政治权威在道德效力中的作用和局限性

The Functions and the Limitations of Political Authority for Moral Force

不同于法律效力的物质性,道德效力实现的手段是纯意识性的。这一差别使得政治权威在法律效力和道德效力中,扮演不同的角色。政治权威强大的物质性力量是法律效力不可或缺的根基,却在道德效力的意识性面前表现出局限性。政治的不确定本质决定了政治性的思想意识不能作为道德效力的根基。道德效力的意识性决定了道德效力的根基须是人类知识体系中的极限性知识。当今中国乃至世界的道德困境,从根本上是源于这种极限性知识的变化,归因于公共政策或任何具体因素都是不恰当的。这是思想界的任务,却没有政治家的失职。而政治权威在道德观念的传播中起着重要的作用,这是道德实现其普遍效力的另一重要环节。只有政治权威、思想界等社会多元角色的结合,才能在现代中国道德体系的构建中做得更好。

Different from the materialness of legal force, moral force is purely mental. The difference determines the different roles of political authority in legal and moral forces. Political authority＇s powerful material force makes it indispensable for law, but shows its limitations before the mentality of morals. Politics＇ nature of uncertainty also makes the political ideology unable to be the sound base for morality. The world-wide moral predicament in the modem time owes itself to the fundamental change of ultimate knowledge in the human epistemic system. It is inappropriate to blame only the public policy or other concrete factors for the moral problems we have. It is the job of the intellectuals not that of the politicians. Political authority＇ s role lies in the dissemination of moral ideas, which is of fatal importance for the universal Validity of morality. Only with the joint work by all the parts of the society, can we do better in the reconstruction of the modem Chinese moral system.