道德进步的两难处境——尼布尔《道德的人与不道德的社会》评析

Dilemma in Moral Progress——A Comment and Analysis of Niebuhr’s “The Nature and Destiny of Man.”

20世纪最有影响的基督教哲学家之一莱茵霍尔德·尼布尔在其最有影响的代表作之一《道德的人与不道德的社会》中,运用他的基督教现实主义伦理观,对现实的社会问题进行伦理研究,把社会公正看作道德的最高理想,首次对个体道德和群体道德进行了严格的区分,认为群体的道德低于个体的道德,分析了道德的两难处境,对我们认识全球化时代的伦理关系具有重要的启示意义。

Reinhold Niebuhr is one of the most influential Christian Philosophers in the 20th Century. Based on his moral views of Christian realism, Niebuhr has made a research in real social problems in respect of morality in his most influential master piece “The Nature and Destiny of Man.” He took social justice as the highest moral ideal. In his book, he distinguished the morality of individuals and mprality of groups. In his opinion, the morality of groups is inerior to that of individuals. Meanwhile, he analyses the dilemma in morality, which sheds great enlightment on the understanding of the ethic relations in the age of globalization.