从类比看人性:早期儒家的案例

Human Nature Through Analogy: a Case Study of Early Confucianism

早期儒家对人性的讨论,不是诉诸抽象的理论语言,而是直观的类比。其中,相关于结构、运动和声音的类比,揭示了人性作为自然本能的意义;关于生长、制作与培育的类比,揭示了人性作为行动条件的意义。因此将儒家的人性学说称为“人性论”,主要来自研究者对理论语言的偏好,但未必能对儒家论性的意项提供切实说明。

The early Confucianists’ discussion of human nature did not resort to abstract theoretical language, but to intuitive analogy. Among them, the analogy of structure, movement and sound reveals the significance of human nature as a natural instinct. The analogy of growth, production and cultivation reveals the significance of human nature as the condition of action. Therefore, the Confucian theory of human nature is called "Theory of Human Nature", which mainly comes from the researchers’ preference for theoretical language, but it may not be able to provide a practical explanation for the meaning of Confucian theory of human nature.