【文章】Christine Jones - Education for a Constitutional Republic - Creaturehood, Natural Law and the Li

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Why Education Must Begin with the Declaration - Not Policy Goals

American education policy debates usually begin in the wrong place. They start with workforce needs, social outcomes, equity metrics, or psychological well-being and only later ask how these aims might fit within constitutional limits. The American Founding proceeds in the opposite direction. It begins by stating what is; about reality, about the human person and about the source and limits of political authority - and only then allows institutions to be designed downstream.

教育必須從《獨立宣言》開始，而不是政策目標。

美國的教育政策辯論通常始於錯誤的地方。它們通常從勞動力需求、社會結果、公平指標或心理健康出發，然後才考慮如何將這些目標納入憲法框架內。然而，美國建國的理念恰好相反。它首先闡述的是現實：關於真實的世界、關於人類本身以及關於政治權力的來源和界限——然後，在此基礎上設計相關的制度。

The Declaration of Independence is not a rhetorical preface to the Constitution; it is its ontological foundation. Before there can be law, rights, or governance, there must be a shared understanding of what kind of being the human person is, because rights and duties can only attach to a being with a determinate nature. When the Declaration appeals to ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God’, it is asserting that political legitimacy is accountable to a moral order that precedes government and does not depend on social agreement/consent/contract.¹

《獨立宣言》並非憲法的修辭前言，而是其存在論基礎。在法律、權利和治理出現之前，必須對人類的本性有共同的理解，因為權利和義務只能賦予具有確定性質的存在。當《獨立宣言》提及「自然法則和造物主的法則」時，它是在聲稱政治合法性必須對一個先於政府且不依賴社會共識/同意/契約的道德秩序負責。¹

Education in a constitutional republic therefore cannot be neutral with respect to human nature. It must either preserve the conditions that make self-government possible, or it will quietly train citizens for something else (as it has so subversively done now for over a century already):

因此，在憲政共和國的教育不能對人類本性保持中立。它必須要麼維護使自治成為可能的前提條件，要麼將公民培養成其他方向的人（正如它在過去一個多世紀裡一直在做的那樣）：

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Creaturehood - The Pre-Political Ground of Rights, Law and Education

To clarify what the Founders presupposed, it is useful to name a concept that modern policy language tends to evade - creaturehood.

By creaturehood is meant the simple but decisive fact that the human person is not self-creating. Human beings do not invent their own essential nature, capacities, or moral significance. They discover themselves already endowed with rational faculties (requiring formation), conscience (requiring self discipline) and the ability to recognize truth and obligation (again, requiring formation to develop from infanthood through to attaining the age of reason). These faculties are not products of the state, culture, or education system; they are the precondition for those very systems to have any legitimacy at all. This is why the Declaration speaks of men as ‘created’ and of rights as ‘unalienable’. The claim is not theological in a narrow sense. It is ontological. Rights are unalienable because they do not originate in human will (nor consent) - neither the will of rulers nor the will of the majority. They arise from what a human being is.²

生物性：權利、法律和教育的先於政治的基礎。

為了闡明建國者的基本假設，有必要提及一個現代政策語言傾向於迴避的概念——即「生物性」。

這裡所說的「生物性」是指一個簡單但決定性的事實：人類並非自我創造。人類並不是自己發明的本質、能力或道德意義。他們發現自己已經被賦予了理性的能力（需要培養）、良知（需要自律）以及認識真理和義務的能力（同樣，需要通過從小到成年逐漸發展）。這些能力並不是國家、文化或教育系統的產物；它們是這些系統具有任何合法性的前提。這就是為什麼《獨立宣言》稱人類為「被創造者」，並將權利描述為「不可剝奪的」。這種說法在狹義上並非神學，而是一種存在論的觀點。權利之所以不可剝奪，是因為它們不是源於人類意志（也不是源於同意），無論是統治者的意志還是多數人的意志。它們源於人類本身是什麼。²

From this understanding, equality does not mean sameness of outcome or identity. It means equal moral standing rooted in shared human nature. Every person is equally subject to the same moral law and equally capable, in principle, of recognizing it. This shared creaturely status is what makes both moral responsibility and political accountability possible. Education, accordingly, is not the production of desired behaviours or adaptive skills, but the formation of faculties already ordered toward truth and responsibility. Reason is oriented toward reality; conscience toward the good; the will toward accountable choice. A citizen capable of self-government is one who has been formed to govern himself first.³

