走向合理启蒙:恩格斯与尼采

Toward a Reasonable Enlightenment: Engels and Nietzsche

自青年时期到成年时期,恩格斯和尼采皆从激进启蒙立场向更合理的启蒙立场调适;回归自然和辩证对待历史传统是其最典型的表现。恩格斯与尼采在批判基督教、肯定永恒轮回、力主回归自然、在批判传统形而上学的前提下给形而上学留出一定合理空间、传统道德遮蔽和掩盖现实等方面,具有诸多类似性。批判基督教及其哲学基础,批判资产阶级及其意识形态,是他们的共同点。但尼采对基督教的批判走向了对新神狄奥尼索斯的推崇,恩格斯却把无神论贯彻到底;尼采以永恒轮回解构近代以来的“进步”观念,恩格斯却把永恒轮回限定在宇宙学意义上,不让其介入现代文明的价值系统;尼采肯定的自然正当是基于大自然或第一自然,恩格斯肯定的自然正当不全基于大自然,更基于历史发展特定阶段的自然或第二自然。“形而上学”对于恩格斯主要是一种思维方式,而对于尼采更是一种存在论和价值体系。两人虽无直接交集,却有很多共同话题,存在一定思想交集,值得我们探究。

It is quiet noticeable that, from their youthful years to adulthood, Engels and Nietzsche both turned adjustingly from the stand of radical enlightenment to the stand of a more reasonable enlightenment;returning to nature and adopting a dialectical attitude to historical traditions are the most typical example. They both take similar stands in negating Christianity, endorsing the eternal recurrence, strongly advocating the return to nature and reunification with nature, and under the premises of criticizing the traditional metaphysics, leaving for metaphysics some open space, and in the act of concealing traditional ethics and covering up the truth. The comparability, in short, lies in their negation of Christianity and its philosophy and negation of bourgeoisie and its ideologies. However, Nietzsche turns his criticism of Christianity into his high praise of Dionysus, while Engels becomes an unswerving atheist. More specifically, Nietzsche deconstructs the modern concept of “progress” by developing his own interpretation of the eternal recurrence, which, in contrast, conveys nothing but cosmographic meaning in Engels’ theory, and therefore, is denied by him for its value in modern civilization. What Nietzsche emphasizes as the natural right is largely based on the great nature, or the “first nature”, but Engels stresses that the natural right does not totally come from nature but more from the nature in the specific stage of social development or the second nature. “Metaphysics” is mainly, to Engels, a way of thinking, while to Nietzsche, a doctrine of being and a value system. Although their thinking has never truly crossed each other, there certainly are various aspects of comparability that are, for us, worth exploring.