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理性视域中的神人关系

A Study on Maimonides’ Rationalization of God-Man Relationship

【作者】 赵同生

【导师】 傅有德;

【作者基本信息】 山东大学 , 外国哲学, 2010, 博士

【副题名】迈蒙尼德宗教哲学思想探微

【摘要】 生活在十二世纪穆斯林政权统治之下的迈蒙尼德,秉承犹太教传统文化,熟读《托拉》和《塔木德》等犹太教传统经典,是一个正统的犹太教徒;同时他又深受伊斯兰哲学家们的影响,从他们那里学习到希腊哲学、尤其是亚里士多德的哲学思想。于是,哲学与传统的问题就以如此的形式呈现在迈蒙尼德面前:一方面,哲学代表个人在理智上的追求,以理智的至善为个人追求的最终目的,它体现为人类理智的知识体系;另一方面,犹太教传统中的先知启示为人们提供了行为准则,代表着他们在伦理道德上的追求,以伦理意义上的至善为其最终目标,这一传统具体表现为社会中的人在行为、政治和伦理道德方面的价值体系。在这两种不同的传统相遇过程中,迈蒙尼德所要做的是,以哲学家的理性主义的方法来为宗教传统辩护,由此沟通宗教与哲学,避免亚里士多德自然观对犹太教上帝观以及先知预言等历史性概念的否定,强调宗教的律法道德体系对于个体实现终极的追求目标的保障作用,从而避免哲学危及犹太民族特殊性。本文以犹太教的神人关系为切入点,探讨迈蒙尼德如何以哲学的、理性的方法来论述涉及犹太教基本教理的重要议题,详细考察迈蒙尼德如何以哲学的方法证明超越的上帝的存在,以及如何试图在超越的上帝和物质世界中的人之间建立一种全新的、理性化的神人关系。迈蒙尼德以一种理性化的寓意释经法来对圣经《托拉》进行解释,扩展宗教语言的含义使其包括象征性意义,以此来沟通传统的启示真知和理性的真理。他指出《托拉》中的经文具有字面意义和隐微含义之分,并将理性立为对传统经典文本进行寓意阐释的标准。在《迷途指津》第一篇前七十章里,迈蒙尼德基于为犹太教辩护的出发点,对《托拉》中涉及人格化的上帝以及上帝多样性的词语进行解释,通过强调上帝的超越性和非物质性来使其符合理性的标准。他对《托拉》文本进行理性化阐释,揭示其所谓的深层的、奥秘的含义,一方面努力消除心存疑虑的好学者的困惑,另一方面试图解决传统和理性、宗教和哲学之间的矛盾。迈蒙尼德在《迷途指津》中所要解释的“启示的秘密”即关系到整个犹太教律法体系根基的所谓“律法科学”。对于一般犹太律法学家而言,其律法学习涉及信仰、道德以及社会行为规范,这些是所有犹太教徒必须要熟悉和掌握的。而“律法科学”却是有关犹太律法根基的科学,涉及对一般律法的理性化的证明。而这就需要其研究者具备一定的理智能力并掌握适当的哲学知识,因此“律法科学”并不适合传授给全体的教徒。迈蒙尼德写作《迷途指津》的初衷正是为了向那些进入理性领域的少数“困惑者们”提供指导,而为了避免其动摇普通教徒的宗教信仰,迈蒙尼德在《迷途指津》中采取隐微的写作方法。迈蒙尼德认为人类理智的认识范围有一个界限,在此界限之外的众多事物是人的理解力所不可企及的。人类理智无法认识超越的上帝以及独立理智的本性。但是迈蒙尼德接受哲学家的观点,认为他们已经证明了上帝存在、上帝具有单一性以及非物质性的特征。哲学能够证明犹太教的基本原则,这可以确保其“神车论”即形而上学的科学性。坚持理性的迈蒙尼德明白维护上帝论对于犹太教、犹太人社群的存亡的重要性。因此在面临外来传统的威胁时,作为犹太教教徒的迈蒙尼德首先关注的必然是对上帝存在这一犹太教基本原理的辩护。在批评凯拉姆神学论证法的基础上迈蒙尼德列出可以用来证明上帝存在的二十六个哲学前提作为论证的基础,并在此基础上提出四个有关上帝存在的证明,以现实世界中因果序列不可能无限后推的原理为基础,推导出“第一因”的存在。迈蒙尼德通过“行为属性”和“否定性属性”理论,一方面消除了《圣经》中涉及神人同形同性的词汇对好学者带来的困惑,另一方面,他告诫读者要避免错误地言说上帝本质,同时强调对于自然界物体的知识的追求的重要性,因为对自然以及自然规律的研究正是了解有关上帝的知识的一个重要途径。