孟子“性善论”之我见

On the Hamanity Goodness by Mencius

孟子对“性”和“人性”有着严格的区分。“性”指人的生理欲求,被视为导致恶的根源;“人性”则是仁义礼智等良好道德的发端,被看成使人为善的内在根据。孟子主张的只是“人性善”,而非“性善”。基于这一认识,他提出了“扩充善端(人性)”和“抑制恶源(性)”的道德修养原则,在儒学发展史上具有重要意义。搞清孟子思想中“性”和“人性”的概念及二者关系,有助于准确把握孟子一些重要论述的涵义及其在研究、探索人性和伦理道德问题方面的思想特色和理论贡献。

Mencius made a strict distinction between sex and humanity. The former is the physiological desire, which is considered as the root of wickedness and the latter is an origin of moral goodness which is considered as the internal factor of goodness. From that he put forward the the moralaty - training principle. Then he made a further statement that man should enhance the humanity goodness, but not sex goodress. His ideas play an important role in forming Confucian ideology, the Chinese school of thought. It will be helpful to master the connotation of Mencius speeches and his idealogical features and theoretical contribution in the reseach of humanity and ethical problems in distinguishing the conception and relationship between sex and humanity.