回到行为者本身:当代德性伦理学的进路

Returning to the Agent-self:The Approach of Contemporary Virtue Ethics

当代兴起的德性伦理学作为一种不同于功利论和义务论的理论进路,是以行为者为中心的。以行为者为中心涉及如何以德性概念来解释或理解行为与情感。德性是在道德现象世界表现为行为与情感的行为者相对稳定的内在品质。以行为者为中心,德性伦理学就不仅仅将行为看成单个孤立的原子式行为,而是将行为和情感与行为者内在关联。回到行为者本身,还需要回答为什么人需要德性。德性伦理学强调行为者的幸福与德性的内在关联,虽然亚里士多德的伦理学不否认外在善在幸福概念中的地位。然而,仅仅看到德性与行为者幸福的内在关联还没有回答一个重要问题:德性有时要求自我牺牲。回答这一问题,就要超出自我幸福的眼界。当代德性伦理学以伦理自然主义来解释人类需要德性的问题。在麦道威尔那里,他提出了“第二自然”的概念,而赫斯特豪斯则依据亚里士多德的自然主义,提出了四重功能目的论的伦理自然主义。回到行为者本身,建构德性伦理学,是规范伦理学发展的重要方向。

As a theoretical approach different from utilitarianism and deontology,virtue ethics,which rises in the contemporary era,is agent-centered.agent-centered approach involves how to interpret or understand behavior and emotion with the concept of virtue.Virtue is the intrinsic character traits relatively stable of the agent who behaves and feels in the world of moral phenomena.With the agent-centered virtue ethics not only regards behavior as a single atomic behavior,but also internally correlates behavior and emotion with the agents.Returning to the agents themselves,we need to answer why human beings need virtue.Virtue ethics holds that the intrinsic relationship between agent's happiness and virtue is emphasized,although Aristotle's ethics does not deny that external goods have the status of the concept of happiness.However,only to see the intrinsic relationship between virtue and the happiness of the agents has not yet answered an important question:virtue sometimes requires self-sacrifice.To answer this question,we should look at virtue beyond the perspective of self-happiness.Contemporary virtue ethics uses ethical naturalism to explain the problem that human beings need virtue.In MacDowell's opinion,he put forward the concept of"second nature",while Hurstwood put forward ethical naturalism of quadruple functional-ends based on Aristotle's naturalism.To return to agent's in itself,which is one direction of development norm theory.