“适契于道”:理解本雅明的革命理念

“A Close Affinity with the Concept of the Dao”:Toward Walter Benjamin's Idea of Revolution

本雅明1920年代初在一个片段中简要讨论过一个谜语似的概念,当时他正在为资格论证论文寻找一个恰当主题,这就是行动的概念,或者说是“行为人决定的知”。他觉得这种知“可以与道的概念相提并论”。本文以此为论述的出发点,基于对所述片段的分析,本文试图证明本雅明1930年代初期以古希腊思想词汇中的两个术语发展出了这一类似于道的概念:mimesis(摹仿)提供了一个名称,让他发展出“行为人决定的知”这一概念,而“第二技术”则是他修正了的“行动决定的知”这一概念的指称。这些概念放在一起,使得他走向一种类似于道家马克思主义的革命观念。

This paper takes its point of departure from an enigmatic concept Benjamin briefly discusses in one of the fragments he wrote in the early 1920s in conjunction with his search for an appropriate topic for a qualifying dissertation-the concept of action-or agent-determinative knowing,which,he suggests,may be comparable to the concept of the Dao.After analyzing the fragment in question,the paper seeks to demonstrate that in the early 1930s Benjamin develops this Dao-like concept under the rubric of two terms drawn from the vocabulary of ancient Greek thought:“mimesis”is the name under which he develops the concept of agent-determinative knowing,while the“second technology”is his revised designation for action-determinative knowing.Taken together,these concepts lead him toward something like a Daoist-Marxist idea of revolution.