人为规范与德性——再论休谟的正义论

Artificial Norms and Virtue:Rethinking to Hume’s Theory of Justice

休谟的正义论在西方正义思想史上独树一帜。休谟既持有人性二元论,即人类有着对他人仁慈(仁爱)本性或同情的情感与自私本性和情感,但又认为人从根本上看是自私的。在休谟看来,人的这样两类情感或本性产生两类规则或德性,一类为自然的,另一类为人为的。人为的规则或德性从根本上看,起源于人的自私本性。正义是为了限制人的自私本性从而使得人们相互有利而订立的协议前提下产生的。休谟主要讨论了正义的三种法则,但他只是在第三种法则即履行诺言而产生的道德感意义上讨论了正义的德性。不过,从整体上看,休谟关于正义起源的思想观点前后矛盾,即他在《人性论》等处讨论原始契约,但却在相关论文中基本否定原始契约。

Hume’s theory of justice is unique in the Western intellectual history of justice.On the one hand,Hume holds the dualism of human nature:human beings have both the nature of benevolence or sympathy for others and selfish nature and emotion;on the other hand,he believes that people are fundamentally selfish.In Hume,such two kinds of emotions or natures of human beings produce two kinds of rules or virtues,in which one is natural and the other is artificial.Fundamentally speaking,artificial rules or virtues originate from the selfish nature of human beings.Justice is produced on the premise of an agreement made to regulate people’s selfish nature so that people can benefit each other.Hume mainly discusses the three laws of justice,but he only discusses the virtue of justice in the sense of moral sense produced by fulfilling one’s promise.However,Hume’s views on the origin of justice are contradictory:although he discusses the original contract in his Treatise of Human Nature,he basically negates the original contract in other theses.