自由主义:基于理性的政治论说

Liberalism: Political Exposition and Argumentation on the Basis of Reason

无论我们对自由主义持何态度 ,都不可否认它是当今汉语学界的一种显学。由于各种原因 ,在学界占据主流地位的始终是 2 0世纪后半期在西方兴起的以反思启蒙理性为着力点的、以哈耶克、波普和伯林等为主要代表的自由主义思潮。然而 ,由于对自由主义在西方发展脉络 ,尤其是自由主义之最初证成缺乏足够的了解 ,国内学人难以理解哈耶克等人何以要极力辩解自由主义不是建构理性主义 ,误认为其对“理性的滥用”之批判就是要批判理性本身 ,有些人甚至追随某些西方后现代主义思潮 ,断定自由主义抛弃理性仍能得到有力辩护。通过剖析格雷和罗蒂两个学案表明 :自由主义之哲学论证离不开理性 ,否则或失去其本质或沦其为偶然 ,因为自由主义本为探求政治理性之学。不过 ,自由主义并非建构理性政治的惟一通途 。

No matter what attitude we have towards liberalism, it cannot be denied that it is a kind of famous school in the academic field of Chinese. For various causes, what holds the dominant position in academic field has always been the thoughts of liberalism that originated in the West in late 20th century and exerted itself on reflecting enlightened reason and was represented by Hayek, Popper and Berlin. However, for lacking of sufficient understanding of the development of liberalism in the West, it is hard for domestic experts to understand why Hayek and the others tried to explain that liberalism is not constructing rationalism. The domestic experts thought that Hayek's criticism on “abusing reason” was to criticize reason itself, some even pursued some post modern thoughts in the West, and decided that liberalism can still get strong defense when abandoning reason. By analyzing two academic cases of Gray and Rorty, it shows that philosophical exposition and argumentation of liberalism cannot go without reason, or it will lose its nature or falls into a contingency, because liberalism is supposed to be a science that seeks political reason. However, liberalism is not the only way to construct rational politics. There must be some other ways for us to explore.