從這種理解出發，平等並不意味著結果的相同或身份的統一。它意味著根植於共同人類本性的平等的道德地位。每個人都同樣受到相同的道德法則約束，並且在原則上，都同樣有能力認識到它。這種共享的生物狀態使得道德責任和政治問責制成為可能。因此，教育並不是生產期望的行為或適應性技能，而是培養已經朝向真理和責任發展的能力。理性面向現實；良知面向善良；意志面向負責任的選擇。一個有能力進行自我管理的公民，是首先經過培養，能夠自我管理的人。³

Constitutional Limits - What the State May and May Not Do in Education

For a legal audience, the implications are direct. A constitutional republic presupposes citizens capable of judgment prior to law. This is why American constitutionalism treats rights as pre-political and government as limited. The state may recognize rights; it may not redefine the human person in order to manage outcomes more efficiently.

憲法限制：國家在教育領域可以做什麼，不能做什麼。

對於法律專業人士來說，這些含義非常直接。憲政共和國預設了具有判斷力的公民，這些公民的判斷力先於法律。這就是為什麼美國憲政主義將權利視為先於政治的存在，並限制政府的權力。國家可以承認權利；但它不能重新定義人類本性，以便更有效地管理結果。

When education shifts from formation to conditioning; when it treats students primarily as psychological, biological, or behavioural systems to be optimized, it exceeds constitutional authority in substance, even if not always in form. The state is no longer educating for citizenship; it is administrating populations. This is not merely a policy concern but a jurisprudential one. If human nature is treated as plastic, evolving, or socially constructed, then rights necessarily become contingent. What can be redefined can be reallocated and what can be engineered can be regulated. The legal logic of unalienable rights quietly gives way (with the population conditioned not to notice and recognize it) to a logic of permissions, exemptions and managed interests.⁴

當教育從培養轉向控制時；當它主要將學生視為需要優化的心理、生物或行為系統時，即使在形式上並非總是如此，它也會超出憲法授權的範圍。此時，國家不再是為了公民身份而進行教育，而是對人口進行管理。這不僅僅是一個政策問題，更是一個法律問題。如果人類本性被視為可塑、不斷發展或社會建構，那麼權利必然會變得偶然。可以重新定義的東西也可以重新分配，可以設計的東西也可以受到監管。原本的「不可剝奪權利」的法律邏輯（伴隨著人口被培養得毫無察覺和認識）逐漸讓位於一個許可、豁免和管理利益的邏輯。⁴

Founding Father Justice James Wilson, one of the principal architects of American constitutional thought, was explicit on this point. Law, he argued, is not an instrument for reshaping human nature but a means of recognizing and protecting the moral agency already present in the person. When law departs from that task, it ceases to be law in the proper sense and becomes command.⁵ Education policy that denies creaturehood therefore undermines the very conditions that constitutional law requires in order to function. Courts can adjudicate disputes; they cannot manufacture citizens capable of liberty.

建國時代的詹姆斯·威爾遜大法官，是美國憲法思想的主要奠基者之一，他對此問題非常明確。他認為，法律不是重塑人類本性的工具，而是認識和保護個人所固有的道德能動性的手段。當法律偏離這一任務時，它就不能再被視為真正的法律，而變成命令。因此，否認生物性的教育政策會破壞憲法法律運作所需的必要條件。法院可以解決爭端；但他們無法創造出能夠享有自由的公民。

Why Technocratic Education Must Bypass Creaturehood

Modern technocratic education does not openly deny human dignity - it redefines it. Under technocratic assumptions, the human person is increasingly described as an adaptive system; a bundle of cognitive processes, emotional responses, biological drives, and social influences. This is precisely the Wundt/Thorndike/Dewey Leipzig Lab Behavioural Pedagogy which operationalized government schooling from its inception and roll out at scale. Conscience conditioned as a social construct, reason reduced to an instrument for problem-solving and moral judgment a product of ideologically and politically motivated conditioning. This framework was not accidental. It was entirely operational.

為什麼技術官僚主義的教育必須忽視生物性。

現代技術官僚主義的教育並未公開否認人類尊嚴，而是重新定義它。在技術官僚主義的假設下，人類被越來越多地描述為一個適應系統；一組認知過程、情感反應、生物驅動和社會影響的集合。這正是從其起源開始就被運營化的Wundt/Thorndike/Dewey萊比錫實驗室行為學教育方法，並大規模推廣。良知被塑造為一種社會建構，理性被簡化為解決問題的工具，道德判斷成為意識形態和政治動機下的產物。這種框架並非偶然，而是完全經過運營設計。

