“法律沉默下”的自由——霍布斯对自由的理解

The Freedom under "the Silence of the Law"——Hobbess' Explanation of Freedom

作为近代早期的思想家,霍布斯对自由作了新的阐释。他认为自由是指在自己行动能力的范围内看不到任何阻碍。在社会状态下,对公民的自由而言,自由则意味着依赖于"法律的沉默"。这就是指,如果法律没有禁止你的行动,你就完全可以按照自己的意愿去行动。因此,自由与政治体制没有直接联系,它只是与法律的多少密切相关,无论在民主制还是君主制下,自由都是一样的。正是这个意义上,霍布斯被认为是"消极自由"的代表。

As a great thinker , Thomas Hobbes expressed his view acout freedom. He defined freedom as one that person is capable of acting at his will without any hindrance, to be free as a member of a civil society, Hobbes claimed that the extent of your civil liberty basically depends upon ' the silence of the law'.This mean that so long as there is no law to which your will must conform, you remain in full possession of your freedom as a subject.Thus ,the extent of your freedom as a citizen only depend upon the how many laws are made, there is any direct connection between the political institution and the maintenance of individual liberty. In this case ,Hobbess's view about freedom was regarded as the Negative freedom.