再论柏拉图的正义与幸福

A Review of Plato's Justice and Eudaemonia

柏拉图的《理想国》提出了构建一个正义的城邦的规划,目的是使得城邦和公民都获得真正的幸福。其方式是通过由低到高的心灵教育,达到正义。柏拉图的被定义为心灵和谐的正义是否具有通常的道德内涵,以及它能否保证人获得幸福,是一个有争议的问题。本文认为,这个初步的定义下的正义,确实可以使人获得幸福。但是能够使人达到真正的幸福的正义,却是从最高的善中获得的。哲学家以善自身的知识对公民进行教育和对城邦进行统治,就是为了从根本上实现正义,从而使得国家整体获得幸福。而哲学家放弃最高的幸福"回到洞穴"这个看似悖论的问题,其症结在于个人的幸福与善自身所要求的普遍幸福之间的冲突。一般公民在柏拉图的理想国家中是否真正的幸福,也获得新的解读。

Plato suggested constructing a polis of justice in his The Republic, aiming at the true eudae- monia （happiness） achieved by both the polls and citizens, which can be realized by justice after bottom-up spiritual education. It is controversial whether Plato＇s justice, defined as harmony of the soul, has ethical connotation and whether it can ensure human＇s chance of achieving eudaemonia. The essay argues that the preliminarily defined justice brings human eudaemonia; however, it is the justice derived from the supreme virtue that enables human to achieve the true eudaemonia. Philosophers educated citizens and ruled the polis based on the theory of a virtuous self in order to fundamentally achieve justice, endowing the whole state with eudaemonia. On the other hand, the issue that philosophers abandoned the supreme eudaemonia, re- turning to the cave, seems a paradox, which is mainly due to the conflict between individual eudaemonia and general eudaemonia that a virtuous self demands.