在上帝存在以及上帝属性的问题上,迈蒙尼德强调上帝的超越性,以超越的、非物质性的上帝来诠释宗教的人格神,并将其确立为犹太教信条,试图以此为犹太教辩护,使其避免希腊哲学传统的挑战。在宇宙起源问题上迈蒙尼德面临的问题是,如果上帝不是《托拉》字面之义所说的人格神,而是具有超越性和非物质性,那上帝如何创造一个物质性的世界?宇宙永恒论似乎是这一上帝观的应有之义。迈蒙尼德认为亚里士多德的天体物理学有一个问题,即尽管他成功地将物质世界秩序的来源以及宇宙间质料采取不同形式的原因归于这个物质世界所依赖的天体,但他没能解释天体间秩序的来源。因此天体中那种超越理性理解的秩序只能被归结为上帝自由意志的安排,尽管人凭自己的理智无法证明这一点。在迈蒙尼德看来,宇宙起源的问题超越了人类理智的认识能力,无论宇宙永恒论还是上帝创世论都无法得到确证。但是在如何对待这两种理论的问题上,他选择了对犹太宗教传统的捍卫。犹太教传统中的神与人之间是一种双向、互动的关系,它一方面意味着人对上帝的信仰与崇拜,另一方面又意味着上帝对其“选民”的眷顾与保护。作为犹太教徒的迈蒙尼德在以理性的视角关切当时犹太人所面临的思想冲击的时候,他就必须面对犹太教中的上帝论问题以及上帝与其选民——犹太人的关系问题。迈蒙尼德将人对上帝的爱解读为人对上帝的理性追求,即人在自己理智能力的范围之内最大限度地获取有关上帝的知识,而这又与人的灵魂不灭、先知预言的形成、人的完善状态以及终极幸福等概念联系在一起。迈蒙尼德以其理性化的灵魂——理智学说来阐述人的本质、人如何实现其终极完善以及精神性存在,同时他用理性化的先知论来揭示先知得到来自上帝的信息的方式以及预言的形成机制。有关灵魂、理智的论述典型地体现了迈蒙尼德理性化的努力,在面对普通教徒时他支持犹太教传统的死者复活的信念,同时又强调其精神性的一面即“灵魂不灭”的概念,指出灵魂的不朽实乃人的理智达到完善的状态。在上帝对人的、从上到下的关系层面中,迈蒙尼德同样从理性的角度探讨神意与神知、恶的存在与上帝的全善、上帝预定与人的自由等概念之间的关系问题。迈蒙尼德认为神知与神意是密切相关的两个概念。上帝知识所及之处必然会有神意的存在。他所关心的“神意”主要指上帝对物质世界中的人的影响,而在某种意义上神意的问题在迈蒙尼德那里已成为认识意义上的神人关系问题,而这正是迈蒙尼德理性主义倾向在解决宗教与哲学矛盾的一个反映。他将“流溢”理论应用于其神意论,将流溢称为“理智的流溢”,认为它来自上帝并且只能到达那些有能力接受它的存在,神圣的理智之流所至之处也就是神意之光能够到达的终点。迈蒙尼德在将其它物种的个体排除出上帝直接认识对象的范围的同时,保留了个体人得到上帝保佑的可能性。在有关恶的本质问题上,迈蒙尼德要解决的问题是恶的存在对全善的犹太教上帝的挑战。迈蒙尼德指出恶在本质上是一种“缺失”,是事物中善的缺失。上帝创造了与形式不断分分合合的质料,而质料与形式的分离则意味着形式的缺失,即恶的产生。也就是说,上帝所创造的是事物的存在,而恶却是非存在,因此可见上帝并不生成恶。为什么上帝创造一个有缺失的世界?迈蒙尼德对此的回答是,物质世界中的质料在本质上总是与缺失相伴,这也是万物总要面临死亡及其它形式的恶的原因。但是质料在本质上并不是恶,正是质料在存在与缺失之间的转换,使得物质世界能够在不断生灭、变迁中得以永存。迈蒙尼德将上帝意志的体现限定在最初的创世过程,创世完成后世界各个部分完全遵循自然法则。于是,上帝不会打破既定的自然规律,也不会干涉个人的自由行动。上帝意志体现在创世过程中,这一观点在强调个人选择自由的同时又为打破自然律的神迹的发生留出余地来。迈蒙尼德在处理宗教教理问题上的理性主义倾向,在犹太教内部引起了不同的反应。围绕着迈蒙尼德理性化的上帝概念,他有关死者复活、先知预言的本质的学说,以及他对《托拉》语言的解读等,他的支持者和反对者之间争论不断。尤其在十三、十四世纪,前后共掀起多次争论的高潮,哲学史上将这一系列争论称作“迈蒙尼德争论”。作为迈蒙尼德亚里士多德主义的继承者和反对者,本格森和克莱斯卡与迈蒙尼德之间有批判与继承的关系。

