科学祛魅与人生意义的悖论——纪念韦伯“以科学为业”讲演发表一百周年

The Paradox between Disenchantment of Science and Its Significance for Life:Commemorating the Centenary of Weber’s Lecture "Science as a Vocation"

在"以科学为业"的讲演里,韦伯虽然阐述了科学研究的价值中立原则,但又在二元对立架构的误导下对它做出了扭曲性的解释:由于把事实与价值当成完全异质的东西割裂开来,没有看到需要将二者联结起来的枢纽作用以及认知需要与非认知需要的复杂关联,他在主张科学保持价值中立、具有祛魅效应的同时,又断言科学知识无法证成价值理念,甚至认为现代科学主要是消解了最高贵的终极价值,缺乏积极的人生意义,结果落入充满逻辑矛盾的自败悖论。

In his lecture "Science as a Vocation", although Max Weber put forward the famous value neutrality principle of scientific researches, he gave a distorted explanation under the misleading of the binary opposition structure: because he separated facts and values as completely heterogeneous things, he did not see the pivotal role of the need to link the two and the complex relationship between cognitive and non-cognitive needs. While advocating the value neutrality and disenchantment effect of science, he also asserts that scientific knowledge can’t justify value systems, and he even believes that modern science mainly destroys those noble ultimate values and lacks the positive meaning of life, which is full of logical contradictions and falls into the self-defeating paradox.