论“关系转向”的本体论自觉

On the Ontological Consciousness of “Relational Turn”

"关系转向"是近年在东西方国际关系理论界共同兴起的学术现象。但是东西方学术界并未就关系主义研究开展有效对话,研究者更加关注东西方"关系转向"的不同渊源和差异性,从而对全球性"关系转向"这一现象的产生原因及其学理意义缺乏足够的认识。在全球化、科技革命和互联网快速发展的背景下,现实的世界政治日益呈现出高度互系和流动的特征,主流国际关系理论原子式的实体主义本体论越来越脱离世界政治的现实,理论与现实之间的张力推动东西方学者共同转向"关系本体"。超越东西方文化壁垒、推动全球性关系主义研究是关系思维的内在要求。坚持关系本体,反对实体主义世界观和研究路径是东西方"关系转向"的共同基准线,也是超越东西方分野、推动全球关系主义研究的基础和起点。坚持和贯彻关系主义的本体论自觉就是要求在研究设计中避免"物化"和"二元对立"的实体主义认识论倾向,坚持关系世界的永恒变化性以及关系世界中个体与个体、个体与整体之间内在的联系性。

“Relational turn”is a remarkable phenomenon recently emerging both in the Anglophone and the Sinophone International Studies.With most of the attention being paid to the differentiation between the two strands,the reasons why a world-wide“relational turn”rises have not been fully explored and its theoretical significance has been underestimated.Against the backdrop of fast-growing globalization,technological evolution and internet penetration,world politics has increasingly taken on the features of inter-relatedness and fluidity,which makes the dominant IR theories built on ontological assumptions of atomistic sustantialism out of tune with the reality.The tension between world politics reality and international studies drove scholars from different cultural backgrounds towards relational ontology.Relational thinking intrinsically entails an approach of transcending the bifurcation of the East and the West and promoting a global relational research.Relational ontology constitutes a common baseline and thus lays foundation for the two strands of“relational turn”to conduct a meaningful dialogue and joint endeavor to promote global relational international studies.Sticking to relational ontology in theoretic and empirical international studies requires avoiding epistemological tendency of“reification”and“binary opposition”and embracing the eternal variability of a relational world and the immanent relatedness of individuals with each other and the whole.