论保守主义的本质——以埃德蒙·柏克思想为中心的研究

On the Nature of Conservatism——Focusing on Edmond Berke’s Thoughts

如今,“保守主义”一词已经出现泛化的趋势,并引起诸多误解。为重新界定该词的内涵与外延,可以借助对保守主义鼻祖———柏克思想的探讨来认清保守主义的本质。从历史渊源看,柏克思想的核心实际上包括两个方面:第一,强调经验(人类理性的对立物),避免蹈入形而上学;第二,强调传统(上帝意志的中介物),避免蹈入怀疑主义。因此,保守主义的本质也包括这两个方面:既破除理性的权威(保护个人自由),又树立上帝的权威(维持社会秩序)。由于坚持理性的有限性,柏克在处理上帝与个人之间的中介物———历史或传统时,必定会出现无法分辨的困顿,但这种困顿是基于人的有限(与上帝之间有无限之距离),因此是必要的。任何因之对柏克思想的修正都会偏离保守主义的本质。

The meaning of conservatism is becoming obscure and,therefore,leads to a lot of misunderstanding. To define it, we can explore the nature of conservatism by studying the thoughts of the father of conservatism, Edmond Berke. In terms of historical origin, Berke＇s thoughts include 2 aspects： first, he pays more attention to experience （the opposite of human rationality） and avoids falling into metaphysics; second, he pays more attention to tradition （ the medium of God＇s will） and avoids falling into skepticism. Accordingly, the nature of conservatism includes 2 fields too： one is to destroy the authority of rationality （ to protect individual liberty）, another is to build up the authority of God （ to protect the social order）. Sticking to the idea that there is limitation with human rationality, Berke must face the difficulty that he could not distinguish history from tradition, the medium between God and man, but since this difficulty derives from the limitation of humans （ there is an unlimited distance between God and man）, it is unavoidable. Any attempt to amend Berke＇s thoughts will end up deviating from the nature of conservatism.