论自由、差异与人的社会性存在

On Freedom,Difference and Human Social Existence

自由不只是实践理论的问题,更是存在论的问题。就实践领域而言,宽容先于自由。但在存在论层面看,自由不仅构成了差异的基础,还先于宽容。作为人特有而又不得不承担的一种存在方式,自由意味着突破了必然性,跳出了自然、本能与过去的决定。这种自由把人置入了总能够重新开始的存在处境,从而使每个人不仅与他人,而且与自己处在差异化之中。同时,这种自由也意味着使人存在于总还有其他可能性的开放性之中,这使每个自由者一方面能够把事物置于一个可能性关联系统之中而进行设置目的的活动,从而使人特有的劳动成为可能;另一方面则使自由者能够设身处地地置身于各种可能性而能够相互呈现、相互代入,从而能够相互理解并要求相互理解。正是这种相互理解不仅使相互承认、相互信任成为可能,从而使社会性分工成为可能,而且也使语言、代际差成为可能而把人带入了语言与历史之中。这在根本上意味着,正是自由使人能够生发出“社会”这种具有自主性相互关系的共同体。

Freedom is not only a matter of theories and practice,but also an existential matter.In the field of practice,tolerance precedes freedom,but on an existential level,freedom not only forms the basis of difference,it also precedes tolerance.As a unique and compelling way of being,freedom means breaking away from necessity,from nature,from instinct and from the decisions of the past.Such freedom places us in an existential situation in which we can always start again;thus we become differentiated not only from others,but also from ourselves.At the same time,this means that we exists in an openness in which there are always other possibilities;on the one hand,this enables each free person to place things in a system of possible associations and to carry out purposeful activities,thus making possible the labor that is specific to man.On the other hand,it enables those who are free to empathize and place themselves in a variety of possibilities,being present to and substituting for one another,and thus understanding each other and demanding mutual understanding.It is precisely this mutual understanding that makes possible not only mutual recognition and trust,along with the social division of labor,but also the linguistic and generational differences that allow people to generate language and history.This means,fundamentally,that it is freedom that enables us to give birth to“society,”the community of autonomous interrelationships.