儒家伦理与人性的未来

Confucian Ethics and the Future of Human Nature

本文的论题以现代高科技对人类的影响为背景,不过它关心的不是机器是否会变成人,而是人是否会改变自己本性的问题。儒家人性论是可供参照的一个视角,但需要对性善与性恶两种观点的意义作进一步的澄清。从根本上讲,人性变化与否的判断标准,主要是自我认同的能力,包括自我意识以及欲望的感知与表现,还有由此派生的与同类相处的社会态度,即儒家理解的善恶观。由此分析,日新月异的虚拟现实的技术,如果不是通过对脑神经的改造甚至替换,罕有机会实现对人性的改造。生物技术则不一样,除了克隆与基因编辑可能引发人道问题,因而备受瞩目外,本文特别关注体外生殖与寿命延长这两种现象可能带来的道德困境。体外生殖有机会得到个人主义、平等主义价值观的支持,而寿命延长则几乎是人类永恒的梦想。当然,面对这一挑战的不只是儒家伦理,也包括整个人类文明既有的基本价值准则。

The topic of this paper is set in the context of the impact of modern high technology on humanity. It is not about whether the machine will become human,but rather whether human beings will change their own nature. The Confucian theory of the human nature may provide a perspective for reference,but its views on good and evil needs clarification. Fundamentally speaking,judgement of the change of the human nature is based mainly on the ability of self-identification,including self-awareness and the perception and expression of desire,from which the social attitude among co-existing people is derived,and this attitude is what the Confucian views on good and evil are all about. From this analysis,it seems that the breathtaking virtual-reality technology,unless it goes so far as to transform or even replace the brain neurons,has little chance to achieve the transformation of the human nature. Biotechnology is different. In addition to cloning and gene editing which have already drawn much attention to their humanitarian concerns,there are vitro reproduction and indefinite longevity which are likely to bring about moral dilemma and are therefore focused on in this paper. Vitro reproduction is presumably supported by individualistic and egalitarian values,and indefinite longevity has been an eternal dream for humankind. Of course,all this is challenging not just the Confucian ethics,but also the existing basic values that are common to human civilization as a whole.