《自然法论文集》

这里,洛克讨论了两个主题:是否有自然法?如何认识自然法?经验向人类表明,如果没有自然法,则无良心、善恶之分,甚至不会有人类社会的存在。但是,如果的确有自然法,又何以并非人人受其约束?这表明自然法绝非人人知晓的天赋观念。显然也不可能经由传统、教育和普遍同意来获得自然法的知识,因为传统、权威学说千差万别。所以,在洛克看来,人唯有依凭其本性,即感觉经验与理性这两种天赋能力的共同指引获得自然法的知识,它之普遍性寓于共同的人性中,即寓于洛克所认为的人之共有的感觉经验与理性领悟中。而对如何认识自然法的论述也初步表达了其经验知识论的思想。

Essays on the Law of Nature

Two questions are discussed by Locke in this part:whether there is a natural law and how to know it for man? First of all,we wonder whether only man is free from being bound by law. As experience shows,if there is no the law of nature,there is no conscience,no the conceptions of good and evil,and no human society. However,if the law exists,why is everyone ruled by it? This suggests that the law of nature is not absolutely an innate idea. We cannot also attain the knowledge of the law of nature by tradition,education and general consensus due to the tremendous differences among them. So Locke claimed that the only way we know the law of nature is by the light of nature,namely by the two natural faculties of sense:experience and reason. In fact,the same human nature,i.e. human general sense:experience and rational perception,implies the universality of the law.