21世纪的激流与儒家人文精神:问题与启示

Confucian Humanism and the Changes in the Twenty-First Century:Challenges and Enlightenment

本文探讨21世纪的各种问题与激流,特别聚焦于新冠病毒对人类文明造成的挑战,并探索儒家人文精神如何为现代问题提出解方。本文首先归纳21世纪的四大激流:全球化与反全球化潮流激荡,民主衰退,人工智能与自动化,新冠病毒肆虐。其中以新冠病毒的传播,影响最为深远。因应新冠病毒的诸多挑战,本文提出的关键词为"和解",包括"自我"与"他者"的和解、"本国"与"他国"的和解、"人"与"自然"的和解,以及"人"与"超自然"的和解,而上述和解皆以"心灵的和解"最为重要。儒家心学传统,提倡个人向自我的"心"之回归;仁学传统则提升"仁"学的普世性,正是回应当前"新冠病毒"时代的问题、达成心灵"和解"的良方。儒家人文精神提供21世纪人类一条和解的康庄大道,正是身处21世纪的我们可以前行的坦途。

This paper discusses waves of change in the twenty-first century,with a special focus on the challenges that COVID-19 brings to human civilization and what solutions Confucian humanism can offer.Among the major changes of the twenty-first century are globalization and anti-globalization,the decline of democracy,artificial intelligence and automation,and the spread of COVID-19.In response to the most profound impact of COVID-19,this paper proposes several kinds of reconciliation,including those between self and other,between one nation and another,between human and nature,and between human and the transcendent.The key is mental reconciliation.The Confucian learning of heart-mind advocates individual’s return to their heart-mind,while the study of benevolence promotes the universality of benevolence.Both are effective solutions to the challenges of COVID-19 and the very recipe for mental reconciliation.To sum up,Confucian humanism provides a path of reconciliation that we can take in the twenty-first century.