In his paper, “The Impossibility of Republican Freedom,” Thomas Simpson tries to show that the republican conception of freedom as nondomination is self-defeating. The core idea, briefly, is that it supports two inconsistent requirements: one, that individuals be robustly protected by the law against interference; and two, that the people, working as a team, control the state that makes and applies that law, else the state will itself dominate them. Those requirements are said to be inconsistent insofar as the ability of the people to control the state entails that they have dominating control over every individual. Although this claim constitutes Simpson’s more specific charge against republican theory, he also uses it to support a more general charge that the theory implies domination is inescapable, originating from a range of groups and not just from the people as a whole. The idea is that we are each surrounded by sets of others such that any of those sets, working as a team, could collectively interfere with us, regardless of legal protection. In virtue of claiming that individuals operate as a team to control the state, so the argument goes, republicans must concede, not just that the popular team dominates every individual, but that any in an open range of potential teams does so as well. If Simpson is correct, republicanism would be in deep trouble: there is no point in advocating a political ideal that is inescapably frustrated.

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维护共和党自由：对辛普森的答复

在他的论文《共和自由的不可能》中，托马斯·辛普森试图表明，共和主义将自由视为非统治的概念是自毁的。简而言之，核心思想是它支持两个不一致的要求：一是个人受到法律的有力保护，不受干扰；第二，人民作为一个团队，控制制定和实施该法律的国家，否则国家将自己主宰他们。就人民控制国家的能力意味着他们对每个人的控制权而言，这些要求是不一致的。尽管这一主张构成了辛普森对共和理论的更具体的指控，但他也用它来支持更普遍的指控，即该理论意味着统治是不可避免的，起源于一系列群体，而不仅仅是来自全体人民。这个想法是我们每个人都被其他人包围着，这样任何一个人，作为一个团队工作，都可以集体干扰我们，而不管法律保护。由于声称个人作为一个团队运作来控制国家，所以论点是这样的，共和党人必须承认，不仅受欢迎的团队支配着每个人，而且任何潜在的团队也都这样做。如果辛普森是对的，共和主义就会陷入困境：鼓吹一个不可避免地受挫的政治理想是没有意义的。由于声称个人作为一个团队运作来控制国家，所以论点是这样的，共和党人必须承认，不仅受欢迎的团队支配着每个人，而且任何潜在的团队也都这样做。如果辛普森是对的，共和主义就会陷入困境：鼓吹一个不可避免地受挫的政治理想是没有意义的。由于声称个人作为一个团队运作来控制国家，所以论点是这样的，共和党人必须承认，不仅受欢迎的团队支配着每个人，而且任何潜在的团队也都这样做。如果辛普森是对的，共和主义就会陷入困境：鼓吹一个不可避免地受挫的政治理想是没有意义的。