元宇宙中的脆弱主体

The Vulnerable Subject in Metaverse

如何在元宇宙中建构和捍卫人的主体性,已经越来越变成一个突出的难题和困境。对这个问题的回应,首先需要对主体性本身进行深刻的反思,从启蒙运动以来的自律之神话转向脆弱性这个全新的本体论为前提。只不过,学界对于脆弱性的理解,也日渐分化为两条鲜明有别的思路。一个方向是麦肯齐等人所倡导的关系性自律,它的优势在于克服了依存与自律之间的对立,进而将自律落实于主体之间彼此依存的关系性网络。但它的缺陷同样明显,因为最终还是极易滑向德国观念论式的理性共同体的迷梦。另一个方向则针锋相对,主要体现于巴特勒对于生命之脆弱性这个否定性方面的强调,并由此切实地将脆弱性与积极的行动关联在一起。巴特勒更进一步地指出,脆弱性总是双重的,它既是具身的脆弱,同时又相关于基础设施本身的脆弱。由此也就启示我们,只有将平台和基础设施这两个方面连接在一起,才能在元宇宙之中为生命的尊严和主体的建构提供切实的基础。

How to construct and defend human subjectivity in the metaverse has increasingly become a prominent problem and dilemma.The response to this question first requires a profound reflection on subjectivity itself,and switches the focus from the myth of autonomy since the Enlightenment to the new ontological premise of vulnerability.However,the academic understanding of vulnerability is increasingly divided into two distinct lines of thought.One direction is the relational autonomy,advocated by Mackenzie et al.,with the advantage of overcoming the opposition between dependence and autonomy to implement autonomy in the interdependent relational network between subjects;but its flaws are so obvious that in the end it is very easy to slip into the fallacy of a German idealistic rational community.The other direction is tit-for-tat,mainly reflected in Butler’s emphasis on the negativity of vulnerable and precarious lives,and thus effectively associates vulnerability with positive action.Butler goes further and points out that vulnerability is always twofold:it is both embodied and at the same time related to the vulnerability of the infrastructure itself.This also reveals that only by connecting the two aspects of platform and infrastructure can we provide a solid foundation for the dignity of life and the construction of subject in the metaverse.