"原始思维"说及其现代批判

原始思维或原始智力的研究是20世纪的一大显学.在进化论人类学的模式之中,西方的理性首先把原始思维定位于人类进化的低级阶段;而随着西方现代性危机的加深,后殖民主义思想的普及,对理性独大现象的反思与批判的展开,人们在西方思维传统以外寻找能够补救理性思维之偏失,改良人与自然关系之途径,原始思维又重新成为西方人敬重、学习和效法的对象.昔日被蔑视为野蛮人的原始人,如今被陷入物质主义和增长癖困扰的西方人奉为天人合一式生存的榜样.

‘Primitive Thought' and Its Modern Criticism

The study on the primitive thought or primitive intelligence is considered a famous theory. In the evolutionary model of anthropology, the western reasoning takes it as the low stage of human evolution. But as the crisis of western modernism gets deepened, and as the thought of post-colonialism gets popularized, people starts to seek for the ways to remedy the rational thinking and to improve the relation between man and nature. Once again the primitive thought becomes the object of respect and learning. The primitive being, which used to be regarded as uncivilized, is now believed to be the model existence of harmony.