A Brief Discussion of the Basic Spirit of Hobbes’s Religious Theology

A Brief Discussion of the Basic Spirit of Hobbes’s Religious Theology

略论霍布斯宗教神学的基本精神

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English materialist philosopher, political thinker, and one of the famous representatives of the classical school of natural law. The era in which he lived was often plunged into extreme religious chaos. Situated amid the fierce religious conflicts of England and Europe, Hobbes attached great importance to the topic of religious theology. In his famous work *Leviathan*, nearly half the length is devoted to discussing religious questions—that is, Parts III and IV of *Leviathan*—and there are more than 700 direct citations of the *Bible*. From this it can be seen that religious-theological thought occupies a very important position in Hobbes’s vast theoretical system. Hobbes accordingly established and constructed his own system of religious-theological thought. On the one hand, as an outstanding thinker, in his struggle against religious theology he not only exposed the falsity of religious ideas but also resolved to shake and overthrow the theological theoretical system that constituted the religious worldview. On the other hand, he offered some reasonable and valuable discussions on the isomorphic unity of religious theology and politics, the rational construction of theology and social order, and the inner logic of religious theology and philosophy.

托马斯·霍布斯（Thomas Hobbes）（1588-1679）是英国唯物主义哲学家、政治思想家、古典自然法学派的著名代表之一。其生活的时代常常陷入极端的宗教混乱之中。身处英国和欧洲宗教激烈冲突的环境，霍布斯高度重视宗教神学这一论题。他在其名著《利维坦》中，差不多有一半的篇幅是在谈论宗教问题，即《利维坦》的第三、四部分，更有700多处直接引用《圣经》的地方。由此可见，宗教神学思想在霍布斯的庞大理论体系中占据着十分重要的地位。霍布斯也因此确立和建构了其自身的宗教神学思想体系。一方面，霍布斯作为一位杰出的思想家，在同宗教神学的斗争中，不仅揭露了宗教观念的虚假性，而且决心动摇并推翻构成宗教世界观的神学理论体系。另一方面，他对宗教神学与政治的同构统一，神学与社会秩序的理性构建，宗教神学与哲学的内在逻辑进行了一些合理的、富有价值的论述。

I. Exposure and Critique of the Essence of Religious Theology

一、对宗教神学本质的揭露和批判

Hobbes lived in a period of acute economic and political upheaval in England. The main period of his activity and theoretical formation coincided with the high tide of the English bourgeois revolution; he witnessed both the victory of the revolution and the restoration of the feudal monarchy. Moreover, the rapid advances in the natural sciences in Europe during this era—such as astronomy, geography, mathematics, and especially physiology—had an extremely significant influence on the formation and development of Hobbes’s anti-religious-theological thought. Proceeding from materialist principles, Hobbes launched a critique of the theological ideas propagated by religious theology concerning the existence of spiritual entities such as God, angels, and the soul. He held that these were contrary to human natural reason; that people had in their minds ideas about God, angels, and the like, and believed in their existence, was entirely due to ignorance of nature. He said: “There are some people who seldom or never study the natural causes of things, and so are inclined to suppose and fabricate all sorts of invisible powers, creating all kinds of gods. And the ruling class, by ‘cultivating and adorning’ the natural seeds of religion, are thereby able to rule others.” From this we can see that Hobbes, to a certain extent, revealed the cognitive and social roots of the emergence of religion and arrived at an atheistic conclusion.

霍布斯生活于英国经济、政治急剧动荡的时期。其主要活动和理论形成时期，正值英国资产阶级革命的高潮，他目睹了革命的胜利和封建王朝的复辟。加之这个时代，欧洲的自然科学，如天文学、地理学、数学，尤其是生理学的突飞猛进，对霍布斯的反宗教神学思想的形成与发展有着极其重大的影响。霍布斯从唯物主义的原则出发，对宗教神学宣传的上帝、天使、灵魂等精神实体存在说的神学思想展开了批判。他认为这些是同人的自然理性相违背的，人们在思想上存在关于上帝、天使之类的观念，并相信他们的存在，这是完全出于对自然的无知。他说：“有一些人很少或者并不研究事物的自然原因，就倾向于假想并虚构出各种不可见的力量，创造出各式各样的神来。而统治阶级对产生宗教的自然种子‘加心培育、加以装饰’，他们就足以统治别人。”我们从这里可以看出，霍布斯在一定程度上揭示了宗教神学产生的认识根源和社会根源，得出了无神论的结论。

