《幽暗意識與民主傳統》闡論

On Consciousness of Darkness and Democratic Tradition

朱曉海(Sherman Chu)

《華神期刊》 2期 (2009/10) Pp. 40-69

https://doi.org/10.30147/CESJ.200910.0002

摘要

1992年榮膺中央研究院院士的張灝先生專攻中國近代思想史，精通中國思想通史，尤重政治思想。1989年5月臺北聯經出版《幽暗意識與民主傳統》，收入十篇文章，包括兩篇張先生訪談記錄。這些文章論及內涵極複雜、牽涉甚廣大的課題，實非筆者才學所能置喙，姑且摘選「幽暗意識與民主傳統」課題，略抒所思所感，幸大雅君子不吝諟正。

並列摘要

The present essay is divided into six sections. The first section recapitulates the main points of Professor Chang Hao's celebrated work ”Consciousness of Darkness and Democratic Tradition.” In section 2, I add a supplement and offer a correction to Chang's arguments from four aspects, particularly those about orthodox Christianity's perspective on the consciousness of darkness in human nature, suggesting that Chang's understanding is far from what is shown in traditional Chinese thoughts and orthodox Christianity. In section 3, I firstly discuss three issues in regard to human nature and democracy: the idea that human nature is evil can lead to anti-democracy; the belief that human nature is evil is not what democratic system is based on; and, non-Christian thoughts had helped to shape democracy, though unintentionally. In light of these philosophical reasoning and historical reality, I clarify the relationship between the consciousness of darkness and democratic systems. In section 4, I demonstrate that there has never been the concept of democracy in traditional Chinese thoughts and Christianity. Instead, both of them have understood the dynastic transition from the perspectives of Heaven's Mandate. However, their understandings of Heaven's Mandate are obviously different from each other in the fundamental sense. Section 5 starts by explaining why we adopt democracy, pointing out that democracy is no more than an expediency for securing liberty for the time being. I further delve into Christianity's viewpoint on liberty, which has been widely saluted. The last section reflects on the democracy-related issues such as whether the Christian church should adopt democracy, the actual degree of the practice of democracy in the Christian church, and whether it should be practiced uncompromisingly.