论阿克顿的历史哲学

On Lord Acton’s Philosophy of History

阿克顿认为自由是历史的一条主线,试图以自由的进步为线索构建他的历史哲学。在他看来,宗教是“自由之母”。基督教是自由思想的来源,不仅否定专制,倡导主权在民,而且是人权思想的源头。宗教自由思想是近代欧美政治革命的深层原因。不过,教会并不总是自由思想的捍卫者,反而在某些历史时刻利用权力对自由构成压制。在这种二难困境下,他诉诸良知,认为基于神圣天启的个人良知,是真正宗教的内在品质。他试图以良知来量度自由,却无法说明什么是良知的进步。阿克顿试图调和信仰与自由二者的努力并不成功,但他所提出的自由史观仍然是一项值得重视,且有待完善的历史哲学。

Lord Acton deemed liberty as a dominant theme in history,and attempted to construct his philosophy of history based on the progress of liberty.In his opinion,religion gave birth to liberty.Christianity is a key source of the idea of liberty,not only for its opposition to despotism,but also for it being the foundation of popular sovereignty.He argued that the freedom of religion was the internal cause of EuroAmerican political revolutions in modern times.But the Church sometimes impeded the progress of liberty,and abused its power.So he resorted to conscience,regarding individual conscience as the inner nature of true religion.Acton tried to judge the progress of liberty by conscience,but was unable to illustrate the progress of conscience.Although his endeavor to reconcile the tensions between religion and liberty failed,his philosophy on the history of liberty is a valuable legacy yet to be perfected by scholars today and in the future.