On the Difficulty of Forming a Clear Idea of the Foundations of Western Culture

論對西方文化基礎形構清晰觀念之困難

梵樂歐(François Flahault)

《哲學與文化》 38卷10期 (2011/10) Pp. 93-105

https://doi.org/10.7065/MRPC.201110.0093

摘要

本文要旨在於主張西方學院式的教育，其教科書和所提供給華人學者的知識，無助於華人學者對西方文化基礎形構清晰而恰當的觀念。其理何在？主要是因為西方人士在致力於理解其他文化的表象系統時，並不同時致力理解自己的文化本身（對其他文化從事社會人類學研究，卻不如此研究自己的文化）。西方大學以研究各個偉大哲學家及其間彼此的差異為重，但卻幾乎完全未曾試圖擺脫那些常見的、持續數世紀之久的、根本上先入為主的偏見。此外，還把哲學樹立為一門特殊的學問，使之與其他文化現象區隔，尤其是與宗教與基督教義思想區隔，即使後者曾主導西方文化兩千年之久。事實上，西方文化的來源兼具異教與基督教義的雙重母模特質，是那樣的明顯，以致西方有識之士都未曾意識到其中尚有多處值得進一步加以研究和探討。也因此阻礙了他們賦予自己文化特殊形態以一種全面觀照的視野。因此之故，對華人學者而言，要能恰當理解構成西方文化的基本特質，在實際上幾乎是不可能的，並因而導致跨文化對話的扭曲。本文作者以個人多年的研究觀察為據，例舉西方大學與學術界所忽略的，因此無法將之恰當傳輸給華人學者的一些基本特徵。

關鍵字

西方思想 ； 希臘－羅馬文化 ； 異教思想 ； 柏拉圖 ； 神學 ； 基督教義

並列摘要

I would like to show the academic teaching of philosophy in the West, and therefore the texts that come from it and that are offered to our Chinese colleagues, cannot help them make a right idea of Western culture basis. Why is it so? Because Westerners, while trying to understand representational systems of other cultures, do not proceed to the same understanding towards their own culture (they are doing others' social anthropology, but not their own). Western universities favour great philosophers' studies, and focus on what distinguishes one from another, but they do not try much to find out their common fundamental preconceptions that remain through the centuries. Moreover, as they have erected philosophy as a specific discipline, they have separated it from other cultural expressions, notably from religion and Christian thought, although these have dominated Western culture during the last 2000 years. The fact that Western culture has originated from a double matrix, both pagan and Christian, is so clear that Western intellectuals do not think there might be anything worth to study closer from it. This also prevents them from having a global vision on the specific configuration of their own culture. Consequently, it is almost impossible for Chinese researchers to understand well what constitutes fundamental features of our culture, and the inter-cultural dialogue is thus distorted.

並列關鍵字

Western thought ； Greco-Roman culture ； paganism ； Plato ； theology ； Christianity

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