沃格林《新政治科学》对现代心灵失序的诊断

Voegelin’s Diagnosis of Modern Mental Disorder in The New Science of Politics

沃格林对现代社会科学中实证主义的不满,与其对现代西方文明中心灵失序问题的全面检讨有关。在《新政治科学》中,沃格林开篇对韦伯的批评是他全书对现代内在主义或“灵知主义”之革命问题进行诊断的开端。由于偏离了前现代灵魂秩序中人性与神性的参与性经验,现代灵知主义的精神倾向无法给出关于实在秩序的全面表征,而只能返回信心与良知等内在维度。在这一倾向转向宗教化的激进主义实践时,必然要求一整套带有实证意涵的政治技术作为其创制新秩序的保证。这样的代表机制实则延伸到现代主权国家的法权建构原则当中,并为现代意识形态政治提供了原型。由此,沃格林认为,从发生原因、内在机制和历史效果来看,现代的实证主义倾向和灵知主义倾向,本质上是不可分割的一体二面。

Voegelin’s discontent with positivism in modern social science is related to his diagnosis of the mental disorder in modern Western civilization.In The New Science of Politics,Voegelin’s criticism on Weber is a starting point to reveal the problem of internalism or Gnosticism in modern revolutions.Due to a departure from the experience of metaxy between humanity and divinity in the pre-modern spiritual order,the spiritual inclination of modern Gnosticism cannot move towards a comprehensive representation on reality,but can only return to inner dimensions such as faith and conscience.When this orientation turns to religious radical practice,it inevitably requires a set of political techniques with positive implications as a guarantee for the revolution of order.Such a representative system indeed extends to the principles of constitution of modern sovereign states and provides a prototype for modern ideological politics.Voegelin believes that from the perspectives of causes,internal mechanisms and historical effects,the modern Positivism and Gnosticism are inseparable faces of Janus.