文明的冲突,还是政治的冲突?——“文明冲突论”的思想史解读

The Clash of Civilizations or Conflicts of Politics?:An Intellectual Historical Interpretation of the"Clash of Civilizations"Theory

亨廷顿在20世纪90年代提出“文明冲突论”,根本目的是重新评估美国面临的内外环境。在思考文明问题时,他常将西方文明与非西方文明用敌我关系来进行定义,这与近代作为西方殖民扩张意识形态话语的文明论一脉相承。面对第二次世界大战后在美国社会影响越来越大的文化多元主义思潮,亨廷顿倍感担忧,认为西方文明内部将会出现巨大的裂痕,进而酿成政治危机,最终造成美国国家特性逐渐褪色。在他看来,未来除了不同文明之间依然存在的难以调和的冲突,文明内部因文化多元主义而生的文化内战更值得引起注意。在“百年未有之大变局”的背景下,从思想史角度重读亨廷顿,将其言说放在相应的历史脉络中进行审视,有利于理解美国内外政策的精神根源。

In the 1990s,Samuel Huntington proposed the"clash of civilizations"theory with a fundamental goal to reassess the internal and external environments that the United States was facing.When thinking about civilization,he often defined the relationship between Western and non-Western civilizations through an enemy vs.friend dynamic.From a historical perspective,this was in line with the civilization theory that had served as the ideological discourse of Western colonial expansion in modern times.Confronted with the increasing influence of cultural pluralism in American society after World War II,Huntington was concerned with a huge rift that emerged within Western civilization,worrying that it would lead to a political crisis and ultimately to the fading of America's national identity.In his view,in addition to the irreconcilable conflict between and among civilizations in the future,the cultural civil wars within the civilization induced by cultural pluralism demanded more attention.To understand the spiritual roots of America's internal and external policies,it is helpful to re-read Huntington from the perspective of intellectual history,to place his discourse against the background of the unprecedented changes of the last hundred years,and to place his words within the corresponding historical context.