西方启蒙的进化

Historical Analysis on Evolution of Western Enlightenment Philosophy

西方启蒙思想经历了一个长期的进化过程,按照“理性”本身的逻辑层次,可以分为四个阶段。第一阶段是作为人和动物的区别的最广义的理性所造成的广义的“启蒙”,即文明开化,通常不归于严格意义的“启蒙”。英国启蒙运动达到了第二阶段的启蒙理性,也就是工具理性(知识就是力量),理性只是众多工具中最有“力量”、最有用的一种工具。法国启蒙运动把第三阶段的理性直观提升为“理性的法庭”,理性不再能够被当作工具来运用、来证明别的东西,而是一切证明之所以可能的条件。德国从莱布尼茨到康德的启蒙思想则凭借“思辨理性”而上升到了辩证法,即自由和必然的统一,理性既不只是其他目的的工具,也不仅仅是客观世界的结构,而就是人自身的真正本质。西方启蒙的实质就是理性的觉醒,西方启蒙的进化就是理性的进化,从理性的这一逐步提升的整个进化过程中,能够找到历史发展中的理性线索,即人类自由在历史中所呈现出来的必然规律性。但这种规律性并不是封闭的,而是开放的、面向未来的。理性的启蒙永远不会过时,而是人的使命。

The thought of Western Enlightenment has experienced a long evolutionary process.According to the logic level of“rationality”,it can be divided into four stages.The first stage is the“Enlightenment”caused by reason in the broadest sense,which is the distinctive feature of human against animal(that is,civilization,usually not belonging to the strict sense of“Enlightenment”);the British Enlightenment reached the second stage of Enlightenment rationality,that is,instrumental rationality(knowledge is power);the French Enlightenment promoted the third stage of Rational Intuition to“rational court”;from Leibniz to Kant in Germany,the enlightenment thought rose to Dialectics by virtue of“speculative reason”,that is,the unity of freedom and necessity.The essense of the Western Enlightenment is the awakening of rationality.And meanwhile,the evolution of this Enlightenment is just the evolution of rationality itself.From the whole evolutionary process of the gradual promotion of rationality,we can find the rational clue in the historical development,that is,the inevitable regularity of human freedom in history.But this regularity is not closed,but open and future-oriented.The task of rationality's Enlightenment will be never outdated,because it s the mission of human.