In Europe under the shackles of medieval theology, Christian theology, whose purpose was to demonstrate God and religious doctrine, had always worn the cloak of pseudo-science; moreover, it compelled all other sciences to serve it. Through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, people’s thinking achieved great liberation, and they began to struggle against Christian theology, but this struggle was marked by great incompleteness. Hobbes, however, directed the fire of his critique at the highest institution of Christianity—the Roman papacy. He held that the papacy’s most sinister intention was to treat the earthly church as the Kingdom of God, that this was entirely an abuse of the *Bible*, the most absurd dogma, and at the same time the source of all spiritual darkness. In addition, he used rationalist principles to reinterpret the *Bible*. In his representative work *Leviathan*, Hobbes meticulously sketched the picture of the Christian kingdom, offering a rational explanation of a series of issues such as the soul, prophecy, miracles, and the afterlife. For example, Hobbes gave a materialist explanation of “spirit” and “body,” and then cited the usage of “Holy Spirit” in the *Bible* to argue for their consistency. Hobbes held that “body” and “substance” were merely different names for the same thing, and that all substances have body. Hobbes’s definition of “spirit” (Holy Spirit) was: “In ordinary language it refers either to a thin, invisible fluid body,”[1]1 Hobbes, *Leviathan*, Part III, Chapter 34. just like air. Thus spirit is another kind of “substantial substance.” On the question of “miracles,” he said: “Concerning this, each of us cannot use his own reason and conscience to judge, but must use public reason, that is, the reason of God’s supreme agent, to judge.”[2]2 Hobbes, *Leviathan*, Part III, Chapter 37. In this way Hobbes reclaimed the power to interpret the most seductive question of miracles in religion from the hands of the church and placed it in the hands of the sovereign. Therefore, whether something should be recognized as a miracle depends on the sovereign as the public reason.

在中世纪神学禁锢下的欧洲，以论证上帝和宗教教义为宗旨的基督神学一直披着伪科学的外衣，不仅如此，还迫使其他各门科学为之服务。经过文艺复兴、宗教改革、启蒙运动，人们的思想得到了巨大的解放，人们开始对基督教神学展开了斗争，但是这种斗争具有很大的不彻底性。霍布斯则将批判的火力对准了基督教的最高机构——罗马教廷。他认为把现实地球的教会当成了上帝之国，是罗马教廷最险恶的用心，完全是滥用《圣经》的结果，是最荒谬的信条，同时也是一切性灵黑暗的源泉，另外，他还运用理性主义原则对《圣经》进行了重新解读。在其代表作《利维坦》中，霍布斯细致地勾画出了基督教王国的图景，对灵魂、先知、奇迹的来世等一系列问题作了理性解释。例如，霍布斯对“精神”和“物体”作了唯物主义解释，又引用《圣经》当中“圣灵”的用法，用以说法两者的一致。霍布斯认为，“物体”和“实体”只是同一个东西的不同名称而已，所有的实体都有物体。霍布斯对“精神”（圣灵）的定义是：“在一般语言中指的或者是一种稀薄的、不可见的流动物体。”① 就像空气一样。所以精神就是另一种“实质的实体”。对于“奇迹”问题，他说：“关于这一点，我们不能每一个人都运用自己的理性和良心去判断，而要运用公众的理性，也就是运用上帝的最高代理人的理性去判断。”② 这样霍布斯就把宗教中最能蛊惑人心的奇迹问题的解释权从教会手中收回到主权者的手中。因此，是否应当认某事为奇迹，决定权在于公共理性的主权者。

In summary, we can see that Hobbes used rationalist principles to give a completely new interpretation of religious theology and launched a merciless critique of Christianity. Under the social conditions of the time, this undoubtedly played a huge role in liberating thought, enabling people’s thinking to be freed from Christian theology.

