18世纪法国的书籍生产与思想转变再思考

Rethinking Book Production and Ideological Transformation in Eighteenth-Century France

18世纪是书籍出版趋向繁荣的时代,包括小册子在内的大量印刷读物进入法国人的日常文化生活,法国社会整体的思想气候也发生了根本性转变。因此在关于旧制度与大革命的学术史中,长期以来一直普遍认为,启蒙书籍是促成这种转变的根本原因。但是如果转换历史观察的视角,从社会政治面相角度透视18世纪中期的法国,此时启蒙大潮方兴,而法国社会整体的思想气候实际上已经发生了转变。可能的实情是,启蒙时代理性精神和批判思维的成长,并非启蒙书籍流播教化的产物,而是中世纪晚期以来西欧文明史一种持续性发展趋势的结果。文艺复兴、宗教改革、科学革命乃至启蒙运动,只是这一进程中一个个突出而显见的节点而已。18世纪来临的书籍时代与启蒙大潮,只能说是在广度上扩展、在高度上提升了该趋势。由于革命主角们从此前时代的著作及其倡导的思想原则中寻找话语来源,让人感觉是启蒙制造了革命,但实际上,革命爆发的直接原因,是近代法兰西国家建构中留下的政治性和制度性的积弊。

The eighteenth century was an era of publishing boom.With a myriad of printed materials—including pam-phlets—entering the daily cultural life of the French people,the overall ideological climate of the French society also underwent a fundamental transformation.As a corollary,it has long been acknowledged that Enlightenment books were the fundamental causes of this transformation in the academic history of the old regime and the Great Revolution.However,if we switch to a histor-ical perspective that examines eighteenth-century France through socio-political prisms,we may find out that the Enlightenment trend was in full swing during this time,and the general ideological climate of the French society had already undergone some transformation.It is highly likely that the development of rational spirit and critical thinking in the Age of Enlightenment was by no means a result of the dissemination and cultivation of Enlightenment books,but that of an unceasing development in the history of civilization in Western Europe since the late Middle Ages.The Renaissance,the Protestant Reformation,the Scientific Revolu-tion and even the Enlightenment were just conspicuous nodes in this process.The advent of the era of books and the Enlighten-ment Movement in the eighteenth century had only enhanced the breadth and depth of trends in this historical development.Since the heralds of revolution were inclined to seek sources of their revolutionary discourses from writings of the previous era and the ideological principles advocated therein,it is often taken for granted that the Enlightenment ignited the revolution.As a matter of fact,what led to the outbreak of the revolution was the accumulation of political and institutional defects in the construction of the modern French state.