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From the Original Fear to the Social Fear – On Hobbes' View of Fear and Its Evolution [从原始恐惧到社会恐惧 -论霍布斯的恐惧观及其演变], Master thesis, Political Science, Suzhou University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China 2017.

  • 人类历史的发展,始终与恐惧相伴随。婴儿从脐带断裂开始,就对世界充满了恐惧。这种>始发纽带<断裂带来的恐惧,将贯穿个体成长的进程。并且伴随着人类历史的进程,将会不断产生新的恐惧。在某种意义上,可以说人类的文明就是与恐惧作战的历程。关于人类恐惧的由来,可以从外部和内部两个原因来分析。外部的恐惧主要来自于>空间<和<时间<的未知,而内部的恐惧主要是由人类>生理<和>心理<的弱点导致的。恐惧的因素早已深深埋藏在人性及其生活的世界中。不分宗教、地区、种族、性别、时代等,没有人能摆脱恐惧的困扰。所不同的是,恐惧在不同的人身上和不同的时代会有不同的表现。而当这些恐惧由当时最睿智的思想家,经过深刻的哲学思辨形成系统的恐惧观时,将会成为影响人类文明进程的伟大力量。在西方近现代政治思想中,最早对恐惧进行深刻论述的非霍布斯莫属。在霍布斯看来,正是由于自然状态下的人们,无时无刻不处在对暴力死亡的恐惧中。所以人们在理性的趋使下,出于自我保存的需要,将所有权力都授予主权者,>利维坦<就随之诞生了。在他看来主权者必须足够强大,否则就无法抵御恐惧的威胁。他认为,人类建立国家的原因,就是为了摆脱自然状态中的死亡恐惧。因此,对霍布斯恐惧概念的解读,也就成了我们理解其政治哲学的关键。但由于受到当时种种条件的限制,霍布斯的恐惧观仍然存在着许多不完善之处。首先由于他对战乱的恐惧,导致他迫切渴望和平。他认为要想保卫和平,必须使主权者拥有无限的权力,否则和平就难以维继。这就导致了,他的理论容易走上极权主义的道路。其次由于霍布斯的恐惧观是为其国家起源理论服务的,所以他缺乏对国家产生后的政治恐惧和社会恐惧的论述。最后,由于霍布斯过分强调死亡恐惧,导致其理论在面临自杀问题时出现了矛盾。后世的思想家在其基础上,结合自己时代的特点,发展了霍布斯的恐惧观。从而使得西方政治哲学中的恐惧观经历了从霍布斯的原始恐惧,到政治恐惧,再到社会恐惧的历程。对于政治恐惧的论述,我主要以孟德斯鸠和托克维尔为例,分别论述了他们对极权专制和多数暴政的恐惧。而对于社会恐惧,我以弗洛姆和鲍曼为例,分别论述了他们对自由和现代性的恐惧。这里需要说明的是,这三种恐惧之间并不是相互替代的关系。它们往往是共存于同一时代的,所不同的是在不同的时代其恐惧的侧重点不同。在现代国家产生前,人们的恐惧主要以原始恐惧为主。在现代国家产生后相当一段时期,恐惧的类型则集中表现为政治恐惧。而在当代社会,我们正处于社会恐惧的阶段,>风险社会<和<全球化<加剧了我们的恐惧。>现代性<的滋长带来了焦虑的蔓延,导致现代人大多生活于一种虚无的境况中。在工具理性和科学技术主导的时代,人自身的价值被忽略,这带给现代人一种极大的恐惧。为了逃避这种恐惧,他们试图通过彻底地纵欲或者禁欲来缓解内心的虚无。但不幸的是这些方法带来的只是暂时地安宁,当激情褪去,恐惧又会重新袭来。这种个体摆脱恐惧的尝试,之所以难以成功就在于他所生活的环境没变。人作为社会的动物,生活在社会之中,必然要受周围环境的影响。所以要想从根本上缓解这种恐惧,需要个人和社会两方面的努力。只有通过重新寻回>自我<和营造一个>健全的社会<,才有可能真正缓解社会带来的恐惧。对于缓解现代人焦虑的手段,我以为应该从价值的重构入手。它主要包括:重新发现自我、重新认识平等、重建积极自由和重回爱的怀抱四个方面。在当代社会,能否缓解这一恐惧,不仅关系到社会的稳定和政府的存续,更关系到我们人类的幸福和未来。
  • The development of human history always accompanied with fear. The world is full of fear to a baby when he separated from his mother. The fear of the fracture of the >original bond< will go through the process of personal growth. And with the development of human history, some new fears will be created. In some sense, it can be said that human’s civilization is a process of fighting with fear. The origins of human fear can be analyzed from both internal and external reasons. The external fear is due to the unknown >space< and >time<, and the internal fear mainly comes from the human’s weakness of >physical< and >psychological<. The factors of fear have been deeply buried in the human’s nature and life. Regardless of religion, region, race, gender, age, etc., no one can get rid of fear. The difference is that different ages and life experience can make a difference in fear. And when fear suffers a profound philosophical speculation by the brightest thinkers, it will form a system and become the great power to influence the process of human civilization. In the modern Western political thoughts, Hobbes is the earliest man who has deeply discussed fear. In Hobbes’s view, because of the people who live in the natural state always in fear of violent death, so under the drive of rational and due to the need of self-preservation, they will rant all rights to a sovereign. At the same time, the >Leviathan< is born. In his view, the sovereign must be strong enough, or unable to resist the threat of fear. In order to