A population (Founding era We The People) that understands itself as morally answerable to an objective order it did not create cannot be fully ‘managed’. A post 1913 (Federal Reserve) population trained to see itself as malleable, evolving and defined by process, can be optimized, nudged and reconfigured indefinitely. The denial of essential human nature is therefore not a philosophical ‘mistake’ but a functional requirement for governance by administration and management. Once creaturehood is removed, education becomes a tool for rendering society legible to management. Law follows suit, shifting from the recognition of limits to the pursuit of outcomes. The result is not tyranny in the classical sense, but something more subtle; the replacement of self-government with behavioural compliance.⁶

一個理解自己需要對其未創造的客觀秩序負道德責任的人口（建國時代的「我們人民」），無法被完全「管理」。一個在1913年後（聯邦儲備銀行成立）接受訓練，認為自己是可塑、不斷發展且由過程定義的人口，可以被無限期地優化、引導和重新配置。因此，否認人類的本質並不是一種哲學上的「錯誤」，而是一種官僚管理治理的必要條件。一旦生物性被移除，教育就成為使社會更容易被管理的工具。法律也隨之轉變，從承認限制到追求結果。結果並非是傳統意義上的暴政，而是一種更微妙的東西；它取代了自我管理，取而代之的是行為合規。⁶

Creaturehood v ‘Becoming’

To make the stakes clear, consider the following contrast:

Under a creaturehood framework, the human person is understood as someone with a given nature, capable of truth, responsibility and moral judgment. Education has the core purpose of cultivating these capacities so that individuals can govern themselves and participate responsibly in civic life. Law recognizes limits it did not create and protects rights it did not grant.

Under a transhuman or posthuman ‘becoming’ framework, the human person is understood as an unfinished project - defined by change, adaptability and optimization. Education aims to shape behaviour, manage risk and align individuals collectively, with system goals. Law becomes a tool for regulating processes rather than recognizing persons.

生物性 vs. 「成為」

為了闡明其中的利弊，請考慮以下對比：

在生物性的框架下，人類被理解為具有既定本性、能夠認識真理、承擔責任和做出道德判斷的人。教育的核心目的是培養這些能力，以便個人能夠自我管理並負責任地參與公民生活。法律承認它沒有創造的限制，並保護它沒有授予的權利。

在變革主義或後人類的「成為」框架下，人類被理解為一個未完成的項目——其特徵是變化、適應性和優化。教育旨在塑造行為、管理風險以及將個人集體地與系統目標對齊。法律變成一種用於監管過程而不是認識個體的工具。

The difference is not belief versus non belief regarding religious affiliation, nor tradition versus innovation. It is the difference between educating citizens and managing populations. One presupposes liberty; the other requires control.

這種區別並非關於宗教信仰與否，也不是關於傳統與創新。它是一種區別：是教育公民還是管理人口。前者預設了自由；後者則需要控制。

Education as the Guardian of Constitutional Order

The American Founding does not require moral perfection, cultural uniformity, or ideological agreement. It does require the formation to mature adulthood (the age of reason - not arrested development) of the human being; capable of recognizing truth, exercising conscience and accepting responsibility for self-government. Creaturehood names that requirement.

教育作為憲法秩序的守護者。

美國建國並不需要道德完美、文化統一或意識形態一致。它確實需要培養人類，使其成熟到成年（達到理智階段 - 而不是停留在發展階段），使其能夠認識真理、運用良知以及為自我管理承擔責任。生物性正是指這個要求。

To educate for a constitutional republic is to preserve the pre-political conditions that make liberty intelligible. To deny those conditions (whether in the name of efficiency, equity, or progress) is to train citizens for the very form of governance the Constitution was designed to prevent. A republic can survive disagreement. It cannot survive the quiet replacement of the human person it presupposes:

為了在憲法共和國中接受教育，就是要維護使自由具有意義的政治前提條件。否認這些條件（無論是出於效率、公平或進步的名義），就是在培養公民，使其適應憲法旨在防止的那種治理形式。共和國可以承受分歧。但它無法承受對其所預設的人類進行的悄無聲息的取代。

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1. Declaration of Independence; see also Russell Kirk (but take care with some of his idealist influences!), The Roots of American Order (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2003), 33–56.

2. Robert P. George, In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 31–54.

3. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999), I.1–I.3; Daniel N. Robinson, How Is Nature Possible? (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2004), 87–112.

4. Mary Ann Glendon, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse (New York: Free Press, 1991), 1–44.

5. James Wilson, Collected Works of James Wilson, ed. Kermit L. Hall and Mark David Hall (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007), vol. 1, 497–515.

6. C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 17–25; Daniel N. Robinson, “The Moral Agent,” in The Great Ideas of Psychology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).