在风险社会中看科学与理性

Science and Reason in Risk Society

现代科学意味着理性,证明了理性,也是理性的造物。现代科学与理性是密不可分的,因而在需要科学的每一处都呼唤着理性和反对非理性。工业社会及其现代科学中的理性是由认识论哲学所确立起来的,可以表述为纯粹理性,并在工业社会的发展中演化为科学理性、技术理性等。其实,它们都可以归入形式理性的范畴。20世纪后期,人们发现对这种形式理性的追求带来了诸多消极后果,因而提出了把握实质理性的构想,而且在康德的“实践理性”概念中也发现了“价值理性”的内涵。但是,对于实质理性的建构并未取得积极进展。随着人类陷入风险社会,应急响应式的即时行动对理性提出了新的要求,即要求用经验理性置换纯粹理性、科学理性等。经验理性是实践理性的一种表现形式,是高度复杂性和高度不确定性条件下行动中的理性。

Modern science implies,justifies and is also created by reason.Modern science and reason are inseparable,and science is needed everywhere,which calls for reason and fights against unreason.Reason in industrial society and its modern science is established by epistemological philosophy.It can be expressed as pure reason and evolve into scientific rationality,technical rationality and so on along with the development of industrial society.In fact,they can all be classified into the category of formal rationality.In the late 20th century,people found that the pursuit of formal rationality brought many negative consequences,so they put forward the idea of understanding substantive rationality,and found the connotation of“value rationality”in Kant’s concept of“practical reason”.However,no positive progress has been made in the construction of substantive rationality.As human beings fall into a risk society,the immediate action of emergency response puts forward new requirements for reason,that is,replacing pure reason and scientific rationality with empirical reason.Empirical reason is a form of practical reason and it is also the reason in action under the condition of high complexity and high uncertainty.