从交往共同体到法律共同体——哈贝马斯对现代西方国家的演进式重构

From Communicative Community to Legal Community: Habermas's Evolutionary Reconstruction of Modern Western Countries

作为西方社会批判理论的代表人物,哈贝马斯对现代西方国家的重构,是建立在其对西方现存国家批判基础之上的。这种批判也经历了从晚期资本主义的危机到生活世界的殖民化的嬗变。哈贝马斯认为法律是挽救现代资本主义的现代性、将生活世界从系统的殖民中解放出来的媒介。这种法律不是现存国家的实证法,而是建立在哈贝马斯重构的法律共同体基础上的法律。虽然法律共同体是现代西方国家的最佳的重构方案,但哈贝马斯的探索也经历了一个从交往共同体到法律共同体的过程。这种法律,是以交往为形式,以商谈为原则,通过对现代西方国家中实用、伦理、道德问题的论辩而产生的。在这一系列商谈过程中,现代西方国家也成为自由而平等公民联合起来的法律共同体。虽然哈贝马斯是基于现代西方国家来构建其法律共同体的,但对当下中国也具有一定的借鉴意义。

As a representative figure of the Critical Theory of Western society, Habermas has reconstructed the modern Western countries based on his criticism. This criticism has also experienced the transformation from the crisis of late capitalism to the colonization of life world. Habermas believes that law is the medium to save the modernity of modern capitalism and liberate the life world from systematic colonization. This law is not a positive law of the existing country, but a law based on the legal community reconstructed by Habermas. Although the legal community is the best reconstruction plan for modern Western countries, Habermas’s exploration is not an overnight process, but it has gone through a process from a communicative community to a legal community. This kind of law based on communication and is produced through practical, ethical, moral, and legal discourses. In this series of discourses, modern Western countries have also become a legal community united by free and equal citizens. Although Habermas’s legal community is built based on modern western countries, it still has certain reference significance for China today.