综上所述，我们可以看出，霍布斯运用理性主义原则对宗教神学进行了全新的解释，对基督教展开了无情的批判，这在当时的社会条件下，无疑起到了巨大的思想解放作用，使人们的思想从基督教神学中得以解脱出来。

II. Philosophical Thought Based on Opposition to Religious Theology

二、基于反对宗教神学基础上的哲学思想

In medieval and early modern Europe, the contradiction between reason and faith, between philosophy and theology, was always the principal contradiction in the ideological sphere. Under the dictatorship of the Christian spirit in the Middle Ages, faith was superior to reason, and philosophy was the handmaiden of theology. Concerning philosophy, Hobbes held that “philosophy excludes history, both political history and natural history,[3]3 Hobbes, *De Corpore*, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 8. although history is most useful (indeed necessary) for philosophy; for this knowledge is only experience or authority, not reasoning. Philosophy excludes all knowledge obtained by divine inspiration or revelation, all knowledge that is not given to us by reason but is obtained in an instant by divine grace, or, so to speak, by some supernatural sense.”[4]4 Hobbes, *De Corpore*, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 8. From Hobbes’s viewpoint we can see that he regarded philosophy as a comprehensive scientific system encompassing everything; the purpose or goal of philosophy is to seek the welfare of mankind. He placed particular emphasis on causal relations and their characteristics. The world that philosophy confronts, whether the natural world or the world of man and nature, is constituted by causal relations; there is no thing without a cause, nor anything that can only be known through eternal ultimate ends or faith. We can conclude that Hobbes’s conception of philosophy excludes theology. The proposition “philosophy excludes theology” is the most distinctive hallmark and basic principle of Hobbes’s atheistic system. Hobbes said: philosophy excludes theology; I mean the doctrine concerning the eternal, ungenerated, incomprehensible God. Philosophy excludes the doctrine concerning angels; philosophy excludes all knowledge obtained by divine inspiration or revelation; philosophy excludes astrology and all forms of divination of this kind; philosophy also excludes the doctrine of worship.[5]5 Hobbes, *De Corpore*, Part I, Chapter 1, Section 8.

在欧洲的中世纪与近代，理性与信仰，哲学与神学的矛盾，始终是意识形态领域中的主要矛盾。在中世纪的基督教精神独裁的局面下，信仰高于理性，哲学是神学的婢女。关于哲学，霍布斯认为，“哲学排除历史，既排除政治的历史，也排除自然的历史③，虽然历史对哲学最为有用（简直是必须的）；因为这种知识只是经验或权威，而不是推理。哲学排除一切凭神的灵感或启示得来的知识，排除一切并非由理性引导给我们的而是在一刹那间凭神的恩惠，也可以说凭某种超自然的感觉获得的知识。④ ”我们从霍布斯的观点中可以得知，他把哲学看作包罗万象的综合科学体系，哲学的目的或目标是在于为人类谋福利。他特别看重因果关系及其特性。哲学面对的世界，不管是自然的世界，还是人与自然的世界都由因果关系构成，不存在没有原因之物，也没有依据永恒终极或信仰才能知道的东西。我们可得出霍布斯的哲学观是排除神学的。“哲学排除神学”这一命题是霍布斯无神论体系最鲜明的标志与基本原则。霍布斯说，哲学排除神学，我指的是关于永恒的、不能产生的、不可思议的神的学说。哲学排除关于天使的学说；哲学排除一切凭神的灵感或启示得来的知识；哲学排除占星术以及一切这一类的占卜；哲学也排除敬神的学说。⑤

However, Hobbes’s philosophical thought also had its own shortcomings, even obvious loopholes. This is related to his use of the bourgeois theory of human nature rather than a scientific historical materialist outlook to examine problems, to the construction of his theory itself, and also closely linked to the era and the interests of the class to which he belonged. In his theory of human nature, he universalized the ugly human nature of harming others for self-benefit and insatiable greed, thereby simplifying what is in itself a complex human nature. In epistemology, he clearly affirmed that all human knowledge originates from sensory experience, but he also separated the organic connections within the cognitive process. In his most highly esteemed thought on causality, he also denied the objectivity of the content of cognition, thereby falling into his own logical confusion. All of this is rooted in his mechanical materialism, which is inherently difficult for him to overcome. The tendency toward mechanism is the most prominent feature of Hobbes’s philosophy, manifested in all his philosophical thought.

