如何思考数字时代之物:当代新唯物主义的兴起

How to Think about Objects in the Digital Age:The Rise of Contemporary New Materialism

当代数字技术的发展为人类带来了新的生存可能性,也迫使我们反思一些基本的哲学概念,重思什么是物,则是其中一个非常重要的话题。在传统的现象学视域下,物是被人类知识点亮的,整个世界环绕着人类理性而存在;而新唯物主义则在新的技术时代,对物的问题做了新的现象学思考。生机唯物主义者将人与万物统归于生命的触动,以打破旧有的物质被动性;思辨唯物主义认为人类完全可以思考新的世界样态和生存形式,且人类可以拥有超凡的理性能力去面对任何巨变;而物导向本体论则认为,人应该泯灭于万物之中,让万物以人类完全陌异的方式存在,人只是一个陌生的倾听者和旁观者。几种新唯物主义意图从各自的角度建立起新的现象学,而这正是当今数字时代新的思想起点。

The development of modern digital technology has brought new survival possibilities for human beings,but also forced us to rethink some basic philosophical concepts and reconsider what is an object,which is one of the most important topics.In the perspective of traditional phenomenology,objects are lit up by human knowledge,and the whole world exists around human reason.In the new era of technology,the new materialism has made a new phenomenological thinking about the problem of objects.Vital materialists attribute human beings and any other things to the affect of life to break the traditional passivity of matter;speculative materialism holds that human beings can think about new world forms and living forms,and human beings can have extraordinary rational ability to face any great change.On the other hand,object-oriented ontology believes that human beings should be hidden among all objects and let every object exists in a completely alien way of human beings.Human beings are only a strange listener and onlooker.Several new materialists intend to establish a new phenomenology from their own angles,which is the new ideological starting point of the current digital age.