Natural Right and History 读书笔记

Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965

B. Locke

At first glance Locke seems to reject altogether Hobbes's notion of natural law and to follow the traditional teaching. 【总论点：洛克对霍布斯的隐蔽继承】

Yet Locke never made a serious effort to elaborate the Law of Nature. His failure to embark on this great enterprise was due to the problem posed by theology【分论点1：洛克对自然法的失败处理源自其神学】202

the distinction between the law of reason, which obliges man as man, and the law revealed in the gospel, which obliges Christians, is preserved by Locke, but his teaching is exposed to a more fundamental and more obvious difficulty.【洛克认为自然法在约束基督徒与人类之间存在差别。这一观点存在困难】He says, on the one hand, that, in order to be a law, it must in addition have as its sanctions divine "rewards and punishments ". On the other hand, that reason cannot demonstrate that there is another life. Natural reason is therefore unable to know the law of nature as a law. This would mean that there does not exist a law of nature in the strict sense.【人类理性无法论证来世生活，因此无法将自然法作为法；甚至根本不存在自然法】 203 This difficulty is apparently overcome by the fact that "the veracity of God is a demonstration of the truth of what he has revealed." That is to say, natural reason is able to demonstrate that the New Testament is the perfect document of revelation. 【但新约的记载可以作为证明从而缓和了这一困难】 204 that Locke would have written a "Politique tirée des propres paroles de l'Écriture Sainte."【但如果圣经完美展现了自然法，那么应该写“神学政治论”而不是“政府论”】 205 What Locke actually did stands in striking contrast to what he said. He himself "always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts." we are forced to suspect that he encountered some hidden obstacles on his way toward a strictly scriptural natural law teaching regarding government. He might have become aware of difficulties.【洛克可能认识到了这一困难，他完全不是按照他说的那样去做】He was a cautious writer. Caution is a kind of noble fear.

A cautious political writer would state the case for the good cause in a manner which could be expected to create general good will toward the good cause. Locke was always, as Voltaire liked to call him,"le sage Locke." 【洛克是一个谨慎的作者】206

However doubtful the status of the complete law of nature may have become in Locke's thought, the partial law of nature, which is limited to what "political happiness"—a "good of mankind in this world"—evidently requires would seem to have stood firm. 【分论点2：洛克实际持“部分”自然法观点】

We must now consider the relation between what we call for the time being the partial law of nature and the New Testament law. 【分论点3：这一“部分”自然法与新约的关系很紧张】 213-4

Locke's political teaching stands or falls by his natural law teaching concerning the beginnings of political societies. Locke's entire political teaching is based on the assumption of a state of nature. This assumption is wholly alien to the Bible.1 From the biblical point of view, the important distinction is the distinction, not between the state of nature and the state of civil society, but between the state of innocence and the state after the Fall. 2 the state of nature would begin after the flood, i.e., a long time after the Fall, which would seem to partake of all characteristics of "the corrupt state of degenerate men."not a "poor but virtuous age"【“自然状态”有悖圣经：1圣经重要的转折是亚当堕落而不是公民社会；2该状态必然在诺亚时期，那个时期是堕落而不是洛克说的美德】 215-6

It can safely be said, we think, that Locke's "partial law of nature" is not identical with clear and plain teachings of the New Testament or of Scripture in general. 【重申论点】

The "partial law of nature" circumscribes the conditions which a nation must fulfil in order to be civil or civilized, like the Chinese , so is not a law in the proper sense of the term.【部分自然法描述的是是否“文明”】

The accepted interpretation of Locke's teaching leads to the consequence that "Locke is full of illogical flaws and inconsistencies”(Gough),is based on what amounts to a complete disregard of Locke's caution, of a kind of caution which is, to say the least, compatible with so involving one's sense that one cannot easily be understood and with going with the herd in one's outward professions.【认为洛克自相矛盾的解读无视了洛克的谨慎】219-20

【回到总论点】Locke deviated considerably from the traditional natural law teaching and followed the lead given by Hobbes.

He thus suggests that, according to Hooker, some men were in fact or accidentally in the state of nature. Actually, Hooker had not said anything about the state of nature: the whole doctrine of the state of nature is based on a break with Hooker's principles. 【对胡克的引用背离了胡克】

In order to be a law, the law of nature must have sanctions, and according to the traditional view those sanctions are supplied by the judgment of the conscience, which is the judgment of God. Locke rejects this view. According to him, the judgment of the conscience is so far from being the judgment of God that the conscience "is nothing else but our own opinion or judgment of the moral rectitude or pravity of our own actions." Or to quote Hobbes, whom Locke tacitly follows: "private consciences . . . are but private opinions.【1 自然法需要制裁；传统认为良心是重要的制裁，但洛克和霍布斯都不接受这一点】221-2

