自由：开国元勋的本意是什么？| 罗伯特·乔治

我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，造物主赋予他们若干不可剥夺的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

我们很难想象，这些来自美国《独立宣言》的言辞在1776年有多么激进。

It's hard for us to imagine how radical these words from America's declaration of independence were in 1776.

纵观历史，人们一直相信的不是平等，而是它的反面——不平等。

Throughout history, people had believed not in equality, but in its opposite, inequality.

有些人被视为上等，其他人则被视为下等。

Some people were regarded as superiors and others as inferiors.

大多数人认为，这不过是事物的本来面貌。

That, most people supposed, is just the way things are.

然而，托马斯·杰斐逊和我国的其他开国先贤代表美国人民提出了一条新道路，旨在以平等与自由的原则建立共和国。

Speaking for the American people, however, Thomas Jefferson and our country's other founders proposed a new course to build a republic on the principles of equality and liberty.

自由？

Liberty?

是的。

Yes.

作为平等的人，人们有权自主生活，而不必不断被政府告知该做什么。

As equals, people have the right to lead their own lives without being constantly told what to do by their governments.

政府的主要职责不是指挥人们，而是保障不可剥夺的权利，例如生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。

The principal role of governments, rather, is to secure unalienable rights, such as the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

但开国元勋们所说的自由究竟意味着什么？

But what did the Founding Fathers mean by liberty?

随着我们即将迎来《独立宣言》和我国建国二百五十周年，我们应当反思这一问题。

As we approach the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and our nation's founding, we should reflect on that question.

自由的同义词是自由。

A synonym for liberty is freedom.

哲学家有时会区分两种自由，即免于束缚的自由和为了某种目标的自由。

Philosophers sometimes distinguish two types of freedom, namely freedom from and freedom for.

仅仅免于束缚的自由——想做什么就做什么的自由——是我们的开国元勋们会斥为放纵而非真正自由的东西。

Mere freedom from, the freedom to do what one wants, whatever one wants, is what our founders would have rejected as mere license, not true liberty.

真正的自由是让人们追求高尚而正义的目标的自由。

True liberty is freedom for people to pursue honorable and righteous ends.

举个例子。

Here's an example.

我们的宪法第一修正案承认了和平集会和向政府请愿伸冤的权利。

Our constitution, in its First Amendment, recognizes the right peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for redress of grievances.

作为消极自由，它意味着免受政府解散和平示威或惩罚参与者的权利。

As a negative liberty, it is freedom from the government's breaking up a peaceful demonstration or punishing people for participating in it.

作为积极自由，它意味着为正义和高尚的事业发声的自由。

As a positive liberty, it is the freedom to advocate on behalf of a just and righteous cause.

当然，人们有时会滥用自由来宣扬不公正和不道德的事业，但这些滥用必须被容忍，因为我们明智地拒绝赋予政府官员决定对政策的批评是否合理的权力。

Of course, people sometimes abuse their liberties by promoting unjust and unrighteous causes, and such abuses must be tolerated precisely because we wisely decline to entrust government officials with the power to decide whether criticism of their policies is warranted.

然而，承认抗议自由的原因正是为了帮助人们倡导正义和高尚的事业。

Still, the reason for recognizing the freedom to protest is precisely to enable people to advocate for just and righteous causes.

因此，显然我们的开国先贤在宣告和保护自由时，并非对善与恶、对与错、美德与堕落、正义与不义之间的区别无动于衷。

It's clear then that our founders in proclaiming and protecting liberty were not indifferent to the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and injustice.

在区分自由与放纵时，他们依赖我们由家庭、宗教团体及其他公民社会机构所塑造的道德与宗教信念，来约束我们远离不道德与不正义。

In distinguishing liberty from license, they counted on our moral and religious convictions shaped by our families, religious communities, and other institutions of civil society to restrain us from immorality and injustice.

正如约翰·亚当斯所观察到的，我们的宪法只为有道德和信仰的人而制定。

As John Adams observed, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.

它完全不适合治理其他任何人群。

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

本杰明·富兰克林提出了类似的论点：只有有德行的人民才能享有自由。

Benjamin Franklin made a similar argument: Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

当国家变得腐败时，他们更需要主人。

As nations become corrupt, they have more need of masters.

在美国历史的长河中，像亚伯拉罕·林肯这样的改革者一直援引《独立宣言》，以逐步、艰难而不懈地废除那些与宣言中所表达的平等与自由原则相悖的种族压迫制度。

And throughout American history, reformers like Abraham Lincoln have appealed to the Declaration of Independence in dismantling, as we have done, albeit slowly and with great struggle, the systems of racial oppression that contradicted the principles of equality and liberty expressed in that document.

但从20世纪60年代开始，随着许多美国人逐渐模糊了自由与放纵之间的界限，自由的概念发生了变化。

But beginning in the nineteen sixties, the concept of liberty underwent a change as many Americans lost their grip on the distinction between liberty and license.

所谓的‘自我一代’将单纯的‘免于约束’视为真正的自由。

Mere freedom from came to be viewed by the so called me generation as true liberty.

他们忘记了自由的目的是什么。

They forgot about what freedom is for.

一场文化革命提出了一种观点，认为真正的自由在于摒弃所谓压迫性的道德规范，以放纵个人的欲望、情感、感受和激情。

A cultural revolution advanced the thesis that true liberty amounts to setting aside allegedly oppressive moral norms in order to indulge one's desires, emotions, feelings, and passions.

‘感觉好就去做’，这句口号广为流传，许多人不幸地接受了它。

If it feels good, do it, the mantra went, and many people, alas, embraced it.

以放纵冒充自由，与《独立宣言》和《宪法》作者们所理解的共和国指导原则背道而驰。

Licentiousness masquerading as liberty is a stark departure from what the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution understood to be the guiding principles of our republic.

开国元勋们相信，我们与生俱来的权利并非为了助长激情，而是为了引导我们追求真理、正义与美德。

The founders believed that our God given rights were not meant to facilitate our passions, but rather were intended to allow us to direct our actions toward what is true, right, virtuous.

正确理解之下，美国所承诺的自由——即开国者们所秉持、尽管并非总能身体力行的理念——是严苛、大胆而勇敢的。

When properly understood, America's promise of liberty, the concept that our founders embraced, even if they did not always live up to it, is demanding, bold, and courageous.

它要求我们成为最好的自己，成为有能力且配得上自治的人。

It calls us to become our best possible selves, people capable and worthy of self government.

但当这一承诺被用于迎合破坏性的文化潮流时，我们国家所承诺的生命、自由与追求幸福，就不再是一种深刻而普世的真理，而沦为陈词滥调，一些悦耳动听却可为任何行为开脱的空话。

But when distorted on behalf of destructive cultural fads, our nation's promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is no longer a profound universal truth, but a set of platitudes, a few sweet sounding words that can justify virtually anything.

我是罗伯特·乔治，普林斯顿大学麦考密克法理学教授兼詹姆斯·麦迪逊项目主任，为Prager大学录制。

I'm Robert George, McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison program at Princeton University for Prager University.

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Thank you for watching this video.

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