历史主义的危机及其消解——对施特劳斯的答复

Crisis of Historicism and Its Settlement--A Reply to Leo Strauss

18世纪兴起的历史主义打破了西方僵硬的自然法传统,为人们理解政治价值提供了一种历史的、多元化的思维方式。施特劳斯则认为,历史主义对人类价值的历史化理解,必然导致人们失去区分善恶的普遍标准,造成历史主义的危机。事实上,历史性的标准绝非就是主观性的标准,历史主义也不能等同于相对主义。施特劳斯之所以断言历史主义将导致政治哲学和人类文明的危机,一方面在于他始终未能跳出传统普遍主义的窠臼,仍然以一元论的视角看待政治价值问题;另一方面,由于传统的历史主义与唯心主义的结合,确实存在滑向相对主义的危机。马克思主义的历史主义既是唯物主义的,也是辩证的,为克服传统历史主义的危机提供了丰富的智识资源。

The rise of historicism in the 18th century broke the rigid tradition of natural law in the west,providing a historical and pluralistic way of thinking for people to understand political values.Strauss believes that historicism understanding of human values will inevitably lead to the loss of the universal criteria for distinguishing the good from the evil,resulting in the crisis of historicism.In fact,the criterion of historicity is by no means that of subjectivity,nor can historicism be equated with relativism.Strauss asserts that historicism will lead to the crisis of political philosophy and human civilization because he has never been able to break away from the traditional universalism and still views the issue of political value from the perspective of monism on the one hand,and the combination of traditional historicism and idealism is indeed running the risk of sliding to relativism on the other hand.Marxist historicism is both materialistic and dialectical,providing rich intellectual resources for overcoming the crisis of traditional historicism.