康德文化现代化思想评析

Cultural Modernization from Kant’s Perspective on Enlightenment

康德是西方思想史上首先从哲学高度阐述文化本质的思想家。康德认为,文化是人类利用内在自然与外在自然达到自由目的的适宜性和技能,其中只有适宜性才能让人成为自然的最终目的。康德把文化建立在人的自由目的和自由能力的基础之上,并且认为,为了与自由的适宜性相匹配,个人需要不断进行文化启蒙。真正的启蒙是学会理性的公共运用,以理性的公共思维方式作为判断、推理和行动的准则,以便互不侵犯他人的自由目的。所谓文化现代化,核心目的就是造就真正的启蒙。康德的文化现代化思想,具有特定的启发意义,但也有其局限性:在本体论意义上,关于文化内涵的解读建基于唯心主义世界观,并且片面夸大思想启蒙的效用,疏忽了社会实践在文化构成和内涵方面的意义;在思想内容上,关于文化现代化的观点限于人的主观文化目的与自然之间的适宜性,而缺乏对现代化的社会条件和社会实践观照;在文化现代化发展方面,对于文化现代化的观点缺乏现实批判性,更加缺乏关于文化现代化的规律的阐述。

Kant is the first thinker in the history of Western thought to expound the essence of the concept of culture from a philosophical level,and his profound insights into culture and enlightenment have brought unprecedented profound enlightenment to the issue of cultural modernization.Culture is the suitability and skill of human beings to use inner nature and outer nature to achieve free ends,of which only suitability can make human being the ultimate goal of nature.Kant’s establishment of culture entirely on the free purpose and free capacity of man can be called a Copernican revolution in the history of understanding the concept of“culture”.In order to match the suitability of freedom,individuals need to be constantly culturally enlightened.True enlightenment is the learning of public use of reason,namely,the rational public way of thinking as the criterion for judgment,reasoning and action,so as not to infringe on the free purpose of others.The core purpose of the so-called cultural modernization is to create enlightenment culture or cultural enlightenment in the Kantian sense.Kantian ideas of cultural modernization have certain instructive implications,but also their limitations,namely,their contents are confined to criticism of consciousness philosophy in the absence of observation on social relations and social practices;they lack concrete and historical knowledge of the development of cultural modernization;they fail to bring about criticism and transformation of practical implications in terms of the social basis of cultural modernization.