良好生活的两个面向:对儒家义利观的美德论解释

Two Aspects of a Good Life in Virtue Ethics:With a Focus on the Confucian View on Rightness and Benefits

在中国哲学中,如何恰当理解义利关系,各家对此问题存在长期的争论。一般认为,儒家重义轻利,分歧在于,儒家是将义视作一种独立于利、虽然不一定与之冲突的内在价值,还是将义视为取利的最佳工具。前者认为儒家思想是一种道义论,后者则认为儒家思想是一种后果论甚至功利论。儒家思想其实是一种美德论,关心如何过上良好的或繁荣的人的生活。这样的生活离不开外在福祉和内在福祉,前者离不开利,后者离不开义。此二者各具内在价值,又互为工具,但彼此之间也可能冲突。如果二者冲突,儒家先义后利,因为是义使人类生活不同于其他的生活形式。

There has been a long lasting debates on the proper relationship between moral rightness and external benefits among different Chinese philosophical schools.It's a consensus that Confucianism gives priority to rightness over benefits.There is disagreement,however,on whether this is because Confucianism regards rightness as an intrinsic value independent of,even though not necessarily in conflict with,benefits or because it sees rightness as the best instrument to produce benefits.The former takes Confucianism as a deontological theory,while the latter a consequentialist or even utilitarian one.In contrast,this essay argues that it is a virtue ethical theory,concerned with a good or flourishing human life,consisting of both external wellbeing and internal wellbeing.While benefits are indispensable to the former,rightness the latter.Although these two aspects,each of which has its own intrinsic value,are mutually instrumental,conflicts between the two may arise,and when they do,Confucianism puts rightness ahead of benefits,as it is what makes human life different from other forms of life.