“吾有知乎哉?”——孔子的问与知

“Do I have Knowledge?”--Questioning and Knowing in Confucius

人类共同体的基础和起点是本原的人—我关系。在这一关系之中,我面对他人,因而需要对之做出回应,而做出回应已经就是对他人做出应承,为他人负起责任。这就是“responsibility”一词所蕴含者:回应,应答,应承,承担,责任!做出回应是向他人敞开自己。在这一敞开之中,我将自己暴露给他人,奉献给他人,为他人所用,为他人服务。没有这一敞开,我与他人就不可能真正接近。与所有人——全人类——的关系,或一个公正的人类共同体,最终必须建立在这一本原的我向他人敞开并因而为他人负责的伦理关系之上。本文将从一个特定的儒家文本——从这一文本的具体细节——来探讨人类共同体之构建这一宏大问题。这一文本在《论语·子罕》篇中。孔子承认,面对一乡野之人(“鄙夫”)的提问,他感到自己无知。他虽有此自觉,却又感到有“责任”做出应答。这一“责任感”来自面对他人这一简单而纯粹的事实,而非来自任何制度化的规定。在他人之问前,孔子首先让自己敞开。他进而以一种“叩其两端”的形式来与他人“共同”解决问题。这里或许就有着人类共同体的构建活动的本原形态。本文将分析这一现象的深刻复杂含义。

The foundation and the starting point of the human community is one’s original relationship with the other,in which the one faces the other and is responsible to the other.Being responsible is to take my responsibility for the other.Being responsible implies opening oneself to the other.In this openness I am exposed to the other and offered to the other.I am essentially at the other’s service.Without this openness there can be no authentic proximity between me and other people.The relation with all human beings,or a just human community,must ultimately be built upon this original ethical relation in which I am opened to the other and responsible for the other.This essay takes its starting point from a specific Confucian text-from the very details of this text-to explore the grand question of the construction of human community.The text is in the Ninth Book of The Analects.In this text we find Confucius confesses that when being faced with a question by a country person he feels he does not have knowledge for it.However,he still feels obliged to respond.His sense of obligation comes from the simple and pure fact that he is faced with the other,and not from any institutionalized rules.In front of the other and its question,Confucius first opens himself up to it.Then he tries to solve the problem together with the other by employing a method with which he helps the other to think the question from its both ends.Here might lie the very original form and activity of the construction of the Human community.This essay will analyze the profound significance of this phenomenon.