情感关照与德性回归——亚当·斯密德性伦理思想管窥

Emotional Care and the Return of Virtue——On the Virtue ethics thought of Adam Smith

情感是亚当·斯密解决道德问题的万能钥匙及其伦理学出发点,德性则是其伦理思想的归宿。斯密晚年集中研究德性,同时辅以早期的同情共感、合宜性等原理,构建了以情感自制为主的完美德性论。他的德性论是一个与时俱进的动态形成过程,有着鲜明的特点,在内容、作用、评价标准以及与财富、幸福等关系上都展现出了不同于前人的独特见解。

Emotion is the master - key for Adam Smith to solve the moral issues and is the basic point of his ethics while virtue is the end of his ethical thought. Adam Smith concentrated on studying the virtue in his old age, coupled with such principles as sympathy and the common feelings, compatibility and so on in the early time and constructed a perfect virtue theory centered by emotional self- constraint. His virtue theory in its formation is a dynamic process with the time, which is of distinctive features and displays a peculiar view different from the predecessors in terms of its content, role, evaluation criteria and the relationship between treasure and happiness.