get rid of the fear of violent death, human beings begin to establish the country. Therefore, the understanding of the concept of fear has become the key to Hobbes’ political philosophy. But due to the limitation of various conditions at that time, the Hobbes’ views of fear still have many limitations. Firstly, he deeply desires peace because of the fear of war. In order to safeguard peace, he thinks that we must give a sovereign infinitely power. As a result, his theory easily leads totalitarianism. Secondly, his view of fear serves the theory of country’ origin, so it lacks the discussion about political and social fear. Finally, because Hobbes emphasizes death fear too much, so his theory can’t explain suicide. Later thinkers laid on the basis of it and combined the characteristics of their age, and then developed the Hobbes’ view of fear. The western political philosophers’ view of fear have experienced from Hobbes’s original fear, political fear, and then to the social fear. For the political fear, I mainly take Montesquieu and Tocqueville as the examples. For the social fear, I take Fromm and Bauman as the examples. Most important, the three kinds of fear can not be replaced by each other. They often co-exist at the same time, the difference of them is that there are different fears in different times. Before the country appeared, people’s fear is mainly composed of the original fear. During the period of the modern state, it is given priority to political fear. In contemporary society, we are in a stage of social fear, and the >risk society< and >globalization< has heightened our fear. The rise of >modernity< leads to the spread of the anxiety, make most modern people live in a nihilistic situation. In the time of the tool rationality and science and technology, people’s own value is ignored, this bring deeply fear to modern people. In order to avoid this kind of fear, they attempted to ease inner emptiness through acolasia or abstinence. But unfortunately these methods can only bring temporarily peace, when passion fades, the fear will hit again. This attempt to escape from fear by individuals is difficult to success, because they ignore the environment they lived. Man as a social animal, living in a society that is easily affected by environment. So as to root out this fear, needs the efforts of the two aspects of individual and society. Only through rediscover >ego< and to build a >perfect society<, it is likely to ease the fear of society. To ease the modern means of anxiety, I think that we should reconstruct value. It mainly includes: to find yourself, to recognize equality, to reconstruct positive liberty and back into the arms of love. In contemporary society, whether can alleviate the fear or not, it not only relates to the social stability and the existence of the government, but also relates to our human happiness and future. [Author’s translation]

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Metadaten
Author:Yong-gang Wang
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2017
Release Date:2019/03/04
Format:no download and copy possible
IdNo:Wang_Yong-gang_2017
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):
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