反思应用伦理学——兼论应用伦理学与理论伦理学的关系

Reflections on Applied Ethics——Concurrently on the relationship between applied ethics and theoretical ethics

应用伦理学在西方的兴起对以前的理论伦理学构成了一系列挑战,并为伦理学研究构建起了全新的平台。应用伦理学对问题和实践的强调使传统伦理学建立大一统的理论体系的旨趣大大削弱,并动摇了传统伦理学的普遍主义与绝对主义;应用伦理学在回答“应用什么”、“应用于什么”和“如何应用”等问题时扩展了传统伦理学的外延,并突破了对理论与应用之关系的传统理解;应用伦理学对权利的关注改变了传统伦理学对道德义务的过分强调,并改变了传统伦理学所理解的道德概念。应用伦理学的这些革新在很大程度上实现了对传统伦理学的扬弃与超越,使伦理学研究的范式发生了根本性的转换。

The rise of applied ethics in the West has challenged western traditional theoretical ethics and hence established a new platform for ethical studies. Applied ethics focuses on specific moral problems and moral practices and shakes the universalism and absolutism in traditional ethics,and makes it impossible to set up a universalizable ethical system. Applied ethics extends the border of ethics by answering such questions as 'apply what?','applied to what?' and 'how to apply?',and renews the traditional understanding of the relationship between ethical theories and practices. With its emphasis on moral rights,applied ethics also changes the traditional conception of morality. Thus,applied ethics has,to a great extent,succeeded in sublating and superceding traditional ethics and brought about a fundamental change in the paradigms of ethical studies.