修辞观视角下的西方哲学与文学之争

The debate between philosophy and literature in the West reviewed through rhetoric

在西方思想发展历程中,哲学与文学之间的关系问题一直是一个古老的论题。以修辞为视角,随着修辞观的变化,关于这种关系的思想主要呈现出三种形态:其一,修辞远离甚至损坏真理,而哲学是对共相或普遍性的探求,文学是修辞艺术的代表,因而哲学与文学对立;其二,修辞以逻辑和真理为基础,因而,文学以哲学为知识基础和道德根源,建立在真理与逻辑的基础之上;其三,修辞存在于一切话语之中,作为修辞产物的真理,不再是一种绝对和形而上学的思辨物,因此,哲学从本质上就是修辞的,与文学同一。以此来看,西方关于哲学与文学的现代乃至后现代话语之争,实则是一场源于古希腊时期的关于真理与修辞本质的论争,只不过随着修辞观的现代性转变而被赋予了后现代理论色彩。

The relationship between philosophy and literature has always been an issue for debate among western thinkers since the ancient Greek and Roman period.From the perspective of rhetoric,it could be displayed as follows:firstly,philosophy is opposed to literature in that philosophers,far from rhetoricians,pursues truth or universality while poets,like rhetoricians,tell sheer lies;secondly,philosophy helps laying grounds on which literary knowledge and morality are built as much as rhetoric is grounded in logic and truth;thirdly,philosophy is in essence rhetoric as literature is,for rhetoric is found in discourses of all kinds.It might as well be stated that the war between philosophy and literature in modern and postmodern times,a hot issue in the realm of postmodern discourses,could be in fact traced to the argument over the distance between truth and rhetoric started far back in the ancient Greek times.