Review of the research method of the history of political thought in Cambridge school
April 04, 2023 09:40 Source: "China Social Sciences", April 4, 2023, Issue 2624 Author: Du Xiongfei

The "context" method proposed by the leader of the Cambridge School Kun Ting Skinner,It has a broad influence in the field of political thought in the history of political thought,Domestic academic circles also pay more attention to this research method。but but,The "context" method of the school has obvious shortcomings and defects,"Contextism" method should just be the "starting point" of text interpretation,instead of the "upper limit" explained by text。At the same time,"Contextism" method still squeeze、Narrow text explanation of space disadvantages。

As the leading pioneer of the Cambridge school,Skinner systematically discusses the principles of interpretation of historical context。Inspiration of "Words and Behavior Theory" by language philosopher Austin,Skinner thinks,The most important thing we should pay attention to when we deeply penetrate the classic text is the meaning of the words in the text (meaning) or referred to,Instead,What does the author do with text? He praised in the process of intervening in a real political debate、Question、Refutation、What kind of political claims support,These words are expanded in the name of action,and the action contains the intention (intention),Without considering the intention, there is no way to explain the action。In "The meaning and understanding of the history of conceptual",Skinner pointed out,The proper method of studying the history of conceptual history is to describe the specific remarks from the author on specific occasions (ie, text),Then follow the clues provided by these remarks to track it with the more common social context,To restore the authored intention of the author。The "long -lasting problems" processed in the classic text are all fabricated by philosophers,It is even more impossible to draw "Eternal Wisdom" from the classic text。Those so -called "eternal truths" are just accidental products under a specific historical structure。All statements inevitably involved in the political and regional debate of the times,A specific intention reflected in a specific occasion。So,Clarifying the specific position of political text in a certain "spectrum" in a certain argument that becomes very important。Each classic text has its special historical bet365 live casino games background,The "gravity" trying to surpass this specific context discusses abstract philosophical theories may only be naive。Classic text only cares about the author's own problem,Not concerned about our problems,Therefore, there is no unified tradition of ideological history,The efforts of trying to find the solution of the problem of the problems of the current era from the history of thought are tantamount to seeking fish。related to this,Skinner pointed out,In the study of the history of political thought,Concept Historians are easy to make two mistakes: on the one hand,They often tend to put the current ideology、The value concept is imposed to the ancients,Delicate from the classic text seeking "consistent myth" that does not exist at all,Caused the chaos of the times。On the other hand,They often confuse the audio and audiovisual intention,"Bring" some historical concepts from the text will attach their own analysis,Then, in turn, this is the author’s original meaning,This causes misunderstanding of text。

Skinner's discussion on contextualism,Its core points can be summarized as follows。First,The language in the classic text expresses political action,Interests embedded in speech actions。Second,The text of the classic writer (Text) is not self -sufficient,It must be combined with the life deeds of the writer and the context of the times (context) to clarify the authors of the author himself。Borrowing Mencius's explanation attitude of "knowing the world" with an analogy,is: "Poem from its poem,Read its book,I wonder? It is to talk about its world。"" ("Mencius Wanzhang") again,There is no unified political philosophy theme in the history of thought,Some are just a loose collection of all kinds of unparalleled political claims,Therefore, I am looking forward to "Based on History" completely hopeless。After roughly understood the main purpose of Skinner's context theory and its reasonable basis,We think,There are many theoretical shortcomings that are difficult to overcome。

First,closed rigid text interpretation。Skinner used the so -called "specific context" to play a "dead knot" between text and historical context,Lost the original elasticity of the interpretation of the text。This method of "footnotes" of historicism for political philosophers adds historic "footnotes",In fact, it is artificially artificially put on a classic text of the writer a unnecessary "tights",Then the interpretation of the text is firmly Bet365 app download limited in the "information cocoon room" of historical compilation。As Peter Myrs said,"The prerequisite for all thoughts and everything is special,Rather than a key,It is better to say it is a lock "。The price interpretation of this narrow text interpretation of this over -bundled text and historical context lies in,It blocks the "ideological signal",Close the channel for the dialogue between the thoughts of the thoughts of the thoughts and contemporary people,Dowards the relegation of past classic works into "exhibition products" in the historical archives。

