大历史中有“爱”吗?

Is There Such a Thing as“Love”in Big History?

大历史试图构建的是一个基于科学的完整的普世故事:宇宙间的万事万物始于“大爆炸”,经过能流的驱动,经历演化和进化,由简单到复杂,最终形成今日的人居其中的丰富多彩世界,而人类连同其世界最终将从宇宙中消失并归于寂灭。这显然使人有些丧气。但即便如此,我们仍不禁要问:大历史中有“爱”吗?—那种赋予人生以意义的彼此关爱。大历史运动核心人物之一埃里克·蔡森的态度是人间之爱与大历史无干;弗雷德·斯皮尔认为“根本没有”;而大卫·克里斯蒂安称包括爱在内的人类道德不过是人懵然间跨越了的“从‘实然’到‘应然’的鸿沟”。而笔者则认定大历史中实有爱,而且爱是赋予大历史及人生以真正意义的关键所在。本文还尝试比较社会大转型期(“轴心时代”)儒家与基督教的赋爱机制,探问中华文化,尤其是儒家“大历史”框架下的赋爱原理与启迪。

Big history depicts a complete picture of the evolving cosmos with humanity and a myriad of other things coming into shape and decay depending on the availability of energy flow.Everything goes to its doom in the story.Yet inspite of all that,we are tempted to ask:Is there such a thing as“love”in Big History?Typical attitudes among big historians range from total unconcern(Eric Chaisson),through theoretical negation(Fred Spier),to seeing morality as byproduct of a fateful slip from“is”to“ought”(David Christian).The present author grants love a central place in big history,arguing that it is love that brings meaning to the whole big history story and humanity.Then it proceeds to discuss the respective mechanisms for bringing love to humanity in Confucianism and Christianity,focusing on the frameworks of both traditional Chinese“big history”and the modern big history.