罗尔斯的契约主义与政治哲学的证明

Rawls's Contractualism and the Justification of Political Philosophy

证明是政治哲学极为重要的一个组成部分。自霍布斯以来,西方政治哲学提供了两种主要的证明,即古典契约论和功利主义。但是这两种证明都存在着巨大的难题。罗尔斯综合古典契约论和康德道义论的优点而提出一种新契约论,其基本思路是:对正义原则的最好证明就是自由、平等的人们之间达成的一致同意。罗尔斯的契约主义建立在两个基本概念之上,即“原初状态”和“无知之幕”。本文最后讨论了内格尔对罗尔斯的批评。

Justification is a most important part of political philosophy. Since T. Hobbs, Western political philosophy provides two main justifications: the classical theory of contract and utilitarianism. However, both justifications involve great difficulty. Synthesizing the classical theory of contract and Kant's deontology, John Rawls advances a new theory of contract, whose basic idea is that the best justification for principles of justice is the agreement among free and equal people. Rawls's contractualism is based on two conceptions of the original position and the veil of ignorance. The last part of this essay discusses Thomas Nagel's criticism of John Rawls.