【長片】An Introduction to Classical Liberalism

光是令更多人認同「We are not god」就已經很好了

影片簡介

原文直抄：

The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 132

The American system, Classical Liberalism, is under attack. In fact, it is at risk of failing. Its attacks come from both the Left and the Right, and they succeed, as Solzhenitsyn put it, "because we do not love freedom enough."
If we truly love liberty, as we should, we would understand the philosophical underpinnings of our system like they're second nature. As is evidenced from the attacks upon it, though, few truly understand what Classical Liberalism is and what it believes.
In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay lays out an introduction by going through his recent essay (newdiscourses.com/2023/11/basis-of-classical-liberalism ) on the foundations of Classical Liberalism and then introducing the listener to the brilliant summary of Jonathan Rauch in his 1991 book Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (amzn.to/3T9q79P ). Join him to understand what it is we are fighting to preserve, and why.

連結

• 頻道New Discourses - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9K5PLkj0N_b9JTPdSRwPkg

• Youtube影片連結 - https://youtu.be/URbpA6pVBrw

• 文章 The Basis of Classical Liberalism - https://newdiscourses.com/2023/11/basis-of-classical-liberalism/

Youtube影片

部分內容摘要

其實主要是文章內容，影片是它的Podcast形式及額外解釋
外加個人翻譯

(1) We are not god

We are not God. We cannot become God, make God, or speak with the authority of God. This is axiomatic and the beginning of wisdom and prosperity.

我們不是「神」、不能成為「神」、創造「神」、或以「神」的權威說話，這是不言自明的，也是智慧與繁榮的開始。

(2) Lacking the authority of God, we lack justification for the compulsion of our fellow man

In that we all lack the authority of God and thus any justification for the compulsion of our fellow man, all men are created politically equal. Nothing in the world, which is also not God, justifies an intrinsically limited human being to hold political or social authority over another without the consent of both parties to that relationship. Any authority we can hold over any other person must therefore be earned, provisional, temporary, and voluntarily given and accepted.

因為我們全部人都缺乏「神」的權威及從其而來對其他人類同胞進行強迫行為的正當性，所有人在政治上都是平等的，世上沒有任何一物（無一是「神」）能在沒有雙方同意（consent）下正當化任何在本質上有限的人類持有政治或社會上的權威，因此任何對於他人的「權威」必須被掙取得來，並臨時地及自願地被授予和被接受（即是該權威可被授予但也可被移除，例如在被選出之人作出不當行為或在其職務上顯得無能時）。

（最後一句好難翻譯你看原文及影片解釋吧，11:56開始）

(3) Unalienable rights

Thus, we hold these truths to be self-evident: that we are not God, and by virtue of that, we have been endowed by that which led to our existence, our Creator, whether the Laws of Nature or Nature’s God, with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are his life, liberty, and property, including the property of the private contents of our minds, and the ability to make use of these to pursue our happiness, fortunes, and whatever purposes, ultimate or otherwise, there may be within and of our lives.

我們認為這些真理是不言而喻的：我們不是「神」，正因為如此，我們被造物主（無論是自然法則還是自然之神）賦予了某些不可讓渡的權利，其中包括生命、自由和財產，包括我們心靈的私人內容的財產/資產（property），以及利用這些來追求我們的幸福、財富以及我們生活中可能存在的最終或其他目的的能力。

（我不完全理解「the property of the private contents of our minds」）

(4) Government, too, is not God

What must such a government abide by, then, so that it can achieve this sacred task without itself alienating man from that which is unalienable? Government, too, is not God, no matter in what way it is instituted among men. It cannot become God, neither can it make God, nor can it speak or act with the authority of God. It must abide by limitations of nearly every imaginable sort and must secure the inalienable rights of man from itself and others.

一個政府必須信守甚麼事物，才能完成它的神聖任務（前一段沒抄過來，是指守護前面提到的不可讓渡的權利）同時自身不侵犯這些權利？政府同樣不是「神」，無論它以何種方式建立，它也同樣不能成為「神」、製造「神」、以「神」的權威說話或行動，它必須遵守幾乎所有可想像的類型的局限性，並且必須從政府自身及其他存在手中守護這些不可讓渡的權利。

(5) Limited Government

A just government must secure the rights of speech, press, protest, and petition or it cannot be held to account and the consent with which it governs cannot be duly informed. Its powers must be limited, divided, and placed into a system of checks and balances to prevent it from any illegitimate claim to rule with political authority it cannot have. Government is not God because we are not God. Just governments understand this and keep it. Unjust governments reject this and run afoul of it and the men they are meant to serve.

一個公正的政府必須確保言論，新聞，抗議和請願的權利，否則它不能被追究責任及無法適當告知對其統治的不同意。它的權力必須被限制、分割，並將其置於制衡系統中，以防止它有對其無法擁有的政治權威的任何非法主張。政府不是上帝，因為我們不是上帝，公正的政府會理解這一點並保留它，不公正的政府會拒絕這一點，並與之及他們原本要服務的人抗衡。

「the consent with which it governs cannot be duly informed」是指恰當的管理（governing）需要在政府「過界」時讓被管理的人表達「政府已違反我們之前的同意（consent）」以令政府的管理保持恰當

(6) Property Right

Because our right to our own property is inalienable, so is our right to do with our property what we will so long as it doesn’t violate the inalienable rights of others. In other words, we have the right not only to hold our property but to engage in commerce with it according to the principles of free enterprise under the law. Property can be exchanged by any two parties who mutually consent to the terms of the contract of exchange without undue interference by third parties, and a just government should secure this right to engage in commerce under its duty to secure the rights of each citizen’s property.

因為我們擁有自己財產的權利是不可讓渡的，所以只要不侵犯他人的不可讓渡權利，我們就有權對自己的財產進行任何事。換句話說，我們不僅有權持有我們的財產，而且有權在法律下根據自由企業的原則從事商業行為。任何兩方都可以在雙方都同意關於交換的合約的條款而不受到第三方的不當干預的情況下交換財產，並且公正政府應確保從事商業行為的權利，以確保獲得每個公民對他們財產的權利（持有及交換及其他）。

當然沒有全部抄過來及翻譯，我會叫救命
影片有一半是額外內容（在連結的文章內容看不到），所以要完整內容請去聽Podcast

同樣的理念/出發點（We are not god）在科學上同樣適用，不過那就離題了