The state of nature is"a state of peace, good-will, mutual assistance, and preservation." ，but Locke demolishes it as his argument proceeds. The state of nature,t government,"pure anarchy.'' It could last forever, "were it not for the corruption and viciousness of degenerate men". The state of nature is "loose." For "the first and strongest desire God planted in man" is not the concern with others, not even concern with one's offspring, but the desire for self-preservation.【2洛克的自然状态一开始的描述是和平的，但随后就被自我保全的欲望所破坏了。评注：这里是其他学者对施特劳斯批评最集中的地方；这一观点错的太离谱了，所引文献也根本无法支撑这一观点】

The state of nature would be a state of peace and good will if men in the state of nature were under the law of nature.But all knowledge of the law of nature is acquired by study, one must be "a studier of that law."By contrast, the condition in which man lives in the state of nature—"continual dangers" and "penury"—make impossible knowledge of the law of nature: the law of nature is not promulgated in the state of nature. Again, we are forced to conclude that the law of nature is not a law in the proper sense of the term.【3 洛克认为自然法需要研究与学习；但自然状态根本无法学习；所以自然法根本不是法。按：这一立论的前提是2；再一次的，施特劳斯式的脚注引用让我们难以辨别这些引用片段的来源与语境】

What, then, is the status of the law of nature in Locke's doctrine? What is its foundation? "Nature . . . has put into man a desire of happiness, and an aversion to misery; these, indeed, are innate practical principles" ，so the happiness and the pursuit of happiness have the character of an absolute right, of a natural right. There is, then, an innate natural right, while there is no innate natural duty， and according to Hobbes, establishes as the fundamental moral fact. Since the right of nature is innate, whereas the law of nature is not, the right of nature is more fundamental than the law of nature and is the foundation of the law of nature.【4 对幸福的追求是洛克学说的基础；因此自然权利先于自然义务。】226-7 It is on the basis of Hobbes's view of the law of nature that Locke opposes Hobbes's conclusions. He tries to show that Hobbes's principle—the right of self-preservation—far from favoring absolute government, requires limited government.【洛克继承了霍布斯的自然法，却反对他的结论】 231

【分论点4：洛克的财产学说与洛克的人性设定】Locke's doctrine of property, which is almost literally the central part of his political teaching. Why, then, is he so anxious to prove that property antedates civil society? 234-5 The law of nature could remain silent about the interests or needs of other men because these needs were taken care of by "the common mother of all".【A情况 富裕则不用照顾他人】 But the natural plenty, the plenty of the first ages, never

became actual plenty during the first ages; it was actual penury, every man was forced to appropriate by his labor what he needed for his self-preservation without anyconcern for other men.【B情况 其实很穷而被迫劳动】So Locke explicitly justifies man's natural right to appropriate and to own without concern for the needs of others by referring to the plenty of natural provisions which was available in the beginning; but such unconcern can be justified equally well on his principles if one assumes that men lived in a state of penury; and it must be justified in the latter manner. To be sum, appropriation without concern for the need of others is simply justified because it is justified regardless of whether men lived in a state of plenty or in a state of penury.【1结论：无论他人富裕与否都可以证成占有】238-9

Yet what man needs for his bare self-preservation is very little and therefore does not require much work; such aspicking-up of acorns. Real work—the improvement of the spontaneous gifts of nature—presupposes that man is not satisfied with what he needs. His appetites will not be enlarged if his views are not enlarged first. The men of larger views are "the rational," who are a minority. Real work presupposes, furthermore, that man is willing and able to undergo the present hardship of work for the sake of future convenience; and "the industrious" are a minority.That the industrious and rational, who work hard spontaneously, take the lead and force the lazy and inconsiderate to work against their will, who are thegreater benefactorsof mankind than those who give alms to the poor;【2 真正养活自己不需要多少劳动；而对摆脱“不方便”的劳动需要更远的视野；具备这一视野便是“理性的”；认真劳动也便是“勤劳的”；这两种人都是少数但领导着大家奋斗。 评注：这一段真正体现了施特劳斯的解读风格。“勤劳”“理性”这一在邓恩解读中作为加尔文天命号召的标志，在施特劳斯这里经冷峻的人性的铺垫后重新定义了“便利”——生活的满足程度——这是施特劳斯的私货，从而顺接了“满足”这一地地道道的现代性命题】243

【继续分论点4 推进洛克的人性解释至自我中心、约定代替自然】Locke's doctrine of property is directly intelligible [understandable] today if it is taken as the classic doctrine of "the spirit of capitalism" or as a doctrine regarding the chief objective of public policy. Since the nineteenth century, readers of Locke have found it hard to understand why he used "the phraseology[term] of the law of nature" or why he stated his doctrine in terms of natural law,because they took for granted what Locke did not take for granted: Locke still thought that he had to prove that the unlimited acquisition of wealth is not unjust or morally wrong. It was indeed easy for Locke to see a problem where later men saw only an occasion for applauding progress or themselves, since in his age most people still adhered to the older view according to which the unlimited acquisition of wealth is unjust or morally wrong. 【洛克的学说类似资本主义精神；十九世纪的读者已经无法理解为什么他要用自然法证明他们已经理所当然的无限制占取；洛克的时代仍然认为那样不道德】The burden[main meaning] of his chapter on property is that covetousness[greedy] and concupiscence[lust], far from being essentially evil or foolish, are, if properly channeled, eminently beneficial and reasonable, much more so than "exemplary[perfect] charity." By building civil society on "the low but solid ground" of selfishness or of certain "private vices," one will achieve much greater "public benefits" than by futilely appealing to virtue, which is by nature "unendowed." One must take one's bearings not by how men should live but by how they do live.

