驯服傲慢:《乌托邦》的道德哲学及其历史意义

Taming the Pride: The Moral Philosophyof Utopia and its Historical Significance

《乌托邦》首版于1516年,正值英国社会大转型之初,贫富分化引发的社会动荡备受学者重视。当时人们普遍认为罪恶由贪婪引起,而应对之道在于强调共同体中各阶层间的相互义务。与之不同,《乌托邦》的作者莫尔认为罪恶的根源是“傲慢”,应从调整社会结构的角度寻求应对之道。他将“傲慢”理解为因占有更多财富而产生的优越感,认为傲慢导致人与人之间的竞争与对立。为了驯服傲慢,莫尔提出一套以追求“真正的快乐”为核心的道德哲学,并以此为基础谋划社会制度,最终颇具创造性地构想出一个“人人平等”的理想社会。

The first edition of Utopia was published in 1516,at the beginning of the great transformation of England society,and the social unrest caused by the polarization of the rich and the poor has attracted much attention from scholars.At that time,it was widely believed that evil was caused by greed,and that the way to deal with it was to emphasize mutual obligations among the various classes in the commonwealth.In contrast,the author of Utopia believes that the root cause of evil is“pride”and sought to deal with it from the perspective of restructuring society.He understood“pride”as a sense of superiority arising from the possession of more wealth,and believed that pride led to competition and antagonism between people.In order to tame pride,More proposed a set of moral philosophy based on the pursuit of“true happiness”and planned a social system based on it,and finally creatively conceived of an ideal society where“everyone is equal”.