容纳“超义务”概念的美德伦理学进路:从降低标准到考验美德

Accommodating Supererogation within Virtue Ethics:From Lowering the Rightness Standard to Testing Virtue

厄姆森在1958年发表的开创性论文《圣人与英雄》引起了道德哲学界关于超义务行为的热烈讨论。所谓超义务行为,就是超越义务要求"之上"或"之外"的行为。一般认为,不讨论义务概念的美德伦理学不会与超义务有交集。但一些尝试在美德伦理学的框架内容纳超义务的努力越来越表明:超义务不仅是个道义论概念,也是一个与美德相关的概念。超越寻常道德义务的超义务实际上表现了一种真正的德性上的坚毅与卓越。文章对美德伦理学能否容纳超义务的质疑和挑战一一做了回应,认为降低标准的解释路径是消极的且并不成功。相比之下,赫斯特豪斯提出的"考验美德"的超义务标准是目前最有力的辩护。它对超义务的理解不仅符合日常道德直觉,也能更好地解释日常道德现象与行动者的道德心理。

In 1958,a groundbreaking paper by J.O.Urmson,‘Saints and Heroes’,aroused a heated discussion on supererogation in moral philosophy.Supererogation is a kind of action that goes higher or beyond the requirement of duty.It is generally believed that virtue ethics,which does not involve the concept of duty,will say nothing about supererogation.However,some efforts to accommodate supererogation within the framework of virtue ethics increasingly show that supererogation is not only a deontic concept,but also a concept related to virtue.Supererogation,which goes beyond the call of duty,shows a kind of true virtue of perseverance and excellence.This paper responds to the doubts and challenges of whether virtue ethics can accommodate supererogation one by one,and holds that it is weak and unsuccessful for virtue ethics to lower the standard of rightness in order to accommodate supererogation.By contrast,Hursthouse put forward a criteria of"testing virtue",which is by far the most powerful elucidation for supererogation.This account is not only consistent with daily moral intuition,but also can better explain the daily moral phenomenon and the moral psychology of the actor.