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Nolan's Odysseus is no Homeric hero, but a guilt-ridden modern who accidentally speaks Confucian: Greek scholar_我的网站

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A | 　　25日，国家数据局举行“数据价值化我们在行动”系列新闻发布会，发布第五批50个公共数据“跑起来”示范场景。

Illustration: Liu Rui/GTChristopher Nolan's new film has attracted considerable attention from audiences and critics around the world. Particularly interesting is its reception in China, where the Beijing premiere provided the occasion for a conversation between Nolan and the Chinese political philosopher Zhong Shu.
We shall first consider some of the positive and negative appraisals of the film, before turning to its significance for Chinese viewers and, more broadly, to possible comparisons between the philosophical and cultural traditions of East and West. This commentary draws primarily on reviews by Emily Wilson in the London Review of Books and in The Atlantic, and Daniel Mendelsohn in the New York Review of Books, as well as on questions raised by Zhong Shu.
It should first be acknowledged that Nolan has produced an impressive action movie, condensing and abridging most of the major episodes of Odysseus' adventurous journey back to Ithaca. Avoiding digital technology based on artificial screens, he gives the story an unusually tangible quality.
The film also benefits from a distinguished cast, whose performances illuminate the different strands of the narrative as conceived by the director. At the same time, the viewer is invited to reconstruct the complex temporal layers of the epic, extending from the fall of Troy to Odysseus' homecoming (nostos), his reunion with Telemachus and Penelope, and the harsh punishment of the suitors.
Many objections concerning anachronisms in costumes and armor, the use of American English, details of the Mycenaean or Archaic periods, or the casting of particular characters seem unfair. Some degree of anachronism is inevitable, and the pursuit of historical or textual fidelity would ultimately be futile. Nolan was obliged to omit or substantially rework parts of the original narrative in order to fit it into a three-hour film. Some omissions are nevertheless regrettable -- notably the treatment of the Cyclops episode and Odysseus' descent into the Underworld, as well as the complete omission of the Phaeacian episode and his encounter with Nausicaa.
There are, however, more serious grounds for concern with regard to the central idea underlying Nolan's reinterpretation of the Odyssey. In his attempt to convey a modern moral message largely alien to Homer's world, Nolan presents an Odysseus who has surprisingly little in common with the "complicated" (polytropos) man depicted by the ancient poet. The ethical ambiguities of a shrewd and resourceful character, ready to deceive and to commit violence in pursuit of his ends, are largely absent from Matt Damon's Odysseus. Instead, we encounter a hero repeatedly tormented by guilt for atrocities perpetrated or condoned during the Trojan War and consequently seeking some form of atonement.
Zhong Shu is therefore justified in asking Nolan whether he intends to "Christianize" Odysseus. The filmmaker seems to have moved him, almost imperceptibly, from what anthropologists have described as a "shame culture" -- the world of Homer, in which honor and fame, as perceived by others, are of central importance -- to a "guilt culture," characterized by an internalized sense of responsibility and remorse for wrongdoing. This latter moral orientation emerges with classical Greek ethics, particularly with Socrates and Plato, and reaches its fullest expression in Christian and post-Christian conceptions of morality.
Nolan appears to believe that such a transition toward guilt follows naturally once we recognize the force of a commitment to "Zeus' law," particularly in the obligations of mutual hospitality (xenia). He connects these obligations with a version of the "Golden Rule," understood as a principle of reciprocal respect in our treatment of others.
