善恶观:可欲为善、公意为善

Goodness as the Desirable Selfishness and Goodness as the Public Opinion——A View of Goodness and Evilness

善恶是人类价值的基本形态。扬善去恶是人格修养的基本准则。然而,究竟什么是善,什么是恶,我们认识得并不很清楚。一种常见的观点是把善恶视为一种固定不变的客观品质或属性,善即理性、利他之举,恶即欲望、自私之举。其实这是经不起事实考量的。另一种历史上流行的观点是用苦乐定善恶,认为善是给我们带来快乐的行为,恶是给我们造成痛苦的行为。其实这也经不起推敲。苦乐与其说是善恶的决定者,毋宁说是美丑的决定者。事实上,善恶是由包含私欲的社会公意决定的,满足者为善,背离者为恶。人类有超越历史和国家民族的社会公意,这就构成了善恶的普适性;不同的历史时期、不同的国度民族有不同的社会公意,这就决定了善恶的相对性。

It is well known that goodness and evilness are man＇s basic forms of value.While goodness is worthy of promotion,evilness deserves punishment,which is the essence of character accomplishment.But,what is the meaning for goodness and evilness？ Maybe it is not very clear to everybody.A common view is considering goodness or evilness as one of man＇s unchangeable,objective characters.The former is reasonable,for the benefit of others;and the latter means appetency,showing selfness.Actually,it is a distortive interpretation.Another popular view in history is using bitterness or sweetness to replace goodness or evilness.While goodness brings about sweetness,evilness produces bitterness.That saying is also unbelievable.Bitterness or sweetness does not derive so much from goodness or evilness as from beauty or ugliness.As a matter of fact,goodness and evilness are determined by public opinions that comprise personal desires.Just as satisfying does goodness,dissatisfying produces evilness.Human beings have their public opinions of transcending national countries and histories,which make up the universality of goodness and evilness.And different histories or nations have different public opinions,which constitute the relativity of goodness and evilness.