寻求政治自由与个人自由的和谐——论邦雅曼·贡斯当的自由观

Benjamin Constant:Seeking for the Harmony of Political and Individual Liberty

贡斯当认为,人类历史上总共出现过两种不同性质的自由,古代人的自由是一种积极的政治自由,而现代人的自由是一种法律状态下的个人自由。两种不同性质的自由之间虽然存在着一定内在张力但不可偏废任何一方,政治自由必须首先建立在个人自由的基础上,而个人自由的实现也需要通过政治自由才能获得保障。通过不断完善代议制政治制度框架,"政治自由"与"个人自由"的和谐共存局面终能得以实现。

Benjamin Constant （ 1767-1830） ,a French thinker,holds that there are two kinds of liberty in the human history,namely,liberty of the ancients and that of the moderns. The former is an active political liberty,while the latter is a kind of individual liberty under the control of laws. There exists certain inner tension among these two kinds of liberty,but none of which can be emphasized at the expense of another. Political liberty should be based on the individual liberty,and the realization of the individual liberty should be guaranteed by the political liberty. The harmonious co-existence of political and individual liberty relies on the perfect political system of representatives.