市民社会之于国家现代性的决定性意义

The Decisive Significance of Civil Society to Modernity of the State

现代国家的基础是国民发达的主观自由。黑格尔对此的理解与一般自由主义者不同,他区分了国家和市民社会两个领域,将主观自由分别视为市民社会的第一原则和国家的第二原则。因此,主观自由也可分为对应市民社会的"主观自由I"和对应国家的"主观自由II"。虽然构成国家基础的是"主观自由II",但保障国家现代性的却是"主观自由I"。尽管黑格尔以没有主观自由为由将亚细亚排斥在现代国家之外,但是同时又给了市民社会以培育主观自由的功能,这就为亚细亚通过市民社会来建立现代国家提供了可能性。

The foundation of a modern state is the developed subjective freedom of its citizens. Hegel’s understanding was different from that of liberals in general. He distinguished between the state and civil society,and treated subjective freedom as the first principle of civil society and the second principle of the state respectively. Therefore,subjective freedom could also be divided into "Subjective freedom Ⅰ ",corresponding to civil society and "Subjective freedom Ⅱ",corresponding to the state. The foundation of the state was Subjective freedom Ⅱ,but the guarantee of modernity of the state was Subjective freedom Ⅰ.Although Hegel excluded Asia from modern state on the ground that it lacked subjective freedom,he gave civil society the function of cultivating subjective freedom at the same time,which provided the possibility for Asia to build a modern state through civil society.