但是霍布斯的哲学思想也有着其自身的不足，甚至有明显的漏洞，这与他用资产阶级的人性论而非科学的唯物史观来看待问题有关，与他理论建构的本身相关，也与他本人所处的时代和利益阶层紧密关联。在人性论上，他把损人利己、贪得无厌的丑恶人性普遍化，从而使得本身复杂的人性简单化；在认识论上，明确肯定了人的一切认识来源于感觉经验，但又把认识过程的有机联系分割开来；在他最推崇的因果关系思想上，也否认认识内容的客观性，从而陷入自身的逻辑混乱之中。这些都根源于他的机械唯物主义，是其本身难以克服的。机械论倾向是霍布斯哲学最显著的特征，体现在他所有的哲学思想当中。

Overall, the formulation of Hobbes’s materialist philosophical thought marked a major step forward in the struggle of materialism against idealism and religious theology in Western Europe, especially in England. Proceeding from empiricism, Hobbes examined the problems of human society without recourse to God; his atheism and his opposition to the divine right of kings contained materialist elements and were of great progressive significance in opposing the traditional religious-theological worldview. However, we can see that Hobbes’s philosophical system discarded dialectical elements and bore a distinct mechanical character. He used the viewpoint of mechanical motion to view everything occurring in the objective material world, which led to the denial of qualitative change and development in things, exerting a certain negative influence on the subsequent development of European philosophy.

总的来说，霍布斯的唯物主义哲学思想的提出，标志着西欧特别是英国，唯物主义反对唯心主义和宗教神学的斗争向前迈进了一大步，霍布斯从经验论出发，对人类社会问题进行考察，不求助于神，其无神论和反对君权神授思想具有唯物主义因素，对反对传统的宗教神学世界观有很大的进步意义。但是我们看到，霍布斯的哲学体系抛弃了辩证法的因素，带有明显的机械性，他运用机械运动的观点看待客观物质世界中发生的一切，这导致了否认事物的质变和发展，对以后欧洲哲学的发展产生了一定的消极作用。

III. The Homologous Unity of Religious Theology and Politics

三、宗教神学与政治的同构统一

Hobbes’s political doctrine broke away from the traditional Western mode of political thinking, truly establishing political science on the basis of modern natural empirical science, and was clearly groundbreaking. This was also subsequently employed, inherited, and developed by later political thinkers. In *Leviathan*, Hobbes initially revealed the homologous relationship between politics and religion in essence. Why can religion and politics be said to have a homologous relationship? Because both take “fear as their foundational theory: the former is fear of some unknowable power, the latter is fear of the sovereign’s absolute power.”[6]6 The original Chinese text provides a footnote marker ⑥ here, but the corresponding footnote content is not included in the source material. The translation retains the marker as given. Furthermore, both religion and politics are a form of submission to power (or force). Understanding this homologous relationship between politics and religion is an important starting point for grasping Hobbes’s entire religious thought. When constructing his theory of the state, Hobbes held that government is not created according to God’s will, but through contract; sovereign power is not divinely ordained, but transferred and entrusted by the people. This clearly stripped away the mystical religious cloak from state power. However, his political principles did not completely break free from theological modes of argumentation. Influenced by the objective environment of his time, like other political thinkers before him, he used religious theology as a basis to argue for his doctrines, thus mixing in theological ideas. This shows that Hobbes’s thought still bore the limitations of his era. But what set him apart was that he identified the political nature of religion. He believed that, based on the homologous relationship between politics and religion, religion is necessarily political, necessarily cultivated, utilized, and served by politics. Becoming a part of politics, it is a convenient tool for the ruling class to enslave the people and an important spiritual pillar for maintaining its rule. In other words, religion is not merely a matter of spirituality and faith, but also a political task, a politicized religious system. We note that Hobbes had his own reasonable explanation for the origin of religion, and he also understood actual religion comprehensively from a political perspective.

