評論
打印
Am I suggesting that modern man is doomed and that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production or to nineteenth century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves (in the Soviet Union as well as in the capitalist countries) into a humanist industrialism in which man and the full development of his potentialities — those of love and of reason — are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
我是不是在說現代人注定難逃劫數，是不是在說我們應該回到工業化前的生產方式，或者回到19世紀的"自由企業"資本主義？當然不是。想通過倒退到人們已經走過的階段來解決問題是永遠行不通的。我建議改造我們的社會制度，將其從一個在官僚機構管理下的以追求最高產量和最大消費為目的的工業化社會體制(蘇聯和資本主義國家都屬此類體制）轉化為一個人本主義的工業化社會體制。在后一種體制中，一切社會活動的目的都是為了人，為了使人的各種潛力——愛的潛力和運用理智的潛力——獲得充分發展。生產和消費只可充作達到 這一目的的手段，不能讓其支配人類。
To attain this goal we need to create a Renaissance of Enlightenment and of Humanism. It must be an Enlightenment, however, more radically realistic and critical than that of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It must be a Humanism that aims at the full development of the total man, not the gadget man, not the consumer man, not the organization man. The aim of a humanist society is the man who loves life, who has faith in life, who is productive and independent. Such a transformation is possible if we recognize that our present way of life makes us sterile and eventually destroys the vitality necessary for survival.
為了達此目的，我們需要復興啟蒙運動，復興人文主義。但是，這一次啟蒙運動一定要比17到18世紀的啟蒙運動更加注重現實，更具批判力度。這一次人文主義一定要以完整的人獲得充分發展為出發點，而不是醉心于機械玩意兒的人、熱衷于消費的人，不是組織人。人文主義社會的目標是要造就熱愛生活的人，對生活抱有信心的人，多出成果、獨立自主的人。如果我們能認識到目前的生活方式會使我們失去朝氣，而且終將毀滅生存所必需的活力，那么，這樣一種轉化是有可能的。
