“我—它”与“我—你”——对《不乖的哲学家》中两种文明之辨析

“I-It” and “I-Thou”: Two Civilizations in Le philosophe qui n’était pas sage

法国作家罗朗·古内尔的小说《不乖的哲学家》讲述了哲学教师桑德罗因妻子在亚马孙丛林遇害而决心复仇的故事,借此将两种文明放在一起进行对比,揭露现代文明的种种缺陷。颇为反讽的是,现代人复仇的方式并非屠杀部落居民,而是将现代文明和现代生活方式的各种理念渗透到原始部落当中,将部落居民变成“我们的样子”。通过将现代和原始两种生存方式置于马丁·布伯关系本体论的视域之下,我们可以更好地理解两种文明的不同。现代人生活在“我—它”思维的主导之下,而原始文明更接近“我—你”思维。

Le philosophe qui n’était pas sage, a novel by the French writer Laurent Gounelle, tells the story of Sandro, a philosophy teacher determined to avenge the murder of his wife in the Amazon jungle. It compares two civilizations and exposes modern civilization as marked by all kinds of defects. It is quite ironic that Sandro’s form of revenge is not to slaughter the tribesmen, but rather to infiltrate the tribes with various concepts from his civilization, and make the tribespeople live “our way”. In light of Martin Buber’s relational ontology, this article explicates the differences between the two civilizations: “modern” people live under the dominance of “I-It”, while the tribespeople approach “I-Thou”.