A Research On The Intellectual History Of Civil Subject

Based on the theme of history of ideas on civil subject and the history spanning from Ancient Greek to Roman, this dissertation aims at outlining the background of subjective idea in the Ancient Greek era and its evolution and enrichment during the subsequent course of history, especially in which extent the idea finished the dock to Roman society, and then be embodied in the legislative spirit and the systematic construction in the Roman Law, and finally laid the foundation of spirit of civil subject in modern times. This dissertation includes five chapters.The first chapter illustrates the motive and the research approach of this dissertation. This paper, with the perspective of the modem philosophy of subject and the prerequisite that history is nothing but history of freedom, points out that the modern civil subject is based on the "individual's inborn ethical personality", and therefore changes the historical teleology of positivism into "moral teleology of history", which also indicates the importance of tracing the meaning of "individual's inborn ethical personality" in the history.The second chapter mainly discusses the sprouts and developments of the idea on civil subject in the society of ancient Greece. By comparing Hesiod with Homer, this article illustrates the two cultural trends of ancient Greece, which were resulted from the idea of "evil of polis" of Hesiod, namely, the individual consciousness brought by the natural philosophy and politics of polis. The former one went ups and downs along with the rose and fell of Greece cities and formed the subjective individualism of Sophists and ethical individualism of Socrates. Afterwards Plato and Aristotle had tried to save the polis from the crisis. They inherited the ethical appeal of Socrates, re-included it into the polis, and shaped the idea of "good of polis". This dissertation indicates that the crisis of Greece cities is not due to the absence of morality, but due to the absence of individual idea. As a result, the Hellenism went to the era of ideological philosophy inevitably and returned to the individual itself.The third chapter, with the thread of "persona" in Roman times, by comparing two different cultures and institution between Greece and Rome, performances the course of development concerning "persona" from the meaning of "mask" to "a person in law", and then to "a moral person". Furthermore it elaborates how the idea was strengthened and expanded by the urbanization in Rome. Hereon, this paper set forth the limitation of idea of "persona", which doesn't set up the real spirit of civil subject and abstract the concept of "person" from the concrete course of history.The forth chapter, through the analysis of Greece and Rome above, briefly illustrates the generation and influence of modern subject spirit and further refers to the reflection on the subject spirit in the contemporary era, which reinforces the viewpoint of "moral teleology of history" raised at the beginning of this article. Pointing out that the law, as an empirical science, cannot completely stipulate the liberty and morality of transcendental subject, but the very non-stipulations establishes the basis for "individual's inborn ethical personality" and can set a highest purpose for seeking liberty.The fifth chapter, as the epilog, with the basis of the comparison between the cultures of Chinese and Western, indicates the local significance of the research on the intellectual history of civil subject.