滕尼斯的“新科学”:“1880/1881年手稿”及其基本问题

在早期的1880/1881年手稿《共同体与社会--文化哲学的原理》中,滕尼斯奠定了一门经验的文化科学及其未来理论体系的基础。通过对这部作品的考察,本文揭示了滕尼斯的“文化科学”内含的三个辩证运动着的维度:(1)洞察经验事实;(2)在对事实进行反思的基础上形成生活理想;(3)寻求在经验中实现理想。对滕尼斯来说,“文化科学”的奠基工作同他对德国现实命运的关切紧密联系,面对抽象个人主义与国家专制主义的双重困境,滕尼斯产生了重塑伦理生活的理想。通过“文化科学”对人性的重新解读,他提出了一种可能的“共同体”的生活模式。在1887年出版的第一版《共同体与社会》里,滕尼斯将历史的维度加入“文化科学”之中,继承并发展了1880/1881年手稿的基本问题。本文尝试指出,考察滕尼斯所奠基的文化科学传统,对于反思当今的社会科学研究仍然具有启发意义。

Tönnies's New Science: “The 1880/1881 Manuscript” and Its Basic Problem

In his preliminary 1880/1881 draft of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Theorem der Kultur-Philosophie), Tönnies laid the ground for new empirical cultural sciences. “Cultural Sciences” are not just an application or methodology, they comprises everything Tönnies was about——his own experience and understanding of German Reich, his knowledge structure and intellectual tendency, and his life viewpoint. This paper attempts to explain “Cultural Sciences” through three dialectic aspects:1) as empirical science, “Cultural Sciences” study the world through objective facts. Tönnies's early life and his academic background offer us clues of how he viewed German Reich. He believed that modern individualism and Prussian dictatorship were the predicament of the time. 2) Tönnies explained the philosophical foundation of “Cultural Sciences” and called it “Cultural Philosophy”. For him, cultural philosophy was about life ideals based on material reality just as his own ethical ideas were prompted by his observation of real social problems of the time. 3) “Cultural Sciences” could unveil human nature and examine psychological development of individuals. By employing “cultural sciences”, Tönnies was able to identify human “habits” and “sense of obligation” as two elements for the possibility of actual community. Tönnies's subsequent masterpiece Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft:Abhandlung des Communismus und des Sozialismus als empirischer Kulturformen, published in 1887, continued as well as expanded the essential questions of its early draft of 1880/1881. He brought a historical dimension into the book with a concrete investigation of the evolution of modern society and the possibility of community. By studying Tönnies's “Cultural Sciences”, we learnt that understanding material reality and reflecting on life ideals are the very first questions of social science. In this sense, classical sociological theories are still meaningful to the social science of our day.