论先秦儒家的人性观

On the Pre-Qin Confucianists’ View of Human Nature

先秦儒家的人性观主要体现在孔子、孟子和荀子的学说中。在孔子那里,人性虽然没有被独立加以讨论,但是他似乎主张人性无善无恶。孟子主张人性本善,而荀子则主张人性本恶。他们之所以这样明确地提出自己的论点,是因为这种主张构成他们政治理论的基本前提和出发点。

The pre-Qin Confucianists’ view of human nature is mainly embodied in Confucius,Mencius and Xun Zi＇s doctrines.Although Confucius did not talk about human nature independently,he seemed to advocate that human nature is neither good nor evil.Mencius suggested that human nature is good,and Xun Zi claimed that human nature is evil.All these propositions constitute the basic premises of their political theories.