乌托邦吊诡与其解决之道:从柏拉图理想国到孔子大同世界

Power and Paradox of Utopia and Its Way-out:From Plato to Laozi and Confucius

作为理想国度存在的乌托邦难以成为现实,一旦成为现实,它不可能完美或它将变成一种反乌托邦,这便是乌托邦的悖论。虽然完美的乌托邦并不存在,但乌托邦仍是人类孜孜以求之物,并因此而具有某种提升价值和现实意义。不过,乌托邦的悖论始终存在且不可忽视。此悖论使柏拉图、黑格尔等西方哲学家的乌托邦思想相对化。与西方乌托邦主义在此悖论下的相对化相较,中国哲学中的易、道、儒三家思想则提供了化解该悖论的方案。当今世界存在诸多乌托邦及反乌托邦现象,而只有中国哲学所提供的启示具有提升与激励现实改变和道德改善的意义。

This paper will analyze and define the basic meaning of utopia and dystopia.Based on this, I will put forward the paradox of utopia and its logical meaning, along with some examples of this. It aims to explain that Western utopia cannot be reached or is not reachable as reality, and the desire of utopia actually suggests the dystopia of reality and its badness. It eventually leads to powerlessness. There are Laozi’s idea of "small country and population"(xiaoguo guamin小国寡民), Zhuangzi’s"a land of nothing"(wu he you zhi xing无何有之乡,it cannot be actualized and isn’t the ideal pattern of utopia) and Confucius’ s " One world with great unity"(大同世界tatong shijie) in Chinese philosophy. Although none of these ideas is explicitly referring to one is explicit idea for utopia, all of them have practical significance in this discussion. In this paper I will analyze three basic types of Western utopia, which are Plato’s transcendent utopia, Hegel’s dialectical utopianism and Max’s ideal classless society,but all of them fail because of the paradox of utopia. So I will take my consideration of Chinese philosophy as a way out of Western utopianism.