霍布斯的政治学说论证抛开了西方传统的政治思维模式，真正将政治学建立在了近代自然经验科学之上，具有明显的开创性，这也为以后的政治思想家所运用、继承和发展。在《利维坦》中，霍布斯初步揭示了政治与宗教在本质上的同构关系，为什么说宗教与政治具有同构关系呢?因为它们都是以“恐惧作为其基础理论，前者是对某种不可知力量的恐惧，后者是对主权者绝对权力的恐惧”⑥，此外，宗教和政治都是对权力（或力量）的一种服从。对于政治与宗教这种同构关系的认识是理解霍布斯整个宗教思想一个重要出发点。霍布斯在建构其国家政治理论时，认为政府不是根据神的意愿创造的，而是通过契约创造的；君权也不是神授的，而是人民转让和委托的。这明显揭示了国家政权的神秘宗教外衣。但是他的政治思想原则并没有完全脱离神学的论证方式，受当时客观环境的影响，和以往的其他政治思想家一样，以宗教神学为据来论证其学说，因而夹杂着神学思想而存在，这说明霍布斯的思想仍然存在时代的局限。但与众不同的是霍布斯辨明了宗教的政治性。他认为基于政治与宗教的同构关系，宗教必然是政治的，必然为政治所培育、利用和服务。成为政治的一部分，是统治阶级奴役人民方便的工具，是维持其统治的重要精神支柱。换句话说，宗教不仅仅是性灵和信仰事务，更是政治的任务，是一种政治化的宗教体系。我们注意到霍布斯对宗教的起源有自己合理的解释，他在现实的宗教面前也更是从政治的角度去全面理解宗教的。

Hobbes advocated social contract theory, subordinating divine power to sovereign power, unifying the two, and making religion serve actual society, thereby in a certain sense assuming the role of modern civil religion. *Leviathan* was born within this theological framework. Therefore, it is necessary to explore Hobbes’s motives for extensively addressing religious issues in his political science. Some believe he had important factors of defending Christianity; aside from his obvious political aims, his theological concepts led him to attempt a response to the challenges posed to religion by the new science of Copernicus and Galileo, and to prevent the abuse of religion for political ends. He tried to show that religious content could be reconciled with the new science, and to prove that religious theology could not legitimately be used to destabilize a government. Others, however, believe that Hobbes, in the name of his natural justice and natural rights, constructed a conspiracy against true Christianity, and that those who consider Hobbes’s treatment of religion to be candid have been deceived by him.

霍布斯主张社会契约论，神权服从于君权，将两者统一起来，使宗教为现实社会服务，从而在某种意义上承担起现代公民宗教的作用。《利维坦》也就是在这种神学框架上诞生的，那么，我们有必要探讨霍布斯在政治学中大量涉及宗教问题的动机。有人认为他有重要的保卫基督教的因素，除了他明显的政治目的之外，他的神学观念使他试图对哥白尼和伽利略的新科学对于宗教所提出的挑战作出回应，并防止为了政治目的而滥用宗教。他试图表明宗教内容可以与新科学协调，并证明宗教神学不能合法地用来破坏一个政府的稳定。而另外一些人则认为霍布斯在他的自然正义、人的权利名义下，构造了一个反对真正的基督教的阴谋，而那些认为霍布斯对宗教的处理很坦诚的人已经为他所欺骗。

It should be said that religious theology occupied a certain position in Hobbes’s political thought. He used theological ideas as a basis to argue for his doctrines, yet it was also he who liberated political science from the entanglement of religion, making a decisive contribution to the secularization of political theory. Based on the theory of human nature, through rigorous argumentation using a series of terms such as the state of nature, natural law, and social contract, he formed his systematic theory of the state and sovereignty. At the same time, he reinterpreted religious theology in a rationalist manner, using empirical science as his theoretical foundation to establish a political theory independent of religion, playing an epoch-making role in the development of Western political thought.

应该说，宗教神学在霍布斯的政治思想中占有一定地位的，他以神学思想为据来论证其学说，也唯有他才将政治学从宗教的纠缠当中解放出来，为政治学理论的世俗化作出了决定性的贡献。他以人性论为基础，通过自然状态、自然法、社会契约等一系列术语的严密论证形成了其系统的国家学说和主权学说。同时以理性主义方式重新解释宗教神学，以经验科学作为理论基础，建立不依赖社会的政治理论，对西方政治思想的发展起到了划时代的作用。