【Abstract】 Maimonides is both an orthodoxy Jew who inherits the Jewish traditional culture and is quite familiar with Jewish classics, such as Torah and Talmud, and a student of Aristotle, who is acquainted with philosophy through Islamic philosophers. So the confrontation of religion and philosophy is represented in front of Maimonides as follows:on the one hand, philosophy is deemed as personal pursuit of intellectual perfection and as a knowledge system of human intellect, on the other hand, the revelation of prophets in the Jewish tradition provides behavioral principles for the people and represents their goal in ethics and morality, with moral perfection as the utmost felicity. How to deal with the relationship between the two systems in order to meet the challenges posed by the philosophical system against the religious tradition and maintain the Jewish belief, is just what Maimonides has to face and tackle. Maimonides’s option is to defend the religious tradition with the philosophic method, and bridge the relationship between Judaism and philosophy in order to avoid the attacks of philosophy against the Jewish concept of God and the historical sense of prophecy. He tries to justify the particularity of Judaism through emphasizing the importance of the legal and moral system of Judaism in the realization of the utmost goal of intellectual perfection.This dissertation intends to study how Maimonides deals with the relationship of God and man in Judaism by analyzing how he discusses the important issues concerning basic principles of Judaism with a rationalized, philosophical method. The theme of the dissertation is to analyze how Maimonides proves the truth of the most important principle of Judaism, existence of God, with philosophical methods, and on the basis of that, he attempts to establish a rationalized relationship between the transcendent God and people living in the material world.In interpreting Torah Maimonides tries to broaden the meanings of religious language with a rationalized way of metaphorical interpretation in order to bridge the relationship between the traditional religious truth and philosophical truth. He proposes that some texts of Torah should be read metaphorically so as to solve the problems concerning a personal God. In the first seventy chapters of Book One in The Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides interprets the meanings of some specific words or sentences concerning a personal God and diversity of God metaphorically. He emphasizes the transcendence and incorporeality of God against the personality of God.The secret of revelation that Maimonides tries to explain is fiqh, the science of laws, which is linked with the foundation of Jewish laws. The common legislators study morality and the norms of social behaviour which are necessary for Jews, while the science of laws is related to the justification of the laws which involves philosophy. The study of fiqh requires intellectual capacity and preparatory knowledge of sciences, which means the secret of fiqh is not suitable to be instructed to all Jews. The purpose of his philosophical work is to help those perplexed students who stepped in the field of intellect in order to reinforce their belief. To avoid undermining the religious belief of the common Jews, Maimonides chooses to write esoterically in the philosophical work.Maimonides believes there is a limit to the scope of human intellection beyond which are things unknowable for people. He approached the problem of possibility of human knowledge in the transcendental field with a mild skepticism, insisting that the divine knowledge is still a true and accurate science for the limited intellect of human being though it is not capable enough to acquire knowledge of all existences. Though human being cannot grasp the essence of God and other Intelligences, Maimonides believes the existence of God, his Oneness and incorporeality can be justified by philosophy.Maimonides is aware of the importance