现代中国应并重公共道德和个体美德——对陈来、蔡祥元两位先生的回应

Public Virtue and Individual Virtue Should Be Equally Valued in Modern China-a Response to Chen Lai and Cai Xiangyuan

在古代中国或者传统道德中,主要强调公德与私德的联系而不是区别,这是由古代社会家国同构的社会基础、儒家合内外之道的思维方法以及私人领域与公共领域尚未区隔所决定的。对公德与私德进行区隔并在当时历史背景下强调国家团体意识的公德内涵,这种思想最早是由梁启超《新民说》提出,之后一百多年来对这个问题仍有持续的讨论与实践。陈来先生认为要强化社会公德之“公共伦理”建设和个人品德修养,不仅在学术认知上是准确科学的,而且也有重要的实践意义。蔡祥元先生认为建立在家国同构基础上的“家天下”思维在现代遇到了困境,因此,现代道德建设要着力于规则而不是依靠私德或者个人的良知,这也具有一定的真理性,但又不尽然,儒家强调修身、内圣或者私德为道德基础的道德主体精神,在复杂化、世俗化、普世化的当代社会仍然有其独特而重要的价值。

In traditional morality,the relation but not distinction between public and private virtue is mainly emphasized,which is determined by the social fundation of co-construction of family and state in ancient China,the Confucian thinking that combining the internal and external,and the fusion of private and public domain.The idea that making distinction between public and private virtue and emphasizing public virtue in national group consciousness under the historical condition at that time,was first put forward by Liang Qichao in“Theory of New National Virtue,”and discussions and pratice continued since then.Chen Lai thinks that public ethics and personal morality should be strengthened for the construction of social morality,which is both accurate on academic cognition and significant for practice.Cai Xiangyuan holds that the thinking model of hereditary monarchy encouters difficulty in modern world,so modern moral construction should rely on rules but not private virtue or individual conscience,but it is not exactly so.Confucianism emphasizes moral subject spirit based on self-cultivation,being inner sage,and private virtue,which still has unique and significant value in complicated,secular,and universalized world today.