十七世纪科学革命与自然法的衰变

The Scientific Revolution in the Seventeenth Century and the Decay of Natural Law

理解自然法的关键在于理解自然,自然观的变化必然引起自然法的变迁,自然观的最近一次巨变发生在十七世纪,那时的科学革命驱逐了上帝、否定了自然背后的善。新的自然观认为世界是价值无涉的和机械式的,这使得自然法不再以善为基础,而立基于人的自然本性。这种以霍布斯为代表的近代自然法把法奠基在人的欲望或理性之上,并把法还原为一种主观权利,从而认为主观权利决定法律,不是法律规定权利。自然法从人的内心约束变成了外在革命的工具,这是一场退步。

The key to understanding natural law lies in understanding nature. The change of nature will inevitably lead to the change of natural law. The most recent great change of nature occurred in the seventeenth century. At that time,the scientific revolution expelled God and denied the goodness behind nature. The new view of nature holds that the world is value-free and mechanical,which makes natural law no longer based on good,but based on human nature. This modern natural law,represented by Hobbes,lays the foundation on the human desire or rational foundation,and restores the law to a subjective right. So natural law has changed from the inner restraint of man to the tool of external revolution. It is the decay.