of the theory of God for Judaism and the existence of Jewish people as a community. When facing threats of foreign traditions, he believes one of the most important things to do is to justify the basic Judaic principle of the existence of a Jewish God.On the basis of twenty-six philosophical principles Maimonides proposes four proofs of God’s existence which are featured with cosmological argument. He proves the existence of the First Reason on the principle that infinite regress is impossible which leads to the argument that an infinite causal sequence is impossible. The final reason of motion in the world is regarded as the Unmoved Mover or God by Aristotle. Maimonides follows Aristotle in his argument and regards the Aristotelian God as the Jewish God.Concerning the attributes of God, Maimonides resorts to theories of Negative Attributes and Behavioral Attributes to help confused Jewish students of philosophy clarify the doubts concerning expressions of anthropomorphism in Torah, and warn readers not to speak of nature of God mistakenly. Maimonides emphasizes the importance of pursuit of knowledge of the natural world for the study of the nature and natural law is one important approach to knowledge of God.On the origin of the universe Maimonides points out that Aristotle’s theory of eternal universe is not more convincing than the Jewish story of Creation. Aristotle attributes the order of the material world and the reason of different forms of materials in the universe to the heavens, the problem still remains unsolved, for even in the heavens material took different forms, which is demonstrated with the differences in speed and direction of movement of stars and heavens. This order in the heavens is beyond the understanding of human intellect and hence can only be attributed to the free will of God. Thus it is clear that Maimonides does not support the Aristotelian theory of eternity as Shlomo Pines proposed. At the same time he absorbs philosophical thought into his theory of Creation by God so as to guarantee the order and law the physical world against the possibility of absolute chaos.The relation between God and human is a two-way interaction, with men’s worship and respect for God on the one hand, and God’s providence and protection of his chosen people on the other. When Maimonides thinks about the challenges against Judaism form a rational perspective, his priority is the problem of God and his relation with the Jewish people.In the rationalized context of Maimonides, man’s love for God means his intellectual apprehension of God, i.e. acquiring as much knowledge related to God as possible within the scope of human rational capacity. And that topic is related to concepts like human soul and intellect, prophecy, human perfection and utmost felicity, etc. Maimonides proposes a rationalized theory of human soul and intellect to expound the nature of human being, his felicity and spirituality. He elaborates a naturalism theory of prophecy to reveal how prophets receive messages from God and the mechanism of the development of prophecy. Facing common religionists he supports the Jewish belief of resurrection of the dead, but at the same time he emphasizes the spirituality of this concept, i.e. the immortality of souls.Concerning the relation from God to man, Maimonides discusses the problems of divine providence and knowledge of God, existence of evil and perfection of God, God’s determination and human freedom, from a rationalist perspective.Maimonides’rationalist tendency in tackling problems related to religious principles led to diverse reactions inside Judaism. Controversies over his rationalized concept of God, resurrection of the dead, nature of prophecy and his interpretation of Torah continued long afterward. As representatives of his followers and opponents, ben Gershom and Crescas both critisized and inherited from Maimonides in some capacity.

  • 【网络出版投稿人】 山东大学
  • 【网络出版年期】2011年 01期
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