【洛克财产权的主旨是理性和有益的占有；这是洛克的转型，他将自然社会奠基在低、但坚固的、实然的基础而不是应然的美德上。按语：开始施特劳斯式自然法转折的镶嵌】Locke's teaching on property is revolutionary not only with regard to the biblical tradition but with regard to the philosophic tradition as well. Through the shift of emphasis from natural duties or obligations to natural rights, the individual, the ego, had become the center and origin of the moral world, so his doctrine is a still more "advanced" expression of this radical change than Hobbes.【洛克的学说是革命的；自然权利先于自然义务，个人成为道德世界的中心，这一点比霍布斯的表述更advanced；】 According to Locke, man and not nature, the work of man and not the gift of nature, is the origin of almost everything valuable. Not resigned gratitude and consciously obeying or imitating nature but hopeful self-reliance and creativity become henceforth the marks of human nobility. Man is effectively emancipated from the bonds of nature, and therewith the individual is emancipated from those social bonds which antedate all consent or compact that emancipation is achieved through money. In the end, the world which has replaced the rule of nature by the rule of convention. 【人的劳动不是自然的礼物，而是自我创造；人从自然的羁绊中解脱，世界从自然的规定转向约定】246-8

【继续推进分类点4至享乐主义】Locke is a hedonist: "That which is properly good or bad, is nothing but barely pleasure or pain." But his is a peculiar hedonism: "The greatest happiness consists" not in enjoying the greatest pleasures but "in the having those things which produce the greatest pleasures." Themost extensive chapter of the whole Essay, is entitled "Power." For if, as Hobbes says, "the power of a man . . . is his present means, to obtain some future apparent good," Locke says in effect that the greatest happiness consists in the greatest power. 【洛克是个特殊的享乐主义者——“拥有产生最大快乐”的东西；在理解论中他对权力的理解与霍布斯如出一辙,最大的快乐就是拥有最大的权力】 In the absence of a summum bonum[supreme good], man would lack completely a star and compass for his life if there were no summum malum. "The strongest desire is the desire for self-preservation.The primary fact is want. But this want, this lack, is no longer understood as pointing to something complete, perfect, whole. The satisfaction of wants is therefore no longer limited by the demands of the good life but becomes aimless. 【没有了至善的生活，最强烈的欲望就是自我保全；最初的事实就是缺乏，缺乏状态下没有完满；对缺乏的满足不会被美好生活的需求限制，而是被没有目标限制】 So powerful is the natural primacy of pain that the active denial of pain is itself painful. The pain which removes pain is labor. Sufferings and defects, rather than merits or virtues, originate rights. Hobbes identified the rational life with the life dominated by the fear of fear, by the fear which relieves us from fear. Moved by the same spirit, Locke identifies the rational life with the life dominated by the pain which relieves pain. 【痛苦是如此显著，能移除的只有劳动，这产生权利；和霍布斯认为对恐惧的恐惧解放我们一样，洛克的理性生活将避免这一痛苦】

【得证论点】The starting point of human efforts is misery: the state of nature is a state of wretchedness. The way toward happiness is a movement away from the state of nature, a movement away from nature: the negation of nature is the way toward happiness. Just like the primary pain itself, the pain which relieves pain "ceaseth only in death." Since there are therefore no pure pleasures, there is no necessary tension between civil society as the mighty leviathan or coercive society. The painful relief of pain culminates not so much in the greatest pleasures as "in the having those things which produce the greatest pleasures." Life is the joyless quest for joy.【人类最初是一片悲惨；脱离自然的路就是朝向幸福的路；但这一原初的痛苦只有在死后才会环节；既然根本没有快乐，在公民社会和利维坦之间也就没有区别，唯一的快乐就是获得权力。在毫无乐趣的生活中追求快乐】249-51

【这里是阅读施特劳斯最精彩的体验之一：在连绵和细致的线索铺垫后，在本该轻轻结束的地方将结论推至一个令人尴尬而又无法回避的顶点；这里的联想和对比如此巧妙，但根本无法支撑的文本似乎表明——这些论证和线索都是在作茧自缚，政治哲学真正吸引这位哲人的不是论证，而是那天启闪电一般的感觉，穿透了从前苏格拉底到托克维尔的层层文本，劈头盖脸砸到每一个以为或不以为自己是现代人的脸上】