由列維納斯的回應思維與日本石庭來談論《莊子》「與物化」

A Discussion of Reification through Participation in the Zhuang Zi from the Stance of Responsiveness in Emmanuel Levinas and the Japanese Stone Garden

本文出發點在歐洲當代思維上的物化、異化問題。為了批判負面的物化論，試圖透過多重跨文化省思，從列維納斯思維、日本庭園美學以及《莊子》的物化論角度來審思當代物化論，並取得啟發。首先討論列氏環繞回應結構與倫理學關懷所推出的「回應—責任」。再來，依據回應他者這一觀點來探討人與物的關係，藉由日本庭園美學來思考物的陌異性，並經由現象學反思彰顯觀看活動所隱藏的回應結構。最終，憑據此理論架構來分析《莊子》論「物化」及「與物化」作為人回應於物的行為模式。最終推出，歐洲的物化論過於狹隘，而且也會誤導思考者，因為它忽略人與物之間固有的一個原本關聯。只要將物化問題歸結至跨文化的思維脈絡，便足以給當代人推展對思考人與物之關係的嶄新的可能性。

This article takes the contemporary European problematization of reification and alienation as its starting point. In order to deliver a critique of such negative discourses on reification, this article strives, by means of a multiple transcultural investigation, at gaining useful hints from Emmanuel Levinas, aesthetics of the Japanese garden, and documents on totally different modes of reification, as put forward in the Zhuang Zi. First, Levinas’ intertwining of responsiveness and ethics into a peculiar understanding of responsibility is discussed. Second, this theme of responsiveness is applied to the relation between man and things, so as to clarify the peculiar alienness of things. By the bias of a phenomenological inquiry with respect to the viewing of Japanese gardens as a concrete example, light is shed on the responsive structure inherent in the human gaze on things. Finally, taking advantage of this theoretical framework regarding alienness and responsiveness, a discussion of very different modes of reification in the Zhuang Zi is given, so as to show how reification may be understood as a dynamical responsive interrelatedness between man and things. From this perspective, the European reflection on reification reveals to be too limited and altogether misleading, as it happens to neglect an original link, binding man and things together. Thus taking into account non-European and transcultural instances of thought may actually lead to a new understanding of the modern problematics of reification, as it yields inspiring insight in the possible relation between the realm of things and mankind.