IV. Religious Theology and the Rational Construction of Social Order

四、宗教神学与社会秩序的理性构建

Reason was the most fundamental idea of the Enlightenment. In this era, thinkers used reason as a weapon, dispelling ignorance with knowledge, opposing divinity with humanity, and opposing divine right with human rights, in order to establish a rational society and cultivate rational individuals. Hobbes regarded the state and the social order it represents as the result of human beings’ careful rational deliberation and their use of rational capacity to design, thereby negating the theory of the divine-right state. He said: “Man has a capacity superior to other animals, which is that when he imagines anything, he often inquires into its results,” and that humans can “through words turn the results they have discovered into general rules called theorems or maxims.”[7]7 The original Chinese text provides a footnote marker ⑦ here, but the corresponding footnote content is not included in the source material. The translation retains the marker as given. These theorems or maxims are clearly what Hobbes called reason, but they did not arise naturally; rather, they were established through opposing divine right.

理性是启蒙时代最根本的思想，在这个时代，思想家们以理性为武器，以知识破除愚昧，以人性对抗神性，以人权反对神权，以便建立合乎理性的社会和培育理性的人。霍布斯把国家及其所代表的社会秩序看作人经由理性审慎思考并运用理性能力设计的结果，从而否定了神权国家的理论。他说：“人类有一种优于其他动物的能力，这就是当他想像任何事物时，往往会探寻其结果”，并且人类可以“通过语词将自己所发现的结果变成被称为定理或准则的一般法则”⑦。这些定理或准则显然就是霍布斯称作的理性，但并不是自然产生的，而是通过反对神权得以确立的。

Hobbes fully elaborated on reason in his philosophy, mainly in the following points. First, reason is a capacity unique to humans, and all humans possess equal rational capacity. During the long European Middle Ages, religious-theological thought, in which God and the spirits of the universe dominated everything, held sway, fundamentally negating human creative ability. Hobbes advocated giving play to people’s initiative and creativity; moreover, he regarded individuals as equal rational beings, negating the feudal hierarchical concepts sheltered by divine right. Second, reason is the investigation of the causes of things; the state of nature is the cause of the existing state. When exploring the causes of the state’s emergence, Hobbes excluded factors such as divine mandate, divine will, and history, taking a state of nature that, though hypothetical, was self-evident as the cause of the existing state and society. He firmly believed that starting from the state of nature, one could understand all the processes of formation of the state and social order. Understanding this cause, the state of nature, enables people to better arrange the present and concern themselves with the future in the most advantageous way. Finally, reason, as a capacity for weighing and choosing, is the foundation and driving force for constructing social order. Hobbes believed that the first content of the rational capacity to construct social order was reason’s discovery of the possible path to escape the state of nature, namely natural law as “precepts” or “general rules.”[8]8 The original Chinese text provides a footnote marker ⑧ here, but the corresponding footnote content is not included in the source material. The translation retains the marker as given. Natural law binds the inner person; it is a primary behavioral norm, a moral principle to be followed when the state formulates laws. The second content is that reason inspires people to enter into a contract, allowing an individual or collective to possess absolute authority to manage society and guarantee order. The state, authorized through the contract, organizes everyone’s will with its authority, applying the power and means granted to it in a manner conducive to everyone’s peace and common defense. The third content is reason’s optimistic attitude toward its own capacity for choice. Hobbes believed that this capacity for choice was mainly manifested in two aspects: first, reason discovered the necessary path to escape the state of nature—the contract; second, people could rationally choose the authoritative “person” or monarch to whom all their rights would be granted.

霍布斯在其哲学中对理性进行了充分的阐述，最主要有以下几点：首先，理性是人特有的能力，人人都具有平等的理性能力。在漫长的欧洲中世纪，上帝和宇宙的神灵主宰着人类一切的宗教神学思想占据着统治地位，这就从根本上抹杀了人的创造能力，主张发挥人们的主动性和创造性，不但如此，还把个人看做平等的理性个体，否定了神权庇护下的封建等级观念。其次，理性是对事物原因的探究，自然状态是现存国家的原因。霍布斯在探讨国家产生的原因时，将天命、神意、历史等因素排除出去，将一种虽是假设的但却是不证自明的自然作为现存国家和社会的原因。他深信从自然状态出发。可以了解国家和社会秩序的所有形成过程。关于自然状态这个原因的认识，可使人能更好地以最有利的方式对现在进行安排，对未来进行关切。最后，理性作为一种权衡和选择能力是社会秩序构建的基础和动力。霍布斯认为作出构建社会秩序理性能力的第一个内容就是理性发现了摆脱自然状态的可能路径，即作为“戒条”或“一般法则”的自然法。⑧ 自然法对人的内心是有约的，它是一种首先性的行为规范，是国家制定法律时遵循的一种道德原则。第二个内容是理性启示人们订立契约，让个人或集体拥有绝对的权威来管理社会，保障秩序，国家通过契约得到授权，以其权威组织大家的意志，按照有利于大家的和平与共同防卫大方式来运用授予它的力量和手段。第三个内容是理性对自身选择能力的乐观态度。霍布斯认为，这种选择能力主要表现在两个方面：其一表现在理性发现了摆脱自然状态的必要途径——契约，其二表现在人们可以理性地选择自己的所有权利将要授予的那个权威“人格”或君主。

