性"的多角度、多层面解读,构成了现代性问题的复杂性。现代性具有四个基本特征,即抽象性、流动性、矛盾性、世俗性。现代性所展现的个体与他人、社会、自然的关系,是伦理关系在现代世界的彰显,这主要表现为两个方面:一方面,现代性的伦理价值首先指向"人"的问题,脱离特定人格来谈人的意义,都是现代性的文化危机和思想衰退。另一方面,现代性的伦理价值还指向"善"与"正义"问题。在现代性理论逐渐完善和发展的过程中,正义已逐渐被当作一种伦理诉求来看待,这种伦理诉求的出现又促使整个社会的伦理重心由个体转向社会共同体,正义不再是个人信仰,而是整个社会的伦理诉求。

With the continuous advancement of the history of modernization, the conceptual interpretation of ＂modernity＂ has always been a highly controversial academic issue. The multi-perspective and multi-level interpretation of ＂modernity＂ constitute the complexity of modernity issues. Modernity has four basic features： abstractness, mobility, contradiction, and seeularity. The relationship between individuals and others, society, and nature demonstrated by modernity is the expression of ethical relations in the modern world. This is mainly manifested in two aspects： On the one hand, the ethical value of modernity points first to the issue of ＂human＂, and talks about the significance of human without specific personality, which is the cultural crisis and decline of ideas in modernity. On the other hand, the ethical value of modernity also points to the issues of ＂good＂ and ＂justice.＂ While the modernization theory is gradually perfected and developed, justice has gradually been regarded as an ethical appeal, whose emergence has also prompted the ethical center of gravity of the whole society to turn from individuals to social communities. Justice is no longer a personal belief, but the ethical appeal of the entire society.