作为社会自律的自由——对卢梭的自由观念的阐释

Freedom as Social Self-discipline——The Interpretation of Rousseau’s Idea of Freedom

卢梭的自由思想似乎一开始就是一个悖论,比如他在《社会契约论》开篇就说:“人是生而自由的,但却无往不在枷锁之中。”针对这个悖论,笔者考虑了对卢梭的自由观念的三种解释,即民粹主义解释、共和主义解释和社会自律的解释。笔者认为前两种解释都没有抓住卢梭的自由观念的核心,即对压迫和奴役的反抗。只有社会自律的解释把卢梭的自由观念解读为“不被自己之外的意志所支配”或者“服从自己为自己制定的法律”,这种解释抓住了卢梭自由思想中反奴役、非支配的内涵,把卢梭的著作解读为前后一致的整体,并且为佩蒂特的问题——民主自治带来暴政和专制——提供了独特的解答。

Rousseau's idea of freedom seems to be a paradox at the very start.For example,he writes in the beginning of The Social Contract:"Man is born free,and everywhere he is in chains."To solve this paradox,I consider three interpretations of Rousseau's idea of freedom,i.e.,the populist's interpretation,the republican interpretation and the social self-discipline interpretation.I argue that the two former interpretations fail to grasp the core of Rousseau's idea of freedom,that is,against oppression and slavery.The social self-discipline interpretation reads Rousseau's conception of freedom as"not to be dominated by the will other than oneself"or"to obey only the laws that one sets for oneself".This interpretation grasps the core of Rousseau's idea of freedom,reads Rousseau's works as a whole and brings a unique answer to Pettit's question-democratic self-rule produces tyranny and absolutism.