政治审慎:重申作为一种智慧的政治学

Political Prudence and the Recovery of Politics as Wisdom

在古典政治学中审慎作为一种重要德性,但现代政治学界忽视传统意义上的审慎德性,忽视政治学曾经作为一种智慧的能力。作为一种在实践中知道伦理上该如何行动的理智德性,审慎所包含的实践性、价值关怀和慎思能力要求政治学在以实践为其品格的同时还需要以哲学为导向:基于审慎的政治智慧要求政治行动者对其行动具有反思和判断的能力,政治理论应避免割裂理论之普遍性与政治实践的具体情境,不能将政治实践简化为一门纯粹应用性的政治技艺;审慎除了要考虑具体的事情外,还需要关于普遍的知识,也即政治生活中的判断或谋划应当受到政治哲学在理论上的引导。

In the view of ancient writers, politics has the same quality as prudence, which is ignored in modern politics, and in its way to science, politics just loses its capacity as wisdom. Prudence, one of the intellectual wisdoms in ancient philosophy, is regarded as the ability to consider what is actually good for oneself in given situations, thus the recovery of prudence in modern perspective could be helpful to recover the capacity as wisdom of politics as it used to be. The link with practice, the focus of good and the requirement of deliberation entailed in the virtue of prudence, brings the politics back to experience, thus making it distinct from politics skill on one side, and manifesting the fact that politics should be guided by philosophy on the other side.