哲學詩三篇：關於宗教的理性/關于自由與平等的戰爭/關于民主的自重

About Religious Reason/On Wars over Liberty vs. Equality/On the Self-Respect of Democracy

陳承德(Cheng-De Chen)

《哲學與文化》 31卷6期 (2004/06) Pp. 143-162

https://doi.org/10.7065/MRPC.200406.0143

摘要

二十世紀是理性戰勝宗教的世紀，但本文證明理性關於宗教的結論是一個陰謀式的悖論：一個不信宗教的人還沒有獲得理性，而一個相信宗教的人已經失去了理性。
自法國大革命以來，現代文明公認的價值是自由、平等、博愛。但在二十世紀，正是追求自由與追求平等這兩種價值之間的衝突使戰爭代替了博愛。
二十世紀顯示民主的強大，但也屢有親法西斯黨在民主國家的選舉中獲勝。最近又一起民主選舉專制的「怪事」使人想到：民主會不會敵不過自身的體重、背不動自己的神話？

並列摘要

The twentieth century is an era where reason has outdone religion. But in this paper we prove that the conclusion that reason has made about religion is indeed an intriguing paradox: an unreligious person is someone who hasn't acquired reason, while a religious person has lost his reason.
Modern civilization has always upheld liberty, equality, and fraternity as the worldly acknowledged values. But in the twentieth century, the conflicts between the pursuits to liberty and equality led to wars instead of fraternity.
The twentieth century witnessed the power of democracy, but from time to time pro-fascist parties won elections in democratic states. Recently, another portent about the despotism of democratic election makes us wonder: Has democracy grown too heavy for itself to carry its own myth?