从“社会”语义变迁看马克思“国家-社会”理论的范式革命

深刻把握国家与社会之间关系离不开对“社会”语义的历史考察,事实上,独立完整的“社会”概念的生成经历了一个漫长的过程。古典共同体是“社会”与“国家”的共同源头,工商业活动的扩展造成古典共同体的分殊化,导致了“社会”与“国家”之分。黑格尔从苏格兰常识学派那里转译的市民社会概念抽空人类秩序的应然性规范,突出群体生存生活的实然性纽带。马克思继承黑格尔市民社会概念满足人类需要的设定,悬置“社会”的商业交换特征,把“社会”概念的内核转向生产,以生产力发展水平为尺度展现出“社会”的历史面相。一方面,社会形态反映生产资料所有制形式；另一方面,国家需要维护特定社会形态相连的所有制形式。因此,社会形态和国家性质都具有历史维度,国家与社会之间不是孰强孰弱的静态格局,而是以所有制形式为中轴的“经济基础”与“上层建筑”交互作用的动态进程。“社会”语义的分析表明,马克思真正实现了“国家-社会”理论的范式革命。

Exploring the Paradigm Revolution of Marx’s “State-Society” Theory from the Perspective of the Semantic Changes of “Society”

A fully understanding of the relationship between the state and society cannot be separated from a historical examination of the semantics of “society”. In fact, the generation of an independent and complete concept of “society” has gone through a long process. The classical community is the common source of “society” and “state”, and the expansion of industrial and commercial activities has led to the differentiation of the classical community, resulting in the distinction between “society” and “state”. Hegel’s translation of the concept of civil society from the Scottish Common Senses School empties the norms of human order and highlights the practical bonds of group subsistence and livelihood. Marx inherited Hegel’s concept of civil society to meet human needs, suspended the commercial exchange characteristics of “society”, shifted the core of the concept of “society” to production, and presented the historical aspect of “society” based on the level of productivity development. On the one hand, social forms reflect the form of ownership of the means of production. On the other hand, the state needs to maintain specific forms of ownership that are connected by social forms. Therefore, both social form and national nature have historical dimensions, and the relationship between the state and society is not a static pattern of strength or weakness, but a dynamic process of interaction between the “economic foundation” and the “superstructure” centered on the form of ownership. The analysis of the semantics of “society” indicates that Marx truly realized the paradigm revolution of the “state-society” theory.