Second,Confusion of the distinction between political philosophy and ideology,The vortex of the historicism and relativism。False concern,The reason why the great political writer in the history of thought is written by the book,It's not just to deal with the political tongue of "the short -term long" of "one day",Instead, "What kind of political principles are legitimate? What kind of society is justice?" This fundamental problem is carried out。These thinking aims to provide reasonable for some legitimate political principles and values、Fusion system explanation。Decisure these fundamental principles thinking,It is equivalent to denying self and others about justice、The rational foundation and evidence of the concept of public good equivalent。The "special context" claimed by Skinner has reduced the political ideal or political principles in political philosophy to the ideology of the language symbol in order to win the real political influence,This is equivalent to the potentially eliminated distinction between political philosophy and ideology。

third,Ignore the traditional "fragmentation" research。Skinner claims,Classic text only deal with the problems of your own era,Political classic texts in different times are actually relationships with neighbors,Therefore, there is no unified history of political thought,The history of ideology is nothing more than a series of "Dragon History"。This is just a conclusion based on one -sided facts。Classic text will be limited by the political experience of a specific era,but but,This specific era itself is not independent of the world,It is also a transition stage in a large historical tradition,and the times of the times itself reflects permanent problems to a certain extent。Skinner is too sensitive to the gap between thinkers,As a result, he did not notice the vertical veins of the history of thought。In the study of the history bet365 Play online games of political thought,We often find an interesting phenomenon,A philosopher will praise or rebuke a philosophy of philosophy for hundreds of years or even thousands of years on a philosophical topic。When he strives to criticize the deceased,We don’t think he is "shooting a tiger",Instead, he believes that he is in a dialogue with a far -reaching influence and still active in the current political concept。For example,Hobbes criticized the theory of human nature of Aristotle,Ross's "abstract inheritance" of social contract theory,The premise of these dialogues is,They share the common political language tradition。It is interesting with this,Some famous political philosophers in contemporary contemporary contemporary political philosophy will not avoid it that they have inherited a mantle,and claim to be (new) Platizer、(New) Hobbesist、(New) Kantist、(New) Hegelist、(New) Marxist, etc.。These real inheritance and development relationships fully demonstrate the face of the history of political ideas。As Sherden Wolin said,There are two tendencies in the tradition of Western political thought,That is "the tendency to return to the past" and "accumulated tendency"。That is to say,The past political concept has never disappeared,It will be purified by thinkers and repeatedly、Update、Anti -刍 and condensed into cultural traditions so far。That's why,Study on the History of Political Thought Injecting "Source Living Water" for the current political experience。Besides,The original intention of most scholars to study the history of thoughts is not just to figure out the historical background of the text and the author's intention of the author,Instead, holding "the change of ancient and modern,The mentality of becoming a family "to form a set of overall unique insights。

Fourth,Extremeness of context theory。Skinner's contextual method was originally to fight against the "hidden micro -reading" of the Straus school。In order to avoid the "Time Mistake" generated by the "study" method of the Straphy School of Straphy School,and the endless philosophical controversy breeding of "text center theory",Skinner uses a more conservative "historical" method。Out of the consideration of the risk of interpretation of misunderstandings once and for all,He simply denied the possibility of interpreting the text in philosophy。This method of "pouring bath water with babies together" follows a logic of abandoning food。In fact,The wisdom Bet365 lotto review contained in the text comes from the possibility of multidimensional interpretation,The improvement of text research quality requires a certain "trial and error space"。Reasonable debate is an interpretation risk that must be assumed in any mature text interpretation method,Avoiding this risk will compress the meaning of the text in the narrow historical language,Limited the work of the researcher in the field of history of "I Note Six Classics"。Not to mention,Once the classic text philosophy is excluded,Those ideas and texts hidden in the old paper pile,Archaeological materials in the historical compilation of "unknown category" due to losing the "skeleton"。In the words of Wang Xianqian of the Qing Dynasty: "Righteousness is dry,Attachment later,Analysis of the evidence。"" ("Continuing Ancient Classification Preface") Famous scholar Nathan Tarcov once had a more refined comment on Skinner's extremist context,He believes that Skinner's interpretation method follows simple but catastrophic wrong logic,Makes us forced to make a wrong choice between the other that is the one -oriented choice of the text and the lessons of the lesson of the text and the lessons of the lesson from the text。The way of thinking about thinking obviously has the fallacy of the "false dilemma" reasoning。Actually,Classic text includes both eternal elements and instant elements。That's for this,Skinner's practice of adhering to the extreme historic position in order to fight against the over -explanation of the Schotraus school is overkill。

