从博雅到自由——博雅教育概念的历史语义学分析

From Genteel to Liberating——A Historical Semantic Analysis of the Concept of Liberal Education

现代的博雅教育或自由教育(liberal education)概念源自对古希腊术语“Eleutherion epistemon”和古罗马术语“Artes liberales”、“Liberaliter educatione”的翻译,但这个术语本身经历了三次大的转型或变迁。当英国人在16、17世纪通过翻译创造出“博雅教育”(liberal education)这个概念时,自由人/奴隶之间的两分法被绅士阶层/非绅士阶层之间的两分法所取代,liberal的语义也从“适合于自由人的”转向“适合于绅士的”;到18世纪末、19世纪初,这个概念又增加了一层新的语义,意指“非专业的教育”,博雅教育概念逐渐与新出现的通识教育概念合流;从19世纪末开始,博雅教育从针对绅士阶层的教育变成了对所有公民的通识性教育,并日益和自由主义的意识形态勾连在一起,liberal的语义也从博雅转向了自由,博雅教育变成了自由教育。

The idea of liberal education dates back to Aristotle's "eleutherion epistemon" and Cicero's " artes liberales" .In the Middle Ages,this idea was embodied as "seven liberal arts" .From the seventeenth century on,the concept of "artes liberales" married the idea of "gentleman" and "gentleman-scholar" , and gave birth to the modern idea of "liberal education" in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain,which emphasized both "general" and "genteel" ,but the semantic focus shifted more and more from "genteel" to "general" .In the twentieth century,liberal education lost its connection with "gentleman" and became the general education for all citizens,increasingly linked with the ideology of liberalism.Meanwhile,its semantic meaning changed form "learned and genteel" to "free" or "liberating" .