自由主义是一种普世价值吗?——基于罗尔斯正义理论演变的考察

Is Liberalism a Universal Value? ——A Study Based on the Evolution of Rawls’ Theory of Justice

在《正义论》中,罗尔斯通过契约论的程序推理证成了"自由优先原则",并将之看做是适用于所有社会的普遍准则。在批评之下,罗尔斯认识到,契约论各个环节的设计已经暗含了一种康德式的完备性道德学说和自由主义的理想人格,存在着循环论证的嫌疑,他由此从道德建构主义转向了政治建构主义。在《政治自由主义》一书中,罗尔斯从道德领域退守到政治领域,借助公共理性和重叠共识等概念为其自由主义价值立场进行重新辩护。公共理性等价于相互性,而脱离形而上学的纯形式的相互性本身并不必然能够得出自由主义的结论,为此罗尔斯又只能进一步引入合法性这一概念,求助于美国社会的政治现实,继续捍卫自由主义价值理想。在《万民法》中,晚年的罗尔斯更是不惜使用强力,将自由主义推广至全球,这事实上宣告了理论建构方案的失败。罗尔斯在理论论证上的步步退却表明,自由主义作为一种价值观,缺乏普遍的证成效力,并非如他最初所设想的那样是一种普世价值,而是一种特定时空背景下的特殊的意识形态。

Rawls justified the priority of liberty by the contract procedure in the book A Theory of Justice, and he considered this principle as a universal rule that applies to all societies.Under criticism, Rawls realized that the design of his contract theory contained a kind of Kantian comprehensive doctrine and a liberal personality ideal.To alleviate suspicion of circular reasoning, he turned from moral constructivism to political constructivism.In his book Political Liberalism, Rawls retreated to political affairs from moral affairs.He continued to defend liberal values with concepts such as public reason and overlapping consensus.Public reason is equivalent to reciprocity, but the criterion of reciprocity without metaphysics does not necessarily lead to liberalism.So Rawls had to take the concept of legitimacy further, he thus turned to the political realities of American society to defend the ideal of liberal values.In his later work The Law of Peoples,Rawls even advocated the use of force in order to spread liberalism around the whole world.This actually declared the failure of the theoretical construction.Rawls’ s retreat to theoretical construction shows that liberalism as a value cannot be universally justified, it is not a universal value as he initially thought, but a special ideology applicable to a certain time and place.