Fifth,Logic is difficult to consider。This episode is manifested in the following two aspects: one,Any classic text is born from a certain era background,It will inevitably bring the imprint of the times,This is a common sense of explanation。But the fact that the historical background is the "birthmark of the times" of the classic text,Can't directly launch the text that does not contain any eternal element。Simple negative text meaning rises from special historical context to universal abstraction theory.,All texts have the facts of their historical background,It is not necessarily contradictory with the general argument structure displayed by the text。Its two,Under the leadership of Skinner,If you do not attract additional reference standards,It is impossible,Research value of classic works cannot be determined。If what he said,All political texts are unlikely to be some pamphlets that pay attention to current Bet365 lotto review affairs politics,All political theorists are the "public knowledge" of their time。It is difficult for us to understand,Under the premise of completely rejecting the philosophy standard,How to convince us to study Machiaweli、Hobbes and other great thinkers,Instead of spending energy on the end of the political writer。What cannot be ignored is,A large number of scholars go forward to study the motivation of classic writers,It is precisely because of the philosophical vision of their high house and the ability to grasp the fundamental issues far from。

Sixth,The concept of "intention" is not self -explanatory。The concept of "intention" of Skinner Nianzi is the key to understanding its context theory。Skinner thinks,As long as you understand the author's background, you can share the common meaning world with the author,and accurately speculate the authors' real intentions。This is a hypothesis for granted。This assumption faced the first question is,How did he successfully convert from the perspective of a third -person observer to the perspective of the first -person party,To understand the intention of the parties? If he cannot enter the perspective of the parties,It is impossible to determine the "borders" part between the established social context and the author's subjective intention。Second,His assumes that the words and intentions are "Ding to Ding,The corresponding relationship of 卯 卯 卯 卯 卯,This assumption is too simple。In fact,Not only the intention of people is very complicated,And the form of language is also complex and changeable。As Durida said,No matter what your intention is,Language may cover the intention,Show things other than the opinion。Any action intends to be one thing,Can the reader accurately speculate that the intention of the actor is another thing。again,He assumes that the author’s writing intention can only be in his historical era。but,If the writing intention of a classic writer itself is to surpass the limitations of the times,Not only does it talk to the academic peers of the same time,Dialogue with future researchers,What about it? We have full reasons to believe,Dang Hobbs、Locke talked about the abstract topic of "people's life is equal and has the same natural rights",The purpose of its purpose is not to describe the political discourse system of the British in the 17th century,Instead, it is designed to express a more common philosophical proposition that can cross the coordinates of the times。

bet365 best casino games Clample Skinner's context method,In addition to avoiding the weight, it gently persuades readers to transfer attention from "text" to "context",Poor constructive opinions are lacking.。His positive discussion about the interpretation method of the text itself fails to condense the standardized operation process of the system。I think,History context and text are a dialectical relationship of "if it is left",Information circulation between the two is open two -way circuit。Once the vision of "restore theory" is used as the historical context of the text as the "end point",The "context" of the "context" attached to the text is extreme into "doctrine",There is a risk of upside down at the end of this。The context of the text is only a parameter in many reference variables that affect the results of the interpretation of the text,The "absolute" standard that can monopolize the right to interpret text。The relationship between philosophers and historians is not a zero -sum game,The two cannot simplify or eliminate each other。Good text interpretation is not to compete for the right to speak between historical context and philosophical analysis,Instead, it is necessary to form a benign interaction between the two。

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(Author Unit: School of Philosophy of Shaanxi Normal University) 

Editor in charge: Zhang Jing
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