This, however, is problematic as a construal of Homeric morals. Early variants of the Golden Rule can be found from the fifth century BC onwards in Democritus and Isocrates, and later in Epictetus and, of course, in the teachings of Jesus. More importantly, the moral conscience Nolan attributes to Odysseus not only "Christianizes" him; it arguably "Kantianizes" him as well. "Zeus' law" is presented almost as a universal proto-categorical imperative, something that could readily be endorsed by Kant. This differs significantly from the ancient injunction against hybris: the warning against excessive pride, the transgression of human limits, and the violation of the divine and cosmological order that we encounter throughout Homer's epics.
One may, of course, concede to Nolan the artistic right to create his own Odysseus: a depressed war veteran, conscious of the dangers of violating moral rules, and concerned with preserving the normative foundations of civilization. The difficulty lies elsewhere. Nolan's attempt to accommodate this new hero and his moral psychology within the narrative framework of the original Odyssey is not entirely successful. The result is a tension between the Homeric story the film seeks to reconstruct and the modern moral drama superimposed upon it. This tension, I believe, accounts for much of the film's weakness.
When we turn, however, to the horizon of the Chinese tradition, a more intriguing possibility emerges. The moral dimension of Nolan's Odysseus may be closer to certain aspects of Confucian thought than to the Homeric model. Confucian relational role ethics can be interpreted as encouraging a form of moral self-consciousness in which responsibility, integrity, and the cultivation of the self become increasingly internalized. In this qualified sense, one might speak of a movement from "shame" towards something resembling a "guilt" culture.
The Golden Rule is also prominent in Confucian teaching. Furthermore, the demand to examine and rectify one's conduct in accordance with yi (righteousness), while cultivating ren (benevolence or humaneness), can be understood as pointing toward a more inward and spiritual form of the Greek nostos: a return not simply to one's geographical home, but to one's moral center, situated within a network of relationships.
In addition, Nolan's relative downplaying of divine intervention, and his tendency to integrate the divine dimension into a more naturalistic moral order, may make his construal more congenial to the practical ethos of Chinese philosophy than to a worldview grounded explicitly in metaphysical theology.
There is, therefore, a certain paradox. Although Nolan's film may be criticized as an interpretation of Homer, its very misreading of the epic may enable it to contribute to a dialogue between East and West. By transforming Odysseus into a figure whose moral conscience combines Christian, Kantian, and perhaps unexpectedly Confucian elements, Nolan brings into contact traditions that otherwise belong to very different intellectual worlds. His Odyssey is not true to Homer's spirit. But precisely for this reason, it raises questions about how different civilizations understand responsibility, moral identity, the relation between the individual and the community, and, ultimately, the meaning of returning home.
The author is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Secretary of the Center of Greek and Chinese Civilizations. [email protected]
。此前，国家数据局已累计发布四批共100个公共数据“跑起来”示范场景。　　此次公布的示范场景包括民族民间文艺资源数字化及智能应用示范场景建设、空间碎片公共数据赋能商业航空发展、路网研判与视频分析应用、困境儿童精准保障与主动服务、全国干线公路交通噪声地图应用、数据赋能民航智慧运行、多源卫星遥感灾害监测与预警等。　　“第五批场景较前四批较好呈现出公共数据与社会数据、企业数据等多源数据深度融合的显著特征，特别在农业、气象、经济等领域数据融合应用需求突出，数据供给多样性持续提升。”国家数据局党组成员、副局长陈荣辉介绍。

B | 　　陈荣辉举例说，在农业领域，相关场景整合农作物生长、农产品供销、冷链物流等多源数据，助力农业经营主体科学决策，促进地方特色农业精准发展和提升抗风险能力；在气象领域，相关场景将基础观测、雷达、卫星遥感等多源数据深度融合，有力支撑低空经济、防灾减灾等应用需求，大幅提升了灾害预警和风险防控能力。　　“本批次场景充分立足部门、地方资源禀赋与产业基础，以数据驱动为核心，打造了一批具有鲜明行业属性和地域特色的示范场景。”陈荣辉分析，东中部地区聚焦民营经济发展、低空经济、海洋经济等前沿领域先行先试；西部地区立足特色农业、沿边贸易、矿产勘探等资源优势探索差异化路径。　　从数据开发利用模式来看，陈荣辉介绍，第五批场景在推动数据共享、开放和授权运营协同并进的基础上，积极探索部省协同、跨区域联动等数据流通利用方式创新。