"本原就是目标"--本雅明的思想地形图

法兰克福学派的重要成员瓦尔特·本雅明的文化批判思想是该学派的重要理论建树"否定辩证法"和"启蒙辩证法"的直接思想来源,然而他本人的理论关怀却远远超越了单纯的否定与批判,而是在对资产阶级意识形态解构之后寻求积极的建构,表现了一个人文知识分子对历史与社会的高度伦理责任感.但他的批评方法极其独特,是神学与马克思主义的奇妙结合,因此他对资本主义现代性的批判以弥赛亚主义的救赎为目的.他认为这样一个乌托邦原本是人类的本原,是在现代性中被打破的,所以批评的终极指归是重建本原.由此,他的整个理论关怀用他所喜爱的名言来概括,即"本原就是目标".本文以德法文论的差异走向为背景,以本氏思想与这一背景的关系为参照,勾勒出他的文化批判思想和哲学方法论的地形图,使他的这一思想主线一目了然.

"Origin Is the Goal":Walter Benjamin's Intellectual Itinerary

Walter Benjamin is an important member of the Frankfurt School critics. His intellectual insight stimulated Adorno's idea of "negative dialectics" and "dialectics of enlightenment" which, in turn, constitute the critical foundation of this school of social criticism. But Benjamin's theoretical concerns are not only criticism, but also construction, showing his ethical responsibility as a resistant intellectual of his time. His perspective is very unique in that it is a Janus-faced combination of theology and Marxism. Therefore, the ultimate horizon of his criticism is Messianic redemption which he terms "origin". For him the "origin" is the authentic totality of the world which was smashed to fragments in modernity. Then the purpose of his criticism is to prepare for a theoretical reestablishment of the lost "origin". So the maxim he likes to quote is that "origin is the goal" which actually summarizes his intellectual concerns, namely both criticism and conservation. This essay locates Benjamin in the context of the differences between the Frankfurt School criticism and the Deconstructive criticism, thus revealing the itinerary of his double-leveled criticism clearly.