归复宇宙之家——斯宾诺莎和新脑科学的伦理学洞见

Becoming at Home in the Universe:Insights from Spinoza and the New Brain Sciences

人为什么会做好事,也会做伤害他人的坏事,人如何才能成为更好的人类等问题虽然是现代之问,但斯宾诺莎在《伦理学》中通过对"自我"的解读所提出的新的道德模式不可谓不是对该问题的解答。斯宾诺莎认为人作为宇宙中"前有所承,后有所继"的存在,具有一种"己欲且可达致他人"的共同本质,这种本质只要通过适当的心灵训练便可以达到"凡追求美德的人,其为自己所追求的善,也会为别人所追求"的理想状态。斯宾诺莎用以反思心灵进而反思自由意志的道德能力为依托,认为对自我的正确理解是自我认知的基础,因而不存在自由意志的先在道德能力,自我只有通过在宇宙的无限背景中解读、把握自我而实现自我认知与道德判断。斯宾诺莎对"自我"的解读与当代新脑科学的发现相契合,探讨了人的道德行为发生的可能性基础在于"镜像神经元"等问题,才引发现代科学、哲学及实证伦理学的多方面研究与对斯宾诺莎"人应复归宇宙之家"问题的关注。

Why do people do good things for others?Why do they hurt others?And how can people become better human beings?Although these are all modern questions,the new moral model proposed by Spinoza through the interpretation of “self”in Ethics gives an answer to them.Spinoza believed that as a person in the interlaced network of inheriting in the universe,there was a common essence of“what one desires and so to others”.In this interpretation of the self,only some proper training of the mind in self-understanding within the infinite universe can easily bring an ideal state:“the good which every man who pursues virtue aims at for himself he will also desire for the rest of mankind.”Spinoza used his archetypal biology as an example to rethink about the mind,and then deny the existence of free will moral ability.He believes that the correct understanding of self is the source of the possibility of moral transformation,and this understanding is only achieved when we recognize who we are and ultimately through understanding and grasping the “self”in the infinite context of the universe.Spinoza's interpretation of“self”is in line with the discovery of contemporary brain science,and discusses the possibility of human moral behavior based on“mirror neuron”and other issues,which have aroused the research of modern science,philosophy and empirical ethics and the concern of Spinoza's thought about that “human should return to the home of the universe”.