欲望时代与审美主义的幻灭

在人类文明的发展史上,欲望一直既是历史前进的动力,同时也是导致道德滑坡、文明崩溃的毁灭性力量。人类文明发展的历史可以概括为由集体主义道德向个人主义道德,由理性向欲望的运动过程。面对人性与文明的这种二律悖反,哲学、宗教是曾经起到过巨大作用的约束性力量;而审美则是自文艺复兴以来到现在为止一些思想家们找到的新的救世良方。但从形而上学式的彼岸审美追求的乌托邦性和近世以个人主义为出发点的审美主义的效果看,审美主义的救赎之路显然是一种失败的尝试。

Time of Lust and Disillusion of Aestheticism

In the progressing history of human civilization, lust tends to be the motive of the development of world's history; however, it is also considered to be the destructive force generating the moral degeneration and the collapse of civilization. The progressing history of human civilization is generalized as a changing process from collective morality to individual morality as well as from ration to lust. To solve the paradox of human nature and civilization, philosophy and religion play an essential and enormous role in regulating them. As the brand-new sound strategy of saving the world, aestheticism was universally adopted by some thinkers since Renaissance. However, from the angle of the Utopian essence of the aesthetic pursuit of metaphysical faramita as well as the effects of aestheticism orientated by the individualism of modern times, the salvation of aestheticism proves to be an obviously invalid attempt.