美学何去?门罗的跨文明比较美学之路
摘要: 近现代西方由于自然科学的影响,推动美学研究走向科学化成为一种重要学术思潮。在以费希纳实验美学为代表的科学美学陷入困境的情况下,门罗敏锐地把目光投向了当时正在兴起的比较美学,认为这是另一条更符合美学自身发展规律的可行性道路。这既是科学美学“自下而上”研究思路的自然延伸,也使门罗成为西方学界跨文明比较美学的自觉先驱。门罗本人没有使用“跨文明比较美学”这个提法,他使用的术语是“比较美学”,“文明”和“文化”概念在门罗笔下也没有做出严格区分。“跨文明比较美学”的提法更准确,也更为切合门罗执意突破西方中心论、以东西方美学为核心的跨文明比较研究的含义。根据门罗的论述,西方跨文明比较美学的直接源头可上溯至黑格尔,有意识的自觉展开则是20 世纪40 年代以美国为代表的西方学界。门罗揭示了跨文明比较美学的基本内涵,并提出了寻找不同文明美学之间的共同性以建立普遍性美学理论的具体途径。经过近半个世纪的发展,跨文明比较美学已经成为国际主流学界广泛接受的重要研究范式。
Where Will Aesthetics Go: Thomas Munro’s Way of Cross-civilization Comparative Aesthetics
Abstract: With the influence of natural science, it has been an important trend to scientize the research of aesthetics in modern Western countries. When the scientific aesthetics, represented by the Gustav Theodor Fechner’s experimental aesthetics, is in trouble, Thomas Munro keenly focuses on the emerging comparative aesthetics, he believesthat this is another feasible way which is more suitablefor the development law of aesthetic itself. This is not only a natural extension of an approach to “from below” approach of scientific aesthetics, but also the idea makes Munro become the pioneer of cross-civilization comparative aesthetics in Western countries. Munro himself does not use the formulation of “cross-civilization comparative aesthetics”, he uses the term of “comparative aesthetics”, and does not make a strict distinction between civilization and culture. The terminology of “cross-civilization comparative aesthetics” is more accurate and closer to Munro’s intention. Munro intends to break through occidental centrism, and regards the East and the West aesthetics as the core of cross-civilization comparative aesthetics.According to Munro, cross-civilization comparative aesthetics can be traced back to G. W. F. Hegel, the aestheticians of United States consciously develop the approach in 1940s. Munro reveals the basic connotation of cross-civilization comparative aesthetics, and puts forward the specific ways to find out the commonality shared by different civilizations to establish the universal aesthetic theory. After in around half a century, the cross-civilization comparative aesthetics has become an important research paradigm that has been widely accepted by the international mainstream academia