普世性的源头活水：亚里士多德、奥古斯丁和波伊提乌
日期：11-26
斯蒂芬·布莱克伍德
美国罗尔斯顿学院
摘要
当代社会许多不同国家、文化、族群、个人之间冲突的根源，都呼唤鲜活的普世性的联合：一个能够通过求同存异实现整合的立足点。一方面，一种声音认为存在无疑是即时性的，似乎没有基础或自性，仅仅是一种感觉或意志。另一方面，也有人呼吁一种抽象的普世性，将地方性的关联和传统是对自上而下、四海皆准的逻辑无关紧要的阻碍，需要受到外部的强制。
所以，需要的是具体且普遍的概念以取代其显而易见的对立面。这种普世性源自生命实际且根本的特殊性的整全，能够反过来点亮生命得以兴盛的境况。这实际上是哲学最古老的使命之一：某种意义上，这是所有这些的基础问题——部分与整体、时间与永恒、有限与无限、人与神的关系问题。
在西方，对这一问题的思考返回到前苏格拉底时期，激活了整个古希腊哲学，尤其是柏拉图和亚里士多德，核心是产生了欧洲哲学的希腊和基督教哲学。对于这些始终伟大且艰巨的问题，本文仅意在提出简要的框架，描述如何从我们自身的生活出发理解它们。我们将借鉴亚里士多德、奥古斯丁和波伊提乌进行反思。
所以，需要的是具体且普遍的概念以取代其显而易见的对立面。这种普世性源自生命实际且根本的特殊性的整全，能够反过来点亮生命得以兴盛的境况。这实际上是哲学最古老的使命之一：某种意义上，这是所有这些的基础问题——部分与整体、时间与永恒、有限与无限、人与神的关系问题。
在西方，对这一问题的思考返回到前苏格拉底时期，激活了整个古希腊哲学，尤其是柏拉图和亚里士多德，核心是产生了欧洲哲学的希腊和基督教哲学。对于这些始终伟大且艰巨的问题，本文仅意在提出简要的框架，描述如何从我们自身的生活出发理解它们。我们将借鉴亚里士多德、奥古斯丁和波伊提乌进行反思。
The Living Roots of Universality: Reflections from Aristotle, Augustine and Boethius
Stephen BLACKWOOD
Ralston College
Abstract
Many of the conflicts of our contemporary world -- between particular countries, cultures, groups, individuals -- emerge from a tension between incompatible articulations of particular and universal. On the one hand, there is the claim that existential immediacy is absolute, as if particular identity has no grounding or nature but is simply a matter of feeling or will. On the other hand, there are advocates of an abstract universality which sees local attachments and traditions as irrelevant obstacles to a top-down, one-size-fits-all logic, the realization of which depends on external coercion.
What is needed, then, is a conception of particular and universal that resolves their apparent opposition: a universality that emerges from the integrity of life in its actual, essential particularity — and which in turn illuminates the conditions under which life can flourish. This is indeed one of the oldest tasks of philosophy: it is in some sense the fundamental question of all philosophy: the relating of part and whole, of time and eternity, of finite and infinite, of human and divine.
In the West, consideration of the question goes back to the pre-Socratics, animates the whole of ancient Greek philosophy, most notably Plato and Aristotle, and lays at the heart of the subsequent synthesis of Greek and Christian that gives birth to Europe. These being great and difficult questions, this paper will attempt only a brief sketch of how we might approach them afresh in our own time, with reflections inspired by Aristotle, Augustine, and Boethius.
What is needed, then, is a conception of particular and universal that resolves their apparent opposition: a universality that emerges from the integrity of life in its actual, essential particularity — and which in turn illuminates the conditions under which life can flourish. This is indeed one of the oldest tasks of philosophy: it is in some sense the fundamental question of all philosophy: the relating of part and whole, of time and eternity, of finite and infinite, of human and divine.
In the West, consideration of the question goes back to the pre-Socratics, animates the whole of ancient Greek philosophy, most notably Plato and Aristotle, and lays at the heart of the subsequent synthesis of Greek and Christian that gives birth to Europe. These being great and difficult questions, this paper will attempt only a brief sketch of how we might approach them afresh in our own time, with reflections inspired by Aristotle, Augustine, and Boethius.
上一：美的必要性
