杨璐
中国政法大学社会学院
摘要:	笛福是现代早期重要的思想家之一。其第一部小说《鲁滨逊·克鲁索》,不仅仅是在叙述一个大航海时代的冒险故事,也是在为现代早期个体所面临的困境寻找一条出路。本文通过解读鲁滨逊的出走、改造与重返,分析并讨论了这部小说所揭示的现代早期的人性面貌和精神危机。本文认为,在基督教传统无法安顿人心的时代,笛福试图在理性与启示之间,重新寻找一条自我治理的良知之路。理解笛福及其对传统资源的利用,不仅有助于我们理解英国及现代个体主义的真正意涵,而且对我们重新回到中国个体问题兴起的语境中探索中国社会的路向,具有重要意义。
关键词:现代个体自然理性启示
Transformation of Tradition and Reconstruction of Individual: Robinson Crusoe’s Departure, Reform and Return
YANG Lu
School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law
Abstract:	Daniel Defoe was one of the great thinkers of the early modern period. His first fiction,Robinson Crusoe, is not a mere narration of adventures but an attempt to find a way out of the dilemma of modern individuals. Defoe witnessed the moral degeneration in society from Skepticism, Deism to Atheism at the end of the 17th century. Men neither observed their obedience to God, nor to their own fathers and other social authorities. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was a man who was willful and possessed very few notions of religion, and who left home against the wishes of his parents in pursuit of sea adventure. After years of hardship in a desolate island, Robinson had his transformation and returned to society as a sociable and religious tradesman. By reviewing Defoe'sRobinson Crusoe, this paper attempts to examine the spiritual crisis afflicting the West in the early modern times. In Defoe's view, confronted with the decline of Christianity, man could hardly be able to treat his families and other fellows with compassion when he could not move his affections with all his heart towards God. Robinson's dilemma was not his own but a reflection of modern mankind's internal tension between rational knowledge and divine revelation. Defoe believed that modern men not only were capable to attend human affairs by way of the cause-effect law but also capable to listen to the voice of Providence in the prodigies of nature. He thought it was not commendable to pursue a common law of exact justice, instead, a chancery law of conscience on principle of equity should be the law that everyone ought to obey. Hence, men's natural inclinations would not be indulged when under the influence of hypochondriac fancies, nor would they be oppressed as vices as by medieval Christianity, instead, they would be carried on in a regular way in the commercial world. Similarly, men's knowledge would not lead to Skepticism or Egoism, on the contrary they would submit themselves to the divine law through conscience. These are the remedies offered by Defoe for the early modern society. Studying Defoe helps us to gain a better understanding of the early modern period as well as the rise of individuality in the West.
Key words:modern individualnaturereasonrevelation
卢梭在论自然教育时,将《鲁滨逊·克鲁索》定为爱弥儿人生的第一本书,认为它提供了对自然教育最完整的论述,是人实现一种理性状态必不可少的向导(Rousseau,1979: 186-189)。马克思在《资本论》中也多处提及鲁滨逊,将之视为资本主义语境下现代个体的寓言。这批早期的社会思想家不断借助笛福的这一文学资源,来提出他们对各自时代的诊断,展开各自的理论叙事。究其原因,在于他们看到,这个大航海时代的冒险故事内含着现代问题的源起。
西方学界对此已有很多研究。