The Values of Insurance
The Values of Insurance
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保险的价值
作者：
F. Ewald
保险业的历史讲述了现代道德的故事，更确切地说，讲述了现代道德领域内的斗争。因此，假设保险仅仅是出于一种假想的安全需要是不正确的。Jean halpsamrin的著作清楚地表明，保险要存在，就必须出现一种新的安全需求。保险是资本的产物。这种新形式的安全在封建经济中是不需要的，在封建经济中，财产与土地捆绑在一起，个人被家庭和宗教的纽带所包围，或者被公司团结所包围。然而，一旦金融资产开始流通，变得可交易，资本发现自己暴露在这种流通所产生的危险中，安全就变得必要了。第一种保险是海上保险，这并非巧合：“只有海洋才能避开僵硬的封建束缚。”封建社会的基石本质上是土地；大海摆脱了社会和政治等级；它不受任何政府权威的约束。没有什么比大海更不封建了。保险作为一种获得资金的方法，也是为了规避教会对高利贷的禁令而诞生的。“保险是在反对海上不安全和反对有关金融的教会法的同时斗争中诞生的。”此外，正如halpsamrin所指出的，保险的起源在旧形式的“共同安全”中找不到；“当保险第一次作为一个自主的社会机构出现时，它不是建立在团结的基础上，而是建立在经济利益的精神上。保险的普及与封建团结的瓦解以及个人的自由和自治是密切相关的。保险是一种与个人主义相联系的安全措施。它是资本主义精神的产物，沃纳•桑巴特（Werner Sombart）和马克斯•韦伯（Max Weber）等作家对这种精神有过很好的描述。这两位作者都没有在他们的作品中明确地提到保险这个主题。但是像《资本主义的精髓》和《新教伦理与资本主义精神》这样的文本提供了历史背景，使我们能够理解保险在其中发挥作用的道德背景当Sombart描述投机和项目开发（fabrique de projects）等实践中企业家精神的起源时，我们有理由怀疑“保险业务”是否只是一个多余的词。当马克斯·韦伯（Max Weber）描述资本主义理性时，他认为资本主义精神的特点是这种理性成为一种道德形式，我们想知道还有什么比保险更好的例子。18世纪人寿保险的诞生
The history of insurance tells the story of modern morality, more precisely of modern struggles within the sphere of morality. Thus it would be incorrect to assume that insurance was borne of only a hypothetical need for security. The writings of Jean Halpérin have clearly shown that, for insurance to exist, a new need for security had to appear. Insurance is the offspring of capital. This new form of security was not needed in a feudal economy, in which property was tied to the land, and the individual was enclosed within the bonds of family and religion, or within corporate solidarity. Security becomes necessary, however, as soon as financial assets begin to circulate, become tradable, and capital finds itself exposed to the dangers engendered by this circulation. It is no coincidence that the first kind of insurance was maritime: “The sea alone was able to elude rigid feudal armature. The cornerstone of the feudal world was essentially the land; the sea escapes social and political hierarchies; it is not subject to any governmental authority whatsoever. Nothing is less feudal than the sea.”1 Insurance as a method for securing capital also was born as a means to circumvent the church’s prohibition against usury. “Insurance was born from the simultaneous struggle against maritime insecurity and against canon laws with regard to finance.” Also, as noted by Halpérin, the origin of insurance is not to be found in the older forms of “common security” [sécurité solidaire]; “When insurance appeared for the first time as an autonomous social institution, it was not founded on a sense of solidarity, but rather in the spirit of financial gain.”2 The spread of insurance goes hand in hand with the dismantling of feudal solidarity and the freeing and autonomy of the individual. Insurance is a security measure linked to individualism. It is the offspring of a capitalist ethos that has been well described by writers such as Werner Sombart and Max Weber. Neither of these authors explicitly took up the theme of insurance in their writing. But texts such as The Quintessence of Capitalism and The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism give the historical background that allows us to understand the moral context in which insurance was called into play.3 When Sombart describes the origin of an entrepreneurial spirit in practices such as speculation and project development [fabrique de projets], we are right to wonder whether “the insurance business” is a pleonasm. When Max Weber describes capitalist rationality, arguing that the spirit of capitalism is characterized by the fact that this rationality became a form of morality, we wonder what better example there could be than insurance. The creation of life insurance in the eighteenth