美德伦理学:从宋明儒的观点看

Virtue Ethics from a Neo-Confucian Perspective

与从美德伦理学的角度看宋明儒学,从而试图将后者看作是一种美德伦理学不同,从宋明儒的观点去看美德伦理学主要是看美德伦理学还存在什么缺陷、局限和问题,而宋明儒特别是二程、朱熹和王阳明,在克服这些缺陷、超越这些局限和解决这些问题方面是否能够有所作为。虽然这样的研究在广义上也算是一种比较哲学,但它不是在比较已经完成了的美德伦理学体系,而是在比较中促进美德伦理学自身的发展,而这种美德伦理学并不是西方历史上(事实上也不是中国历史上)某些伦理学形态的专利。在这个意义上,从宋明儒的观点看美德伦理学并不是用宋明儒的材料去解决西方美德伦理学的问题,因为这种说法隐含了这些问题不是宋明儒、儒家甚至中国哲学自身的问题。宋明儒能够解决西方哲学家没有甚至不能解决的这些美德伦理学的问题这个事实本身就表明,它们也是宋明儒、儒学甚至整个中国哲学本身的问题。

Unlike Neo-Confucianism seen as a form of virtue ethics,virtue ethics seen from the Neo-Confucian perspective primarily aims to see what defects,limitations,and problems virtue ethics has and how Neo-Confucians,especially the Cheng Brothers,Zhu Xi,and Wang Yangming,can help rectify these defects,go beyond these limitations,and solve these problems.Such a study may be regarded as a project in comparative philosophy.However,instead of comparing fixed and completed systems of virtue ethics,it aims to further develop virtue ethics through a trans-tradition approach,which is not patented by any historical form of virtue ethics developed in the West or in China.In this sense,Viewing virtue ethics from the Neo-Confucian point of view is not doing Western virtue ethics by drawing on the Neo-Confucian resources,as this implies that virtue ethics is a property of the Western philosophical tradition.The very fact that Neo-Confucians can make great contributions to the development of virtue ethics shows that it is also something that Neo-Confucians,Confucians in general,and even Chinese philosophers as a whole have been concerned with.