历史唯物主义法学原理中的有机体隐喻探源

Exploring the Metaphor of Organism in the Legal Theory of Historical Materialism

马克思对“法的关系根源于物质的生活关系”命题的原初完整表述,采取了有机体隐喻的形式。流行叙事主要联系黑格尔法哲学来理解这个命题本身及其隐喻表述,但这是不够的。从黑格尔的国家有机体隐喻到马克思的市民社会有机体隐喻,其间的直接继承关系并不像乍看之下那样确定无疑。仔细探究马克思有机体隐喻的多重源头,其中的法兰西因素值得充分关注。黑格尔法哲学批判只是马克思用以解决自身疑问的“第一项工作”,而在一度跟黑格尔法哲学批判缠绕在一起的所谓“第一阶段政治经济学考察”(1843年底至1844年初)中,马克思亦分析和回应了“法兰西思潮本身的内容”。萨伊的著作,为重新理解这个阶段马克思思想发展提供了主要线索,其中向马克思率先示范了市民社会有机体隐喻和相关的生物学资格,也同其他近代法文著作一道,为人们开辟了在黑格尔主义之外重释历史唯物主义法学原理的可能性。马克思对有机体隐喻的运用,关乎法律世界的祛魅、社会科学与自然科学的会通、科学著作中的修辞因素等重大问题,值得我们深入思考。

Karl Marx adopted the metaphor of organism in his original and complete formulation of the proposition that "legal relations have their roots in the material conditions of life". In terms of understanding the true meaning of Marxist theories of law, the usual mentality of leaving aside the rhetorical form in the theory formulation and going directly to the theories is obviously limited. In fact, the metaphor of organism indicates a hidden path into the field of historical materialism because metaphor, as a special rhetorical form, also contains a specific way of imagining things. Popular narratives mainly relate to Hegel, especially his philosophy of law, to understand this proposition and its metaphorical expression, but this is not enough. The direct succession from Hegel’s metaphor of the state as organism to Marx’s metaphor of the society as organism is not as certain as it may seem at first glance. Marx’s critical commentary on Paragraph 269 of Elements of the Philosophy of Right already showed that he had consciously reviewed Hegel’s way of expression, nor did he agree with Hegel on the description of the key object of society. Moreover, Marx could also well acquire the metaphor of organism in the classical propositions from Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Fichte, Savigny, Gans and others. If we carefully explore the multiple sources of Marx’s organism metaphor, the French elements that the popular narratives have not paid enough attention to will emerge. The French trend of thought opened up an ideological world and a practical plan that Marx could not easily bypass in order to achieve and reflect on modernity. The Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right was only the "first work" that Marx used to address his many questions, and it is not exactly the same as the extant manuscript of The Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction published by him in German–French Annals. In his "first critique of political economy"(late 1843-early 1844), Marx also focused on analyzing and responding to "the content of French thought per se ", even though this work was once entwined with the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Say’s works, highly regarded by Saint-Simon, Hegel, and Proudhon, provide an important clue to the reorganization of Marx’s intellectual development in this stage. Those works first demonstrated to Marx the metaphor of society as organism and related biological qualifications, and, together with other modern French works(including those of Rousseau and the physiocrats as well as the French translation of Smith’s works), opened up the possibility to reinterpret the origin of the legal theory of historical materialism beyond Hegelianism. Marx’s application of the organism metaphor is related to important issues such as the disenchantment of the legal world, the convergence of social science and natural science and the rhetorical elements in scientific works;thus it deserves deep consideration.