In summary, Hobbes’s design of a rational social order was established under the guarantee of absolute authority. The divinity that had originally shrouded the state was broken; the state became an institution designed by rational humans using rational methods. He derived the natural laws of the state from reason and experience rather than from theology, negating God’s determining role in social order, which was of great historical progressive significance. However, we must also recognize the limitations of reason and not blindly believe in its capacity. Social development is not a purely natural process; the construction of social order is closely linked to social traditions, customs, culture, and the like.

综上所述，霍布斯的理性社会秩序观的设计，是在绝对的权威的保障下得以建立，原来笼罩在国家身上的神性被破除了，国家成为理性的人用理性的方法设计出来的机构。他从理性和经验中而不是神学中引申出国家的自然规律，否定神在社会秩序中的决定作用，具有重大的历史进步意义。但是他们也要认识到理性的局限，不能盲目相信理性的能力，社会的发展不是一个纯自然的过程，社会秩序的构建与社会传统、习俗、文化等紧密关联。

In sum, as a great thinker, Hobbes’s thought encompassed multiple fields including political science, philosophy, and anti-religious theology, representing the highest theoretical achievements of his era. In opposing religious theology, he exposed its essence and launched a fierce critique, greatly liberating people’s thought. His philosophical thought, based on this opposition to religious theology, initiated a new philosophical revolution. These contributions laid an important theoretical foundation for later thinkers to enrich and develop his thought from various perspectives.

总之，霍布斯作为一个伟大的思想家，他的思想涉及政治学、哲学和反宗教神学等多个领域，代表了那个时代最高的思想理论成就。在反对宗教神学上，揭露了其本质并展开了猛烈的批判，极大地解放了人们的思想。而其基于反对宗教神学基础上的哲学思想，则掀起了一场新的哲学革命。这些为以后的思想家从各个方面丰富发展其思想，奠定了重要的理论基础。

Notes:

注释：

① Thomas Hobbes, *Leviathan*, trans. Li Sifu et al. (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1985), pp. 270, 309.

①[英]霍布斯著，黎思复等译：《利维坦》[M]，商务印书馆，1985年版，第270、309页。

② Ibid., pp. 306, 354.

② 同上，第306、354页。

③ Department of Foreign Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Peking University, ed., *Selected Readings from Western Philosophical Works*, Vol. 1 (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1982), p. 386.

③ 北京大学哲学系外国哲学史教研室编译：《西方哲学原著选读》（上卷）[M]，商务印书馆，1982年版，第386页。

④ Ibid.

④ 同上。

⑤ Ibid.

⑤ 同上。

⑥ Sun Xiangchen, “On the Tension between Theology and Politics in *Leviathan*,” *Journal of Fudan University* (Social Science Edition), No. 3, 2005.

⑥ 孙向晨：《论利维坦中神学与政治的张力》[J]，《复旦大学学报》（社科版），2005年第3期。

⑦ Thomas Hobbes, *Leviathan*, trans. Li Sifu et al. (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1985), p. 30.

⑦[英]霍布斯著，黎思复等译：《利维坦》[M]，商务印书馆，1985年版，第30页。

⑧ Li Qingjun, “Hobbes: Reason and Social Order,” *Jianghai Academic Journal*, No. 4, 2004.

⑧ 李庆钧：《霍布期：理性与社会秩序》[J]，《江海学刊》， 2004年第6期。