悲伤,或者一种不以愉悦为目的的审美何以可能

Grief:How Can an Aesthetic That Does Not Aim at Pleasure be Possible?

在我们的日常审美经验中常常能够发现审美可以引起悲伤,而且不需要转化为愉悦,悲伤本身就有独立的审美价值。这种在审美中所激发的悲伤,首先是非功利性的,不是具体的肉身痛苦,不源自对象以其实存对我们生命的伤害;其次这种悲伤是纯粹的,是凭借我们内心的感受而直接发生的,无目的性,非概念性,无关乎价值判断;这种悲伤也具有一种绝对性,它是无缘由的,无条件的,却又是普遍的,甚至具有一种形而上学性。这种无功利的、纯粹的、绝对的悲伤,可以称之为“自由悲伤”,从而与康德推导出的“自由愉悦”相对。审美有两种样态,一种追寻自由愉悦,一种追寻自由悲伤,前一种审美让我们追求精神的解放,体验自由,而后一种审美让我们追求个体心灵的确证与醒悟,回归自我。自由的自我,或许是两种审美的共同归宿。

It can be often perceived that our everyday aesthetic experience produces grief which is of independent aesthetic value with no need to be transformed into pleasure.Firstly,this kind of grief stirred up in aesthetic experience is non-utilitarian.It is not a tangible physical pain,nor does it originate from the hurt of the object’s existence to our lives.Secondly,the grief is pure,purposeless,non-conceptual and irrelevant to value judgment,arising directly from our inner feelings.Thirdly,it is also absolute,uncaused,unconditional,yet universal and even metaphysical.Such non-utilitarian,pure,absolute grief can be called“free grief”,as opposed to“free pleasure”deduced by Kant.There are two modalities of aesthetics with one seeking after free pleasure and the other free grief.The former allows us to pursue spiritual liberation and experience freedom,while the latter permits us to strive for individual spiritual affirmation and awakening so as to return to the self.The free self is perhaps the common destination of these two modalities of aesthetics.