激情与理性:斯宾诺莎论社会契约的双重基础

Passion and Reason:Spinoza on the Double Foundations of Social Contract

和众多近代自然法家一样,斯宾诺莎通过社会契约论的方式构建国家。不同的是,斯宾诺莎拒绝将社会契约建构在理性自然法的基础之上,而是极力挖掘激情对于社会和国家的重要意义。结合《神学政治论》《伦理学》《政治论》等核心文本,澄清恐惧、希望和同情等激情对于社会契约的奠基性作用,同时指出:无论在自然状态还是公民状态中,理性的作用从未缺席,而是始终与激情融合在一起,二者以某种“居间状态”的形式成为建立和维系社会契约的基础。社会契约的这种构造方式,既为现代国家奠定了新的基础和秩序,又在根子上为现代国家埋下了种种危机。

Like many modern naturalists,Spinoza proposed constructing the state through social contract theory.The difference is that Spinoza rejected the idea of basing the social contract on rational natural law,and instead sought to explore the significance of passion for society and the state.On the basis of the core texts of Theological-Political Treatise,Ethics and Political Treatise,the paper clarifies the essential role of passions,such as fear,hope and sympathy in the social contract;meanwhile,it points out that reason has never been absent in either the state of nature or the state of citizens,but has always been integrated with passion,with the two becoming the foundations for establishing and maintaining social contract in the form of“intermediary state”.Constructing the social contract in this way can not only lay a new foundation and order for the modern state,but also result in various crises for the modern state.