秩序与历史:沃格林的历史多元论与秩序解读法

Order and History:Reflection on Historiogenesis and Order Interpretation Method of Eric Voegelin

沃格林在《秩序与历史》中以“存在的飞跃”为主线,建立了一套能够揭示秩序如何在诸文明中演进的思辨历史哲学。他认为,对存在领会的突破构成了文明史的关键线索,但这一线索并非单线化、西方中心主义的,而是一种克服“历史创生论”、突出各类精神突进进程复杂性的框架。这一对历史秩序网状结构的叙事基于沃格林对历史书写的独到见解,他将历史编纂本身看作发现人性历史维度的重大事件,因而历史写作自当努力阐明人作为居间的存在不断在存在之流中挣扎的过程。而为了以一种更能展现历史厚度的方式贴近史料,沃格林摆脱了黑格尔以降用僵化概念解读史料的方法,他将史料看作与当时的经验紧密联系在一起的活生生的符号,极力还原当时之人对于存在秩序的体验,试图在具体的语境中解读史料的涵义。由此,沃格林通过体察诸多文明形态各异的秩序理解,彰显了历史的展开将何以可能。

In Order and History,Voegelin builds a“discursive philosophy of history”that reveals how order has evolved across civilisations,using the“leaps in being”as the main thread.He argues that the breakthrough in the apprehension of being constitutes a key thread in the history of civilisations,but that this thread is not unilinear and Western-centric,but rather a framework that overcomes historiogenesis and highlights the complexity of the various processes of spiritual outbursts.This narrative of the web of historical order is based on Voegelin’s insight into the historigraphy as a major event in the discovery of the historical dimension of human nature,and therefore as an effort to articulate the process of man as an In-Between being constantly struggling in the stream of being.In order to get closer to the historical material in a way that reveals its thickness,Voegelin departs from Hegel’s approach of reading historical material in rigid concepts,and sees it as a living symbol closely linked to the experience of the time.In this way,through examining the different understandings of order in civilisations,Voegelin demonstrates how the unfolding of history is possible.