重思“天人合一”“自然主义”与环境危机的关系——从当代中国乡村地区的环保实践谈起

Rethinking the Relationship between“The Unity of Nature and Humankind”,“Naturalism”and the Environmental Crisis——from the Environmental Protection Practices in Contemporary Chinese Rural Areas

费孝通等诸多中国学者认为,与“自然主义”的宇宙观所蕴含的“天人对立”观念相反,中国古代的“天人合一”理念是一种有助于克服环境危机的智慧。从当代中国乡村地区的环保实践来看,“天人合一”理念对于环境保护的积极作用主要在于其伦理或价值导向,即反对将自然视为人类征服的对象,而非其关于人类与自然之本体以及两者之贯通机制的具体认知;“自然主义”宇宙观,以及建立在其之上的现代科学与技术,虽然是导致地球环境危机的重要根源,但同时也有助于我们清晰地认识人类与环境相互作用的具体机制,从而为制定可操作性的环保政策提供依据。因此,在克服地球的环境危机这件事情上,“天人合一”理念与“自然主义”的宇宙观并不是完全对立的,它们是可以共存的。

Many Chinese scholars,such as Fei Xiaotong,have argued that,contrary to the“naturalistic”conception of the universe,which implies the“opposition between nature and human,”the ancient Chinese concept of“unity of Nature and humankind”(天人合一)is a wisdom that can help to overcome the environmental crisis.From the perspective of contemporary environmental protection practices in rural areas of China,the positive effect of the concept of“unity of nature and mankind”on environmental protection lies mainly in its ethical or value orientation.This view neither agree the idea that nature is an object human wants to conquer,nor the specific knowledge of the ontology of human beings and nature and the mechanism of their interconnection.While the“naturalistic”view of the universe,and the modern science and technology on which it is based,is an important source of the Earth's environmental crisis,but it also helps us to clearly understand the specific mechanisms by which human beings interact with the environment,thus providing a basis for the formulation of operational environmental policies.Therefore,in overcoming the Earth's environmental crisis,the concept of“unity of nature and mankind”and the“naturalistic”cosmology are not completely opposed to each other,and they can coexist.