法学新古典主义:传统法哲学的创造性转化

New Classicism: a Method for the Creative Transformation of Chinese Traditional Legal Philosophy

法学新古典主义是一种对传统法哲学予以创造性转化的方法。它试图赋予古典法思想现代的分析的形式,促使其以新型且系统的表述,为今天的人们提供实践理据。作为对待古代精神的一种态度和对之处理的方法,法学新古典主义区别于历史社会学、法律思想史、新经学。相对于历史社会学将中国文化传统视为现代西方"异类"的态度,法学新古典主义力求展示文化、学术传统的内部多元性;相对于法律思想史将古典法思想视为博物馆珍品的态度,及其将思想还原于历史、社会、文化背景的方法,法学新古典主义重视古代作者思想的个体自洽性,以及其可能为当代人提供的实践理据;相对于新经学视文化学术经典为当然权威的态度,及其原旨主义的文本解释方法,法学新古典主义承认经典具有代表性和影响力,但是古代的经典作者并不能凭借原有的制度或意识形态身份直接凌驾于任何当代对话者之上,他们所创造精神产品的价值仍然有待于根据其表面意思予以重新评价。

New Classicism is a method to concretize the creative transformation of Chinese traditional legal philosophy. Accounting for ancient thoughts of law in a modern and analytic form,New Classicism constitutes new and systemic rhetoric for contemporary people as practical reasons. As an attitude towards ancient spiritual products and a method to reuse them,New Classicism differs from historical sociology,history of legal thoughts,and Neo-Scholasticism. Historical sociology perceives Chinese cultural tradition as one of the"Others"to modern West,which has been encapsulated into an ideal type of internal unity,but New Classicism aims to elaborate the diversity within the Chinese cultural tradition. The historians of legal thoughts treasure ancient products as curators in a museum,and their endeavor is to contextualize the thoughts with historical,societal,and cultural backgrounds. New Classicism values individual coherency,and reckons on the ancients providing practical reasons for the contemporaries as before. New Classicism respects the classics’ as representatives of the tradition and their popularity,but it does not defer to their"unquestionable"authority. The ancients cannot surpass a contemporary interlocutor only because of any outdated institutional and ideological status. The value of ancient spiritual products shall be re-assessed by their literal meaning instead of the reconstructed original intent.