政治语言的追溯与政治理性的捕捉——波考克与邓恩的历史与政治

Political Languages Over Time and the Cunning of Unreason——J.G.A.Pocock's Making Sense of History and John Dunn's Making Sense of Politics

波考克与邓恩都从研究英国政治思想史起家,但是后来的发展路径却不同:波考克始终坚守作为一个历史学家的职志,他主要研究英美及欧陆从文艺复兴以降的政治思想史,而其学术的顶峰则成就于对吉本之罗马史相关问题的研究;邓恩则不同,他从英国政治思想史转及社会主义甚至比较政治的研究,最后则是仿佛成为一个综述人类政治前景的理论家。他们虽然因为对政治思想史的研究方法有若干共识而被称为"剑桥学派"成员,但一位是将理论隐于叙事的历史学家,一位则为意图揭明人类政治本质的理论家。

This essay is a reflection on the different academic paths trodden by J.G.A.Pocock and John Dunn.Pocock,this essay argues,is a historian from the beginning to the end——he manages political theory in his reconstruction of the history of political thought,from his debut research of the English Common Laws to his Magna Opus study of Edward Gibbon.On the other hand,John Dunn's aims are somewhat diversified.Dunn starts out from studying English political thought,then his focus involves the criticism or reformulation of social democracy,and finally he writes as a theorist prophesying the future of human politics.Pocock and Dunn,this essay concludes,play quite dissimilar roles in weaving history and politics into our intellectual world.