作为平等者与成为平等者:“社会”契约论的曲折演进

Being the Equals Vs.Becoming the Equals:on the Tortuous Evolution of“Social”Contractarianism

现代契约论旨在把人们当作平等的个体,并以他们的一致同意为政治共同体及其法权体系确立正当性。但真正符合这一想象的乃是以政治共同体为共享目的的“社会”契约理论,亦即卢梭、康德和罗尔斯所代表的理论传统。作为一种假定的或者人为创制的身份,订约者作为平等者的基础何在?他们又如何成为平等者,以及会成为何种平等者?这是现代“社会”契约论面对的特殊问题,它们蕴含着自然/理性与教化在现代社会中的复杂关系。从这两个问题出发,通过揭示三种理论的演进及其各自的独特性,我们将会看到社会契约的转化性功能及其变化。这一演进过程也展示了社会契约论的理论潜力,即从形式化的公意概念转向实质性的社会公平,并扩展平等公民们政治意志的恰当范围。

The fundamental purpose of modern contractarianism is to establish the legitimacy of political community and its system of law,which is based on the unanimous agreement of individuals presumed as the euquals.But the theories which truly cohere with this image are those“social”contract theories which takes political community as the shared end.In this theoretical tradition,Rousseau,Kant and Rawls are the representative figures.As a presumed or artificial staus,what’s the foundation for the parties of contract to be equals?Furthermore,how can they become equals,and in what sense of equality?These are two unique problems confronting with the modern“social”contractarianism,and they contain the complicated relationship between nature/reason and nurture in modern societies.Focusing on these two problems,we will grasp the transformative role and its adaptation of the social contract by revealing the evolution of those three thinkers’theories and their respective characteristics.The evolution also displays the theoretical potentials of social contractarianism in its moving from the formative notion of general will to substantive social justice,and to extend the proper boundary of the political will of equal citizens.