政治哲学工作坊第七讲：新加坡面临的民族国家与全球城市之间的矛盾
6月15日下午，中山大学哲学系（珠海）Political Philosophy Workshop第七讲在海滨红楼13栋哲学系（珠海）办公楼顺利举行。
本次研讨会主题为：新加坡面临的民族国家与全球城市之间的矛盾, 由我系郭峻赫教授（Jun-Hyeok Kwak）主持，主讲人为来自新加坡国立大学的Kenneth Paul Tan 教授。
郭峻赫教授简要介绍了谭教授后，谭教授陈述了一篇题为“民族国家与全球城市新加坡之间的矛盾”的论文。谭教授在陈述中依据安东尼奥·葛兰西的霸权理论，论证了新加坡国家长期以来保持稳定、强大、开明、成功和持久的原因在于统治阶层承担知识领袖和道德领袖的能力。诚信、精英和实用主义的意识形态以及国家叙事是维护霸权的重要资源。但新加坡作为霸权国家可以持续多久？导致变化的压力来自哪里？在他的论文中，谭教授认为，改写支持霸权统治的公共叙事的时间可能已经到来，从而确保它能够对最近出现的最紧迫的关切进行回应。
El Kholi博士在回应时分析了两个结构性问题。他首先对谭教授运用葛兰西的霸权观念提出质疑，然后进行评论。他认为谭教授对霸权统治下的新加坡政治的分析与政治合法化的陈述之间显然缺乏内部的连贯性，而若仔细阅读会发现后者在本质上是纯粹功利主义的。
谭教授对El Kholi博士的评论进行回答时说，他主要借鉴霸权观念来便于对保持知识和道德领导地位所必需的持续的意识形态工作进行分析。郭教授则建议运用“反霸权”和“意识形态霸权破裂”这两个概念或许能有助于谭教授对霸权斗争进行更深入的分析。
随后的问答环节让观众有机会对谭教授提出各种问题，包括马克思主义的“虚假意识”与新加坡案例的相关性，将柏拉图的政权衰退表述作为一种想象新加坡未来的概念框架的相关性，理解2012年“我们的新加坡对话”（OSC）倡议的正确方式，以及近期李显龙总理被其弟妹控诉的意义等。
谭教授以极大的耐心和连贯性回答了所有的问题。哲学系（珠海）感谢他带来这一场具有启发性的讨论，也感谢他参与我系本学年的最后一场研讨会。政治哲学工作坊将于暑假后在9月21日继续举行，届时将欢迎博洛尼亚大学（意大利）政治学与古典学教授乔凡尼·乔治尼（Giovanni Giorgini）的到来。
On Thursday 15 June, 2017, the Political Philosophy Workshop of the Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai) hosted Kenneth Paul Tan, Vice Dean and Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
After a brief introduction by Professor Jun-Hyeok Kwak, who served as a moderator, Prof. Tan presented a paper entitled “The Contradictions of Nation-State and Global-City Singapore”. In his presentation, Prof. Tan relied on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony to argue that what has kept the Singapore state stable, strong, enlightened, successful, and durable over time has been the capacity of the ruling class to assume a role of intellectual and moral leadership. The ideology of integrity, meritocracy, and pragmatism, as well as the national narrative have been essential resources for sustaining this hegemony. But how long can a hegemonic Singapore state last? Where are the pressures for change coming from? In his paper, Prof. Tan argued that time may have come to rework the public narrative supporting hegemonic rule to make sure that it answers the most pressing concerns that have recently emerged.
In his response, Dr. Hugo El Kholi focused on what he identified as two structural concerns in Prof. Tan’s analysis. He first questioned Prof. Tan’s use of the Gramscian notion of hegemony before commenting on the apparent lack of internal coherence between an analysis of Singaporean politics in terms of hegemonic rule and an account of political legitimation which, on a close reading, proves to be purely utilitarian in nature.
Prof. Tan replied to Dr. El Kholi’s comments by saying that he mainly resorted to the notion of hegemony to facilitate his analysis of the constant ideological work necessary to maintain intellectual and moral leadership. Prof. Kwak then suggested that resorting to the notions of “counter-hegemony” and “ruptures of ideological hegemony” may help Prof. Tan to further his analysis of hegemonic struggles.
The ensuing Q&A session gave the audience an opportunity to question Prof. Tan on a variety of subjects, including the relevance of the Marxist notion of “false consciousness” to the Singaporean case, the pertinence of using Plato’s account of the decline of regimes as a conceptual framework to imagine the future of Singapore, the proper way to interpret the 2012 “Our Singapore Conversation” (OSC) initiative and the meaning of the recent accusations formulated against PM Lee by his siblings.
Prof. Tan replied to all these questions with great patience and consistency. The department of philosophy would like to thank him for this enlightening discussion and for his kind participation in the last workshop of the academic year. The Political Philosophy Workshop will resume after the summer holiday with the reception, on September 21, of Giovanni Giorgini, Professor of Political Science & Classics at the University of Bologna (Italy).
Written by: Dr. Hugo El Kholi