从格林、蒙森到尼采:19世纪德国语文学的理念、争议及其对数字人文的启发

From Grimm, Mommsen to Nietzsche: The Conceptualization and Controversy in German Philology of the 19th Century and Its Implications to Digital Humanities

19世纪下半叶,德国语文学走向鼎盛的同时也暗存危机。格林讨论了“精准科学”和“非精准科学”(如当时的语文学)的差异,并预言后者不断走向精准的趋势;蒙森的“大科学”实践虽无智能技术支撑,但以历史实证精神为引导,通过人工集体作业建成文献库,具备了数字人文基础工作的实证性、工程性、开放性、协作性以及面向未来等特质。尼采却认为这种历史实证语文学割裂了古典语文学与教养、当世生活的联系,但尼采式语文学也难逃争议。19世纪德国语文学怀揣“精准人文”的愿景,催生了数字人文基础工程思维的史前萌发,而围绕实证或阐释引发的争论也为当今数字人文讨论带来了启发。当今人文学术可从传统阐释与数字技术方法的理念碰撞、宽容互鉴和融合创新中受益。

German philology reached its peak in the second half of the 19century, but this booming period was also underlined by crises. Jacob Grimm analysed the differences between “exacte Wissenschaften(exact Humanities)” and “inexacte Wissenschaften(inexact Humanities),” and predicted that the latter would continue to move towards exactness. Although Theodor Mommsen’s notion of “Gro?wissenschaft(Big Science)” was established without intelligent technological support, it was characterized by such features found in the fundamental works of digital humanities as empiricism, openness, cooperation and future-oriented approach, thanks to its guiding principle of “historistisch-positivistisch”(historic-positive) spirit and the construction of a document “database” through manual group work. However, Friedrich Nietzsche disagreed with this “historistisch-positivistisch” philology, arguing that it severed the bond between classical philology, education and mortal life. Nietzsche’s philology was inevitably subject to disputes as well. The pursuit of an “exact Humanities” in German philology in the 19century gave rise to a preliminary development of the basic work in digital humanities. The relevant debates on empiricism and hermeneutics have also informed the contemporary discussions in digital humanities. Contemporary works in the humanities could benefit from the clashes, mutual tolerance and integration of these traditional hermeneutics and digital-technical research methods.