【作者】 宋雅浪；

【导师】 张铭；

【作者基本信息】 苏州大学 ， 政治学理论， 2009， 博士

【摘要】 埃德蒙·柏克(Edmund Burke 1729-1797)是18世纪后半叶英国重要的政治思想家与政治家,在其从政的大部分时间里,他是辉格党的主要政论家和政策代言人,维护“光荣革命”后所确立的宪政秩序和原则,反对国王擅权专制,捍卫包括广大殖民地人民在内的英帝国人民的自由,主张在尊重传统的前提下,通过审慎、渐进的改革来解决政治问题。柏克积极反对法国大革命,他在反对法国大革命过程中所阐述的一系列原则,成为近代保守主义的核心内容,因此,他被后人冠以保守主义鼻祖之名。本文以柏克尊崇传统、捍卫自由为基本着眼点,力图阐明柏克的自由思想与其开创的保守主义思想之间是相辅相成的,两者共同构成了柏克政治思想的核心。文章首先介绍了柏克政治思想产生的时代背景、柏克的生平及其思想渊源。柏克生活的18世纪,贵族阶级在政治、经济、文化中占据绝对优势。但是,整个社会中还是存在着许多与该体制不相融洽的现象,如王权专制倾向的加强、对殖民地的暴政、激进社会思潮的涌现等。柏克是一位虔诚的基督徒,他精通拉丁文,熟读亚里士多德、西塞罗等古典作家的作品,这些人的思想或多或少对柏克产生了影响。柏克怀着对“光荣革命”后所确立的自由传统的极大认同感和责任心,通过书信、演讲等形式,写出了大量试图改进和解决时局的作品。文章重点论述了柏克的传统观、理性观、权利观和自由观。柏克认为传统是包括理性在内的所有知识的来源。传统由习俗、惯例、成见、制度等构成。柏克并不反对理性,他反对的是启蒙思想家的抽象理性以及他们以抽象理性改造现实世界的努力,柏克强调理性有限度,不能滥用,不能走向理性主义。在柏克看来,权利和自由是多元的而不是一元的,权利和自由是从传统中延续下来的而不是天赋的。并且,自由和社会秩序、宗教、道德等紧密联系在一起。从柏克的思想中不难发现,宪政自由体制能够得以顺利运行必须具备一定的保障条件:即维护英国政治生活中的贵族政治与等级社会形态、法治及政党制度等。文章在对柏克的政治思想进行梳理和简单评析的基础上,又对柏克政治思想的影响和意义进行了综合评价。柏克所开创的保守主义政治思想在理论和实践两方面都对近现代欧美国家产生了重要的影响。文章还比较了柏克的传统保守主义与现代保守主义之间的联系和区别,并通过柏克与潘恩及哈耶克思想的互动与比较,进一步深化了对柏克政治思想的理解。柏克的保守主义思想是在法国大革命这样的社会转型时期为维护英国的政治制度、原则和社会秩序而产生的,因此,全面客观地认识和评价柏克的政治思想,对正处于社会转型时期的我国有着极为深刻的借鉴意义。更多还原

【Abstract】 Edmund Burke (1729-1797) is a statesman and political thinker in the second half of 18th Century. In most time of his political career, he is a theorist and spokesman of Whigs maintaining the principles and order which are established after Glorious Revolution and highly praised by Whigs. He objects autocratic monarchy of George III, defends the liberty of the people in British Empire and her colonies and advocates to settle domestic problems by reform. In a word, Burke is a defender of liberty on the political stage. Burke refused the principles of French Revolution, so he is called the great founder of modern political conservatism.This dissertation tries to elucidate that Burke’s thoughts of liberty and conservatism are complementary to each other and their composition is the character of Burke’s political thoughts. This dissertation consists of five chapters.The first chapter describes the background of Burke’s political thoughts, his life and works. In 18th century, the aristocrat class dominate politics, economy and culture of British society. They also control the moving of the constitutional system. But there are also some phenomenon in this society which shows difference from this kind of system: the strengthen of autocratic monarchy, the despotic rule in colonies, the rising of the radical thoughts, and so on. What Burke faces and should solve in his political career is these problems. The second chapter introduces Burke’s opinions on tradition and reason. Burke believes that tradition is the source of all knowledge including custom, prejudice, institute and habits. In fact, Burke does not oppose reason, What he opposes is abstract reason. He warns that we should never abuse reason. Burke’s insights into the limited role of reason in the social process became nothing less than a cornerstone of the Burken conservatism. The third chapter introduces Burke’s opinions on rights after simply describing the gradual progress of the theory of natural rights. As for Burke, rights are diverse, not monistic. They come from tradition, not from nature. So do the rights of liberty, the most important rights of people. And, liberty, society, order and moral and etc. are correlated with each other tightly. The fourth chapter discusses Burke’s understanding of the constitutional system, which is gradually established after Glorious Revolution. In order to guarantee the liberty nature of this system, there must be a balance between the king and the parliament. Under the guidance of the thoughts of constitutional liberty, Burke puts forward his theory on political party and his concept on empire to direct against the problem of royalist and despotic rule in colonies. The fifth chapter discusses the influence of Burke’s conservatism thoughts in Europe and America as well as compares his thoughts with those of Paine and Hayek. Burke’s conservatism thought was for maintaining Britain’s political system, the principle and the social order. His thoughts not only has the significant influence to many Europe and America’s country, but also has the more profound significance to China that is just during the time of social transformation.In a word, Burke’s political thoughts are consistent. He is a conservative. But what he conserves is liberty. It is very important for us to study and evaluate Burke entirely and objectively.更多还原