直觀自然的遺忘：胡塞爾對現代科學的解構

Forgetting of Intuitive Nature: Husserl’s Deconstruction of Modern Science

在第一次工業革命出現之後二百多年的今天，地球自然生態大受破壞，環境污染嚴重，人類整體陷入空前的生態危機，這都是無可爭議的事實。我們同時知道，工業革命由十七世紀以還的現代科學革命所摧生，因此我們有理由疑問，以大自然作為探究對象的現代科學，在這一現代文明的危機中是否擔當著一定的角色。德國現象學哲學之父胡塞爾（Edmund Husserl, 1859-1938），早於1930年代率先對這一危機作出了劃時代的斷症和分析。在其晚期大著《歐洲科學的危機與超越論現象學》（1936／1954）中，胡氏指出了現代科學文明的弔詭之處：恰恰是現代科學的空前成功，令它在對大自然的探究中，把本來是在具體感官知覺中呈現給我們的直觀自然（intuitive Nature），轉變成一客觀的、作為理念化對象（idealized object）的自然。於是自然科學愈益成功，愈是導致了直觀自然的遺忘。如何從直觀自然的遺忘中警醒過來？胡塞爾提醒我們科學是植根於前科學的生活世界的，而梅洛龐蒂（Merleau-Ponty, 1908-1961）則指出，藝術、特別是繪畫是我們重建與直觀自然的直接關係之不二法門。本文的主要目標，正是透過「直觀自然之遺忘」這一鮮為讀者所注意的主題，重新對《歐洲科學的危機與超越論現象學》的文本仔作細閱讀，以突顯胡塞爾嚴格的現象學描述與對現代科學的意向性的－－歷史性的反思所涵蘊的批判性潛能，使其一方面可與後現代式批判銜接，另方面可以成為環境哲學的理論資源。

More than two centuries after the rise of the industrial revolution in Europe, it is an undeniable fact that the pollution of environment and the destruction of the Earth have attained an unforeseen degree of seriousness and humankind is facing an unforeseen ecological crisis. We also know that the industrial revolution is greatly propelled by the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Thus it is reasonable for us to question: has modern science, which has Nature as its object of study, a role to play, thus a part of responsibility, in the present ecological crisis? The founder of contemporary phenomenology Edmund Husserl was the first one to provide an acute diagnosis and analysis of this crisis in the 1930s. In his famous late work The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Husserl has undertaken a critical reflection on the situation of Modern Science which discloses the paradoxical situation of the modern scientific culture: it is the tremendous success of Modern Science which brings about the forgetting of the Intuitive Nature. In her study of Nature, Modern Science has transformed the Intuitive Nature──Nature given through immediate concrete sensible perception──into Nature as an idealized object. The more Natural Science becomes the success story of the Modern Era the more Intuitive Nature is forgotten. How can we be awakened from the forgetting of Intuitive Nature? Husserl reminded us that Modern Science is rooted in the pre-scientific life-world, whereas Merleau-Ponty drew our attention to the fine arts: painting is one of the best ways to re-establish our immediate relationship with Intuitive Nature. Through a rereading of Husserl’s Crisis text under the guidance of the theme “forgetting of Intuitive Nature,” this article aims at pinpointing the critical potential embedded in Husserl’s rigorous phenomenological descriptions and intentional-historical reflection. Thus we hope to show that Husserl’s critique of Modern Science has the effect of a post-modern criticism and contains theoretical elements for an environmental philosophy.