卢梭对古典政治的考察:古代意象的现代启示

相较于许多现代政治思想家,卢梭的一个独特之处在于古代历史及政治理论在他的思考中扮演着重要角色。这不但体现在他对古典政治体的推崇和追慕,而且体现在他将某些古典问题及语汇纳入自身理论的尝试。本文将通过梳理卢梭笔下的斯巴达和罗马共和国,尝试初步呈现他对古典政治的考察,以及这些考察对卢梭政治理论建构的作用。对于这两个意象,以往研究多将它们解释为用以批判现代问题的典范。本文则试图表明这不是卢梭考察的全部内容:一方面,斯巴达与罗马之间存在差异,它们是在不同的历史背景下,通过不同的制度安排得以实现的;另一方面,卢梭对古代政治并不是简单接受,他看到了斯巴达和罗马的衰落,他对古典政治思想资源的择取反映的是对当时政治问题的思考。

Compared with many modern political philosophers,Rousseau is ditinguished by the fact that the ancient history and political theory play an important role in his thinking.Rousseau not only admires and praises highly the ancient city-state and republic,but also attempts to incorporate some classical questions and conceptions into his own theory.By analyzing the images of Sparta and Rome,this article seeks to present preliminarily his investigation into the politics of antiquity and the significance of this investigation for the construction of his political doctrine.Sparta and Rome are generally interpreted as the perfect example to criticize the modern political problems.This,however,is not the whole content of Rousseau's investigation.On one hand,Sparta and Rome are not the same,because they are realized by different constitutions against different backgrounds.On the other,the attitude of Rousseau towards the politics of antiquity is not a simple acceptance:he learns lessons from the decline of Sparta and Rome,and the selection of ancient political philosophy reflects his thinking about the contemporary political issues.