从“容器”“场所”到“社会”:西方哲学空间叙事的现代转向

From“Container”,“Place”to“Society”:The Modern Turn of Spatial Narratives in Western Philosophy

空间阐释的多义混杂,使厘清空间概念图谱和演化轴线的理论任务尤为重要。19世纪之前西方哲学关于空间的概念谱系有两种“错视”:一是“近视”歪曲的空间绝对论,以自然科学作为标尺,过近地聚焦于客体表象,将空间理解为物体存在的形式,先于物质实体而存在的“容器”,把空间的意义化约为物性。二是“远视”幻想的空间相对论,以“场”代替“物”的概念,过远地投射于主观意象,认为空间是由物质间的关系体系组成的作用场。后者将空间还原为并置关系或知觉观念,投注到心理构想的抽象世界,遮蔽了物的多样性关系。为了矫正空间绝对论和空间相对论对峙形成的自然主义或经验主义空间短视,马克思批判旧唯物主义和唯心主义,强调实践对建构世界的重要性,以实践为内核的“社会空间”概念成为新的理论增长点。继而,海德格尔、梅洛-庞蒂等理论家打破传统空间阐释的羁绊,以人的生存为源始性奠基理解空间,空间的哲学释义出现新的转向。空间叙事的范式转移,为中国式现代化和城镇化建设给予了理论共振。

The multiple meanings of spatial interpretation make the theoretical task of clarifying the mapping of spatial concepts and the axes of evolution particularly important.Three were two types of“mise-en-scène”in the concept pedigre of space in Western philosophy before the 19th century.The first is the“myopic”distortion of spatial absolutism,which uses natural science as a yardstick,focuses too closely on the appearance of objects,and understands space as the form of existence of objects,the“container”that exists before the material entity,and reduces the significance of space to materiality.Secondly,it is the space relativism of“far-sightedness”fantasy,which replaces the concept of“object”with“field”,and projects too far to the subjective imagery,thinking that space is the action field composed of the system of relations between substances.The reduction of space to a juxtaposition of relations or perceptual concepts to the abstract world of mental conception obscures the diversity of relations between things.In order to correct the naturalistic or empirical myopia of space formed by the confrontation between spatial absolutism and spatial relativism,Marx criticized the old materialism and idealism and emphasized the importance of practice in constructing the world,so that the concept of“social space”with practice as the kernel became a new theoretical growth point.Following this,Heidegger,Merleau-Ponty and other theorists broke the constraints of the traditional interpretation of space,and took human existence as the origin of the foundation for the understanding of space,and the philosophical interpretation of space took a new turn.The paradigm shift of spatial narrative gives theoretical resonance to Chinese-style modernization and urbanization.