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绪论 - 什么是性行为? |
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有关性方面的术语演变史
4：“人是机器”说
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朱莉
O.
德·拉·美特利(Julien
Offray de La
Mettrie
1709-1751年)，法国内科医师和机械唯物主义哲学家，以其著作《人是机器》而闻名。书中，人的身体被解释成机器的零部件。用作者自己的话说就是：人的身体是“一部被多个弹簧所赋予的完整的精巧物，弹簧移动着人体这架精巧的机器。”因为这部著作没有为永恒的不同神灵留足生存的空间，权威当局和愤怒的公众舆论认为它诽谤了神灵。作者不得不逃亡他乡，不过在柏林普鲁士伟大的国王弗雷德里克的宫廷寻到了庇护所。其实，德·拉·美特利只是以间接的方式阐明了他那个时代对于人体的感悟而已。后来，他关于人体的哲学感悟极大地影响了对人类行为的研究。
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毋庸置疑，“性(sex)”的概念的逐渐改变也反映了人对自身形象认识的改变。毕竟，自从中世纪末期以来，欧洲人的生活方式已经经历了彻底的和不断加速的转变过程。这种从封建经济制度到资本主义经济制度的转变、贸易的增加和科技的进步，使得人们的观念、生活习性和道德价值观发生了革命性的变化。脱颖而出的城市中产阶级或资产阶级把他们自己训练成较为遵守纪律、自律和克己的一代新人。这是以往任何时候从未有过的变化。工作效率、守时、生产率和利润被人作为新的观念所称颂。人们开始把人体视为以最有规则和最可能合理运转的一台机器。在性机能方面，人们也希望这台机器既可控又经济。人们残酷地压抑着自发的生理反应和生理欲望，认为生理反应和生理欲望会妨碍性器官的“适当”使用。与此同时，对肉体欲望不断地压抑、抑制和畏惧，逐渐把人们的关注点聚焦于“性生活品质(sexual
quality)”之上。
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德·拉·美特利具有争议性的著作《人是机器》
左：法文原著书名页(1748) 右：英语译本书名页
(1750) (约20年后，随着詹姆士·瓦特改进了蒸汽机技术，开始了“机械化时代”，即开始了工业化革命时代。)
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Introduction - What is sexual behavior? |
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History of the Term 5 |
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Julien Offray
de La Mettrie
(1709-1751), a French physician and philosopher of materialism, is best known for his work L'Homme machine (Man a Machine). In it, the human body is explained as a piece of machinery. In the author’s own words: “A full detail is given of the several springs which move the human machine”. Because the book leaves no room for a separate, eternal soul, it was considered scandalous by the authorities and publicly burned. The author had to flee, but found asylum in Berlin at the court of the Prussian king Frederick the Great. Actually, de la Mettrie merely formulated a growing perception of his time and, in indirect ways, later greatly influenced the study of behavior.
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There is no question that the gradual changes in the concept of “sex” also reflected changes in the image people had of themselves. After all, since the end of the Middle Ages the style of living in Europe had undergone a thorough and ever-accelerating transformation. The transition from a feudalistic to a capitalistic economy, the growth of trade, and the advance of technology gave rise to new attitudes, habits, and moral values. The emerging urban middle class or bourgeoisie trained itself for a greater degree of discipline, self-control, and self-denial than had ever been known before. Efficiency, punctuality, productivity, and profit were proclaimed as the new ideals. The human body came to be seen as a machine which had to perform in the most regular and rational manner possible. This machine was also expected to be practical and economical in its sexual functioning. Spontaneous physical responses and desires which interfered with the “proper” use of the sex organs were rigorously suppressed. At the same time,
the growing suppression, subjugation, exploitation, and fear of the body also increasingly focused attention on its "sexual" qualities.
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De La Mettrie’s controversial book.
Left: Title page in the original French (1748)
Right: The English translation (1750).
(About twenty years later, James Watt, with his improvement of the steam engine, started the “machine age”, i.e. the industrial revolution.)
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