十八世紀蘇格蘭關於印度教徒贏弱的討論

Scottish Discussions of Indian Effeminacy in the Eighteenth Century

十八世紀裡，許多蘇格蘭重要作家相當關注德性與奢華的辯論。辯論之旨早不限囿於道德議題，而擴及統治、法律、軍事等等與公民人文主義親近的課題。在民族性與文明興衰等更大的議題層面上，此辯論也成為關鍵議題。在此文中，作者試圖提供一幅複雜的論述圖像，說明十八世紀下半葉蘇格蘭對印度社會的看法，與德性／奢華的辯論極為相關。啟蒙思想家們認為奢華造成亞洲專制主義，是亞洲文明的核心。此辯論後來的發展，轉變了許多作家對印度的態度，不再認為印度足以與歐洲攜手創造有價值的文明。隨著法國大革命與拿破崙戰爭的爆發，此辯論更形白熱化。根據作者的論證，辯論關照的議題後來成為十九世紀，蘇格蘭公共意見將依斯蘭文明與印度文明區隔而觀的重要線索與依據。

The controversy over virtue and luxury preoccupied many of the most eminent writers of eighteenth-century Britain. Extending far beyond morality, the subject involved government, law, the army and other topics dear to civic humanists. It became a paradigmatic issue in the broader concerns about national character and the rise and decline of civilizations. In this paper, the author presents a complex picture of how the Scottish discourses on Indian societies in the second half of the century were interwoven with ideas of luxury and virtue. Enlightenment thinkers viewed luxury as central to Asian despotism and to civilization itself. But the controversy over virtue and luxury changed many minds: effeminate Asia ceased to be viewed as worthy of a European partner. With the coming of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the terms of the debate were more hotly contested than ever. As this paper will illustrate, they became the indices according to which many Scottish writers distinguished Islamic from Hindu civilizations in the early nineteenth century.