西方政治哲学的产生与历史演进

The Emergence and Historical Evolution of Western Political Philosophy

西方政治哲学的渊源可以追溯到公元前2800多年的米诺斯文明,但真正的源头是《荷马史诗》,苏格拉底创立了西方历史上第一个理论形态的政治哲学。西方政治哲学理论化阶段沿着两条进路展开:一是苏格拉底开启的构建目的论政治哲学的路线;二是斯多亚派创始人芝诺开启的构建自然法政治哲学的路线。马基雅维利开启了西方政治哲学现代化进程,其根本特征是政治哲学家不再将政治哲学奠基于本体论,从宇宙本体演绎人类本性,而是将政治哲学局限于人性,通过观察和分析人类行为和社会现实揭示人类本质。自19世纪80年代,西方政治学主要朝着规范政治学研究和实证政治科学研究两个方向发展,西方现代政治哲学在其中都有所体现。西方政治哲学的历史演进告诉我们,政治哲学要始终保持对政治现实的反思、批判的态度,通过反思批判现实政治揭示政治本性,并以之作为应然要求促进现实政治走向应然政治。

The origin of western political philosophy can be traced back to the Minoan civilization over 2800 B.C.,but the real source is Homer’s Epic.Socrates created the first theoretical form of political philosophy in western history.The theorizing stage of Western political philosophy develops along two paths:one path is the route of constructing teleological political philosophy started by Socrates;the second is the route of constructing the political philosophy of natural law initiated by Zeno,the founder of the Stoic school.Machiavelli initiated the modernization process of Western political philosophy,whose fundamental feature is that political philosophers no longer base political philosophy on ontology and deduce human nature from the ontology of the universe,but limit political philosophy to human nature and reveal human nature through observation and analysis of human behavior and social reality.Since the 1880s,Western political science has mainly developed into two directions:normative political science research and empirical political science research.Western modern political philosophy has been reflected in both directions.The lessons learned from the historical evolution of western political philosophy tell us that political philosophy should always maintain a reflective and critical attitude towards political reality,reveal political nature through reflection and criticism of realistic politics,and take it as a “should be” requirement to promote realistic politics towards “should be” politics.