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胡適與赫胥黎

Hu Shi and Thomas Henry Huxley

摘要


本文探討英國生物學家赫胥黎(Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825-1895)對胡適思想的影響。文中首先澄清胡適認識赫胥黎的過程。胡適在青少年時代即透過嚴復所翻譯的《天演論》來認識赫胥黎,到美國留學之後,又受到杜威思想的影響,重新挖掘赫胥黎科學觀念的重要性,尤其是赫胥黎所強調「疑而後信」的科學方法。其次,拙文指出胡適與赫胥黎思想之間有所差異。筆者認為兩者的歧異主要由於胡適受傳統儒、佛思想內容(如佛教的宇宙觀與儒家對群己關係的看法)與思維方式的影響,從墨子刻(Thomas A. Metzger)所謂「樂觀主義的認識論」的角度,誤讀了深受笛卡耳(Rene Descartes)、康德(Immanuel Kant)、休謨(David Hume)思想之影響,具「悲觀主義的認識論」傾向的赫胥黎。雖然胡適宣稱他肯定赫胥黎的agnosticism(「不可知論」,胡適稱為「存疑主義」)但對胡適來說,知識上「可知」的範圍不但包括以證據為基礎的論斷,也包括倫理價值與形上智慧(如「不朽」觀念與「社會宗教」),因而較赫胥黎所認可的範圍要來得廣,這也配合許多學者曾指出的胡適具有「科學主義」的思想特徵。再其次,拙文強調:胡適對赫胥黎的解讀與嚴復、梁啟超的角度非常類似。他們均受儒家、佛教觀念的影響,且均強調中國式進化論(肯定人為努力的意義,並對未來具樂觀信念)、和諧的群己關係,以及後來英國學者柏林(Isaiah Berlin)所說的「積極自由」,因而主張透過教育方式培養具有民德、民智、民力的新國民。從此我們可以建構一套中國近代自由主義的思想系譜。

關鍵字

胡適 赫胥黎 嚴復 梁啟超 不可知論

並列摘要


This article explores the British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley's influence on Hu Shi's thought. First, I clarify exactly how Hu read Huxley. Ever since Hu was a teenager, he had been influenced by Yan Fu's translation of Huxley's Evolution and Ethics (Tianyanlun). Furthermore, when he studied in America under John Dewey, he was attracted by the so-called ”scientific method.” This led him to reread Huxley while maintaining his idea that one should ”feel skeptical before accepting something.” Second, I argue that even though Hu was influenced by Huxley, differences remained between their ideas. This was mainly due to the influences on Hu of the concepts and the mode of thinking of Confucianism and Buddhism. If we use the analytical framework put forward by Thomas Metzger, Hu leaned toward ”epistemological optimism” and misread Huxley's ”epistemological pessimism,” which Huxley had adopted from Descartes, Kant, and Hume. For example, although Hu claimed that he accepted Huxley's idea of ”agnosticism,” for Hu the knowable included not only judgments based on evidence but also moral values and metaphysical wisdom such as his ideas of buxiu (immortality) and ”social religion.” Thus, the realm of the knowable for Hu is wider than for Huxley. This observation is compatible with the idea of seeing Hu as a believer in scientism. Third, I argue that Hu's interpretation of Huxley was very similar to that of Yan Fu and Liang Qichao. They all emphasized the Chinese idea of social evolution (stressing people's efforts with an optimistic view of the future), a balanced relationship between the self and the group, and the idea of ”positive freedom” (in the sense later described by Isaiah Berlin). For these modern Chinese intellectuals, the most important thing for Chinese people to do is to nourish their virtue, wisdom, and physical strength through education in order to create new citizens. Yan, Liang, and Hu thus formed a genealogy of Chinese liberalism in twentieth-century China.

並列關鍵字

Hu Shi Thomas Henry Huxley Yan Fu Liang Qichao agnosticism

參考文獻


黃克武(2007)。民國初年上海的靈學研究:以「上海靈學會」爲例。中央研究院近代史研究所集刊。55,99-136。
黃克武(2005)。走向翻譯之路:北洋水師學堂時期的嚴復。中央研究院近代史研究所集刊。49,1-40。
張朋園(1986)。胡適與梁啟超―兩代知識分子的親和與排拒。中央研究院近代史研究所集刊。15,81-108。
Chang, Han-liang(2000).Hu Shih and John Dewey: `Scientific Method` in the May Fourth Era-China 1919 and After.Comparative Criticism.22,91-103.
Chang, Hao.(1980).The Cambridge History of China.Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.

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