沃格林的三个战场

The Three Battlefields of Eric Vegelin

沃格林深刻地洞察到灵知主义的非人属性,知道任其泛滥必将威胁人的根基,因而走上了净化的道路,试图清除历史中的阴暗与罪来净化西方文明。只是,灵知主义是西方夜间的哀鸣,是西方光亮身形下的阴影,对它赶尽杀绝只会加重西方夜空的戾气。沃格林的历史与秩序是在城邦世界的基础上发展起来的,缺少种植与生长性的土地文化根基,本质上是以力量为主导的技术文明,同他所批判的灵知主义一样,都是非人属的。因此,他的批判悖论似乎显示他的西方文明已经走到了人的尽头。

Eric Voegelin had a profound insight into the inhuman nature of Gnosticism, and he knew if let it be,it will threaten the foundation of human existence, so he embarked on the road of purification, trying to clear up the darkness and sin in history to purify Western civilization. However, Gnosticism was the whine of the night and the shadow under the bright figure of the West. To exterminate it would only aggravate the murderous look of the night sky in the West. Voegelin’s history and order were put forward on the basis of the city-state world,lacking the cultural foundation of planting and growing land. In essence, Voegelin’s technological civilization was dominated by power. Like his criticism on Gnosticism, it was inhuman. Therefore, his critical paradox seemed to show that his Western civilization had come to the end of human world.