Quentin Skinner's intention is to sketch the rise and fall of an understanding of civil liberty, which has played an im-portant role in the history. This conception of liberty consisting in the republican liberty lineage, can be found in those who Skinner has labeled "neo-roman"theorist. The neo-roman theory of liberty departs from the analogy between the natural physical body and the po-litical body, arguing the bodies of nations and states are free if and only if they are unconstrained from using their power according to their own skills in pursuit of their desired ends, and the individual exists in a free condition if and only if he lives in a free political body. This concept of civil liberty associated with the classical republicanism concerns remarkably about the natural rights of individuals, which presents both characteristics of Isaiah Berlin 's two concepts of liberty. Especially in its aspect of negative liberty sense, the neo-roman theory substitutes dependence or not for interference or not as the standard of judging whether liberty exists or not, which indi-cates a unique logic in the process of losing liberty. Nevertheless, this unique logic reveals to certain extent the internal tension consist-ing in the neo-roman theory due to the pedogenesis of contractualism.%斯金纳试图再现一种历史上曾经占有重要地位而后却逐渐衰落的自由谱系,即共和主义式的自由传统,这尤其体现在他所称之为"新罗马"理论家的思想中.新罗马自由理论从自然身体与政治体之间的类比出发,认为当政治体不能依据自身意志追求目的之时就应当被看作是一种非自由状态,而个体公民只有生活在自由政治体之中才能获得自由.这种承接了古代共和主义传统的自由理论对个体权利有着明确的关切,表现出了伯林意义上积极自由与消极自由的双重特性,尤其在消极自由方面,它以依附而不自由取代了干涉而不自由作为自由与否的评判标准,在依附通往不自由的过程中有着独特的逻辑内涵.在这个过程中可以窥见新罗马自由理论由于内含未完全展现的契约主义而导致的内在张力.
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