The Golden Mean in Moby Dick_英语论文

摘要

赫尔曼·麦尔维尔的传世巨著《白鲸》处处彰显着梅尔维尔对人类未来命运及其与外界之间关系选择的深邃哲学思考。本篇论文从中获得灵感启发，旨在依据孔子儒家哲学思想倡导的中庸之道，从哲学的角度对《白鲸》的思想主题做出一番较新的探讨和分析。中庸之道倡导人们应该通过不断追求在思想和行为上达到“允执其中” 和“审时度势” 来追求自我修养，以在这个复杂多变的外部世界中获得舒适自得的生活。本篇论文旨在揭示唯一幸存者以实玛利获救的原因在于他的思想和行为都符合了中庸之道的观念。

结构上，论文分为六个部分。第一章总体介绍小说内容和国内外对《白鲸》的研究现状并表明《白鲸》中蕴含的生活哲学; 第二章是关于古希腊中庸思想起源的概述以及亚里士多德中庸思想的阐述，并重点研究孔子儒家哲学思想的中庸之道的内涵。第三章探索故事发生的社会大背景，大海作为发生地点的象征意义，以及两位主人公对追求中庸之道以实现自我修养，获得自得生活的迫切性。第四章比较分析亚哈和以实玛利就宗教、道伯伦金币和白鲸的问题上对中庸之道中允执其中不同的理解及其所引发的态度选择的不同以及由此产生的不同行为；第五章比较分析二者不同思想和行为态度，表明了船长亚哈被反中庸之道的极端思想蒙蔽了双眼，没能做到审时度势，及时做出必要的改变。最后一章总结出两位主人翁命运结局背后的哲学启示意义。

关键词：《白鲸》中庸之道 自我修养 允执其中 审时度势

Abstract

Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby Dick is enriched with Melville's profound philosophical thinking about the relationship between man's fate and his attitude towards the external world. Therefore, this thesis, inspired from that, aims to explore its thematic content from a newly philosophical perspective of Confucian theory—the Golden Mean, which is a philosophical theory advocating people should do something for self-cultivation by sincerely seeking for centrality and assessing the situation in order to lead a comfortable life in the complicated external world. This thesis aims to demonstrate that the profound meaning of the survival of Ishmael lies in his way of thinking and conducting that abides by the Golden Mean.

Structurally, this thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction providing the content, giving out the literature review about the studies on Moby Dick, and showing Melville's life philosophy in Moby Dick. The second chapter researches the overview the origin of the thought of Golden Mean in the ancient Greek and attaches more attention to Aristotle's doctrine of the Golden Mean, and details the Confucian ideology of the Golden Mean. And then the third chapter explores the social settings, the symbolic meaning of the sea in this fiction and Ishmael's and Ahab's cry call for self-cultivation. The fourth chapter discusses both Ahab's and Ishmael's different ways of thinking and conducting for religion, doubloon and Moby Dick that result from their different understanding for seeking for centrality in the Golden Mean. The fifth chapter discusses the two heroes' different choices at the aspect of assessing the situation in the Golden Mean; and demonstrates that Ahab's extreme mind-sets blind him. Therefore, he fails to assess the situation, which prevents him from making necessary change. The final chapter is about the conclusion of the two heroes' different fate and the profound philosophic meaning in Moby Dick. 

Key words: Moby Dick; The Golden Mean; Self-cultivation; Seeking for centrality; Assessing the situation

Contents

摘要 Ⅰ

Abstract Ⅱ

1.Introduction 1

2. Studies on the Golden Mean 4

2.1 A General Survey of the Thought of Golden Mean in Ancient Greek 4

2.2 A Research of Confucian Golden Mean 5

3. The Call for the Golden Mean 8

3.1 The Symbol of the Sea 8

3.2 The Evil Side of Industralized Civilization 8

3.3 Ishmael's and Ahab's Plights on the Land 10

4. Ahab's and Ishmael's Contrary Attitudes to Seek for Centrality of the Golden Mean 12

4.1 Ishmael's Neutral Attitude to Religion 12

4.2 Ishmael's Neutral Attitude to Doubloon 13

4.3 Ahab's Extreme Attitude to Moby Dick 13

5. Ahab's and Ishmael's Opposite Choices for Assessing Situation of the Golden Mean 15

5.1 Ishmael's Flexible Mind-sets and Ahab's Inflexible Mind-sets 15

5.2 A Torment for Ahab 16

6.Conclusion 19

Bibliography 20

Acknowledgments 21