交融与创生:西欧文明的三个来源

Blend and Creation:Three Origins of the Western European Civilization

人类文明的多样性,不仅呈现在当代,同样呈现在过去的历史长河里,因此探究历史上不同文明的特殊性非常重要。西欧文明始于公元5世纪,初步成型于11—15世纪,源于古代日耳曼传统、古典希腊罗马文明和基督教不同质的文化。日耳曼人的马尔克村社制度是欧洲文明的胚胎;古典文明,尤其罗马法促使中世纪个人权利概念逐渐形成并进入公法领域,成为法治社会的广泛基础;基督教的政治哲学及政治斗争结束了神圣王权时代,有助于建构起上层政治框架。经过几个世纪的发展,在一定社会条件下,三要素熔为一炉,逐渐生成西欧文明的雏形。很明显,西欧文明是次生的、混合的文明,其创生过程也是不同文明的融合和嬗变过程;16世纪后衍生为资本主义文明,后者表现了不凡的创造力,冲击了整个人类社会,同时也显现了与生俱来的局限性。

The diversity of human civilization exists not only in the contemporary,but also throughout the long history.It's very important for us to explore the particularities of different cultures in history.The Western European civilization,which sprang in the 5th century and took the initial shape in the early second millennium,derived from cultures of various essences:ancient Germanic tradition,Greco-Roman civilization and Christianity.Mark was the embryo of Western European civilization;classical civilizations,especially the Roman law,laid the broad foundation for the law-ruled society by its contribution to the formation of the concepts of personal right in the middle ages and its gradual introduction into the field of public law;the political philosophy and struggles of Christianity ended the age of Divine Kingship and contributed to build up a new social structure.In short,after several centuries of development,the three elements merged as a whole under particular social conditions and transformed into the prototype of the Western European civilization.Obviously,Western European civilization is the secondary and mixed culture.Its creation was the process of integration and transformation of different civilizations.After the 16th century,it turned into the capitalist civilization which showed extraordinary creativity,impacted the whole human society and demonstrated inherent limitations.