伦理共同体与政治共同体——重读康德的《单纯理性限度内的宗教》

Ethical Community and Political Community——Rereading Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone

为了从共同体的秩序上把"伦理的"与"律法的"区分开来,康德首先区分了伦理的自然状态与律法的自然状态;然后又认为只有自由才是人性的本质规定性。在此基础上,康德认为所谓的"伦理共同体",其实超出了我们人类的理解,我们只能将其作为一种信仰存留在自己心中;而对"政治共同体"来说,最大的问题是:如果不以一个更高的道德存在者为前提,而是仅仅因为单个人自身的不足才必须走到一起来,那么我们就不知道这样一种律法共同体作为一个整体的合法的外在强制(哪怕说成是为了促进共同的善的"道德法则")是否能够为我们的理性所支配;不知道,但却必须服从,否则就会退回到律法的自然状态中去。这就是康德所想告诉我们的道理。

In order to differentiate the ＂ethical＂ from the ＂legal＂ in terms of the order of community, Kant firstly distinguished between the natural state of ethics and that of legality, and then he believed freedom was the only essential character of human nature. Thus, Kant thought that so-called ＂ethical community＂ was beyond our human＇s comprehension power, and we could only keep it in our mind as a belief. As for ＂political community,＂ the biggest problem was that, if without a premise of a higher ethical being, we could not know whether such a legality community as a whole legal external mandatory one could be under the control of our reason. Without knowledge, we had to obey; otherwise, we might go back to the natural state of legality. This is what Kant wanted to tell us.