共和理想与公共意见的限制:休谟的国家理论考察

摘要/Abstract

摘要： 休谟的国家理论包含两个维度：一个是规范意义上的，即认为政治制度有野蛮与文明之分，只有文明的政府才能维护社会的稳定、自由与繁荣，其理想形式是经过科学设计的共和制政府；另一个是经验意义上的，即认为政府权威建立在人们公共意见的基础之上，其形成有着自然的历史过程，并随着经济社会条件的变化而变化。在这两个维度的基础之上，休谟一方面探讨了商业、风俗及理性的发展如何影响人们公共信念的变化，进而推动人类政治从野蛮走向文明的变化过程；另一方面，休谟指出，鉴于社会大众易受迷信的影响，社会的明智之士应当采取“审慎的社会变革观”，在尊重传统和保持权威的条件下推动正义和自由的实现，并要防范可能出现的风险。

关键词: 休谟, 国家理论, 共和, 公共意见, 商业社会

Abstract: Discussions on Hume's social political theory have been dominated by two major perspectives of civic humanism and natural jurisprudence, which focus on Hume's theory of justice and civic virtues but pay little attention to his theory on state.This paper looks into the work of political theorists such as Istvan Hont and Paul Sagar to explore the important position of Hume's state theory and clarify the internal logic of a nation's evolution from barbaric state to civilized state. Hume's state theory contains both normative and empirical dimensions. In the normative sense, the political system can be categorized into barbarism and civilization. In Hume's view, only a civilized government can maintain social stability, freedom and prosperity. Its ideal form is a scientifically designed republican government. In the empirical sense, the legitimacy of the state rests upon public opinions and its formation has to be an innate historical process, and has to change along with changing economic and social conditions. Hume, on one hand, points out how the evolution of commerce, custom and reason affects public opinions and promotes the change of politics from barbarism to civilization; however, on the other hand, due to the prevalent superstition among people, he also suggests that "prudent politicians" should take an incremental approach to promote justice and freedom in order to maintain authority and avoid possible risks.Hume deals with the contradiction of the twin dimensions with his division of mankind into two classes of "abstruse thinkers" (philosophers) and "shallow thinkers"(the bulk of mankind).

Key words: Hume, state theory, republic, public opinion, commercial society

徐志国. 共和理想与公共意见的限制:休谟的国家理论考察[J]. 社会杂志, 2019, 39(5): 80-105.

XU Zhiguo. The Republican System Ideal and the Limitation of Public Opinions: Hume's State Theory[J]. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 2019, 39(5): 80-105.

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