启蒙的真谛

任才淇 王静静

“啟蒙”的本义是开启蒙昧，识字读书，明白事理。在中国古代，人们从小要接受“蒙学”，才能成为有教养的人，否则就是“教化未开”。据说，早年被启蒙到了什么程度，决定其日后可达到的智力高度。

同样，人类社会从传统向现代转型的过程，也与启蒙相伴随；没有启蒙就没有现代化。

然而，作为现代话语的“启蒙”，却源自于近代西方。在人类历史上，近代启蒙思想和启蒙运动首发于17世纪后期的英国，后传播到法国、德国等欧洲国家，波及北美，19世纪后期又影响到日本、中国等亚洲国家。

正是由于西方有了洛克、斯密、伏尔泰、卢梭、狄德罗等启蒙思想家，才有了之后欧美的工业革命、市场经济和宪政体制。在中国，自晚清时期出现近代启蒙思想后，中国知识分子在“救亡图存”的背景下，借助西方近代思想，改造中国传统文化，塑造新型国民，引发了洋务运动、戊戌变法、新文化运动等。特别是在当代，1978年关于“实践是检验真理的唯一标准”的大讨论，极大地解放了人们的思想，带来了之后“改革开放”的巨大成果。由此，思想的力量可见一斑。

长期以来，人们对于启蒙运动有一种误解，认为那是先知先觉的知识分子和哲人启发、教育、训导被启蒙者，因而“启蒙”成了及物动词，其宾语是未开化的芸芸众生。其实，根据现代启蒙思想家康德的解释，启蒙的本质不是“他启”而是“自觉”，即人们从由自我原因的不成熟状态（在缺乏指导下无力运用自我理性的状态）中觉醒，其根源并非是人们缺乏理性，而是缺乏对理性的运用。

这种真知灼见至今闪烁着理性的光芒。

在西方，启蒙思想的支撑源于人们对于客观规律的认知，如哥白尼的“日心说”、牛顿的“万有引力”、伽利略的“宇宙论”等，认为整个宇宙中的一切物体都遵守同一定律，进而冲破千年的宗教束缚，将这一理性思考引入了人类社会，从而开创了一个不断进取的新时代。在中国，几千年的封建农业社会，使得科技落后、法治传统缺乏，只是受到近代西方启蒙思想（包括马克思主义）的影响，才引入了科学、民主、法治的概念，开始与世界文明接轨。

在这一历史大潮中，中国现在比历史上任何时期都更接近中华民族的伟大复兴。正如“一带一路”被越来越多的国家认识到不是中国的独角戏，而是沿途民族的大合唱，每个中国人对于客观与主观世界的深刻、自觉的理性开发，最终将汇集于前所未有的“中国梦”的实现。

译文：

The Essence of Enlightenment

The original meaning of “enlightenment” is to enlighten someone so as to make him literate and sensible.In ancient China，educated people were those who received enlightening education from an early age.If not，people were considered unenlightened.It is said that the degree of enlightenment in ones early years is a determinant of his intelligence level in the future.

Enlightenment has likewise accompanied the transformation process of human society all the way from traditional to modern society.Thus，there is no modernization without enlightenment.

However，the contemporary word “enlightenment” originated from modern western times.In the history of mankind，the modern enlightenment thoughts as well as the Enlightenment Movement firstly sprouted in Britain in the late 17th century，and then spread in such European countries as France and Germany，causing ripples throughout North America as well.Japan，China and many other Asian countries had been affected since the late 19th century.

Those western enlightenment thinkers including Locke，Smith，Voltaire，Rousseau and Diderot contributed to the breakout of the Industrial Revolution，the emergence of the market economy and the establishment of constitutional system.Since the late Qing Dynasty when modern enlightenment thoughts appeared，Chinese intellectuals found themselves in a state where people salvaged China from subjugation.In this context，they transformed Chinese traditional culture and developed new citizen with the aid of the western thought.Additionally，they triggered the Westernization Movement，the Hundred Days Reform，the New Culture Movement and so on.In particular，the great discussion in 1978 about “Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth” greatly emancipated peoples mind and brought huge success of “Reform and Opening up”.Therefore，it provides a glimpse of the power of thoughts.

For a long period，people misunderstood what the Enlightenment Movement should be since they thought that people were enlightened，educated and taught by those far-sighted intellectuals and philosophers.Therefore，the word “enlighten” was used as a transitive verb while uncivilized ordinary people were its objects.On the basis of the explanation of Kant，a contemporary Enlightenment thinker，people are enlightened by themselves，namely，they awake out of self-immaturity.The root lies in the lack of application of reason rather than the lack of reason itself.

This sort of penetrating judgement blazed with reason.

In the western countries，what drives enlightenment thoughts forward is peoples cognition of the objectivity that all objects in the universe obey the same law.Copernicuss Heliocentric Theory，Newtons Universal Gravitation and Galileos Cosmology set a good example.Thus，fetters were removed and rational thinking was introduced into human society，creating a new era of entrepreneurial spirits.China，a country that has a history of thousands year of feudalism，featured the backwardness of science and technology and the lack of law tradition.Nevertheless，influenced by Marxism and other modern western enlightenment thoughts，it started to integrate with world civilization since science，democracy and rule of law were introduced.

Never has China in this period been so close to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in our history.An increasing number of countries have realized that the Belt and Road Initiative is not Chinas own business，but it needs the cooperation among all countries along the road.Hence all Chinese peoples profound and conscious development towards objective and subjective world will finally lead to the realization of unprecedented “Chinese Dream”.

作者簡介

任才淇（1992年-），女，汉族，山西孝义人，首都师范大学外国语学院，硕士研究生，英语笔译方向。

王静静（1992年-），女，汉族，山西晋城人，首都师范大学外国语学院，硕士研究生，英语笔译方向。

（作者单位：首都师范大学）