人文社會科學中的人文精神轉向及其批評

The Humanist Turn in the Social and Cultural Sciences and the Commitment to Criticism

近來，社會科學與人文科學某些最重要的討論出現跡象顯示這些討論已經開始經歷一種我稱之為「人文精神轉向」的重大變化。在本文的第一部分，我將表明人文精神並不單純只是一種一勞永逸定義人類本質的方式，人文精神似乎更像是一種對歷史危機的反應：面臨歷史危機時，具人性尊嚴的生命便處於危險之中。在第二部分，我將主張：將人文精神理解為一種對危機的反應，就批評理論賦與該字的意義而言，有助於銘記其與「批評」的密切關聯。最後，我將嘗試呈現當前的「人文精神轉向」並非單純回到人文精神的傳統形式，而是與「文化轉向」相關，且在某種程度上甚至是出自「文化轉向」，而「文化轉向」在相當長的一段時間中曾是社會科學與人文科學的主要議題。

Recently, some of the most important debates in the social sciences and the humanities show signs that they have begun to undergo a significant transformation that I shall call the 'humanist turn'. In the first part of this paper I will show that humanism is not simply a way of defining once and for all the essence of the human being. Humanism seems to be much more a reaction to historical crisis in which a humanly dignified life is in danger. In the second part, I will argue that understanding Humanism as a kind of reaction to crisis helps to remember that it is intimately related to 'criticism' in the sense that has been given to this word by critical theory. Finally, I will try to show that the current 'humanist turn' is not a simple return to traditional forms of humanism but that it relates and in some way even grows out of the 'cultural turn' that was dominating debates in the social sciences and the humanities for quite some time.