波考克如何为马基雅维利辩护

On the Defense of Pocock for Machiavelli

1958年,政治哲学家施特劳斯出版了《关于马基雅维利的思考》,暗中将"美国主义"与"马基雅维利主义"联系起来,重新挑起了美国立国原则的是非之争。1972年,政治思想史家伯林发表长文《马基雅维利的原创性》回击施特劳斯的观点。1975年,当代最著名的政治思想史学派——"剑桥学派"创始人波考克出版了近600页的巨著《马基雅维利时刻》,紧随伯林回击施特劳斯,从此拉开了一场关于美国立国原则的是非之争大战。施特劳斯一派和"剑桥"一派是当代西方政治思想史学界最具影响力的学派,两派的思想冲突也是当代西方学界最引人注目的景观。通过两派的尖锐论争我们可以看到,西方学界的政治思想史研究与西方当下的政治问题有着紧密的现实关联。

In 1958, the political philosopher Strauss published his work Thoughts on Machiavelli, which implicitly links Ameri- canism to Machiavellianism and starts another round of dispute on American principle of statehood. In 1972, Berlin, a historian of political thought, got the paper ＂The Originality of Machiavelli＂ published to challenge the viewpoint of Strauss, which is further argued by Pocock, the founder of the most famous school of political thought -- Cambridge School with his 600-page work The Machiavellian Moment. Thus began a dispute on American principle of statehood. As a matter of fact, the school of Strauss and Cambridge School are two most influential schools in the history of political thought in the contemporary western ac- ademic field and their debate inevitably attracts world＇s attention. Through their sharp argument, it is discovered in this paper that the research on the history of political thought in the western academia is in reality closely related to the political issues at present.