臺灣有很多社會問題一直困擾著我們，但奇怪的是，我們儘管對這些問題多所指 責，但同樣的問題卻仍然一再發生，「為什麼這個社會沒有能力學習呢?」。本文以「食物中 毒」現象為例子，從「公共論述」的角度切入，嘗試對「社會為什麼不能學習」的現象做分 析，結果發現，這個社會之所以沒有能力從經驗中學習，其中一個很主要的原因是，當一個 社會問題發生了，這個社會只能對這個問題做外部論述，當事人既沒有參與，論述的內容也都 只停留在理念，而沒有進入細節，而且，論述多在沒有情感氛圍之中進行。因此，論述的結 論並不能轉化成當事人實踐和行動的力量，這是這個社會之所以一再重複惡習的重要因素所 在。最後，本文提出基進民主的概念，希望為這個問題的克服提供一些方向。

　　　　　There are many social problems facing us today in Taiwan. Although we have plenty of complaints about the probems, strangely enough, the problems take place again and again.Why does this society have no ability to learn to get rid of these social problems? In this paper, I take"food poisoning"as an example to explore the issue of why this society is unable to learn.It is found that there exists important drawbacks in the public discourse when a social problem does occur. Simply put, the public discourse is always an "external"discourse with no people directly involved participating in the discourse. Under this situation, the discourse always revolves around principles and ideas, not technical details. Moreover, the discourse is carried out in a circumstance with no affective sentiments. It is therefore impossible for the discourse to be transformed into social action. This is why the society repeats itself. In the end, the concept of radical democracy is employed as a remedy to tackle the problems raised.