霍布斯与西方近代自由主义的兴起

霍布斯是西方近代政治思想史上著名的政治思想家,他继承了马基雅维利现实主义的政治研究方法,运用自然法与社会契约理论全面论述了人与国家的关系这一西方传统政治研究的主题。表面看来,提出君主专制主张的霍布斯的政治思想与自由主义是格格不入的,但实际上他在政治的人性基础、国家的必要性、国家权力的范围以及个人自由的依据和内容等问题上的见解对现代自由主义产生了深刻的影响,在一定程度上奠定了现代自由主义的思想基础。

Hobbes & Modern Western Liberalism

Hobbes is one of the most important political thinkers in the history of the modern Western political thoughts, who inherited the realism in political study introduced by Machiavelli, and probed comprehensively the relationship of individual and state based on his theory of natural law and social contract. In perspective of the main stream, his argument of monarchy absolutism is anti\|liberalism, but in fact he produced deep effect on the modern liberalism. To some extent, his thoughts on human nature, the necessity of state, the limits of state power, and the sources and contents of individual freedom set the basis of modern liberalism.