在唐纳德·特朗普再次入主白宫前夕，重读其同胞理查德·罗蒂在 1998 年出版的一本小书《成就我们的国家》，主要不是因为八年前该书被认为预见了当时的美国大选结果，而是因为该书对我们观察当代美国政治、西方左翼思潮和未来中美关系，提供了一个极为重要的视角。从此视角出发可以看出，当代美国政治的关键问题，是如何在全球的“南”“北”关系中处理其国内的“左”“右”矛盾；西方左翼学界的关键挑战，是能否在“承认”和“再分配”之外找到新的词汇；而国际地缘政治的未来走向，则将决定以何种国家形象塑造人类形象。在思考上述问题的过程中，罗蒂有关共同体及其形象的论述既提供了值得珍惜的思想资源，也提示了值得警惕的哲学误区。把“正义”归结为特定共同体之中的“忠诚”，把“真理”当作特定情境之中的“方便”，是否意味着放弃必要的概念工具去把值得自豪的成就与消极承受的状况区分开来，把集体学习过程的积极收获与有待重组的偶然经验区分开来。

理查德·罗蒂, 美国政治, 西方左翼, 中美关系, 国家形象

On the eve of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, I suggest to read once more his fellow countryman Richard Rorty’s    small book, Achieving Our Country, published in 1998. This is not primarily because the book was considered to have predicted the outcome of the US presidential election eight years ago, but because the question posed in the book, provides an extremely important perspective on contemporary American politics, Western leftist thought, and the future of China-US relations. From this perspective, it can be seen that the key issue in contemporary American politics is how to handle the domestic “Left” and “Right” contradictions in the global “South” and “North” relations; The key challenge for the Western left-wing academic community is whether it can find new vocabulary beyond “recognition” and “redistribution”; The future direction of international

geopolitics will determine which country image shapes the image of humanity. In the process of considering the above issues, Rorty’s discourse on the community and its image not only provides valuable intellectual resources, but also hints at ]philosophical misconceptions that are worth being wary of. Will we abandon the necessary conceptual tools to distinguish between proud achievements and negative situations, and to distinguish between positive gains in the collective learning process and accidental experiences that need to be reorganized, by attributing “justice” to “loyalty” within a specific community and treating “truth” as “convenience” in a specific context.

Richard Rorty, American politics, western left, China-US relations, national image