从“知其不可而为之”看孔子的理性精神

See the Rational Consciousness in Confucius from “Knowing the Impossibility but sticking to It”

在孔子的思想体系中,天命论可被认为是其思考天人关系问题的基点。在孔子之前,天命的概念从殷商时期带有人格神意味的上帝之天转向了西周以后外在于人的客观力量的命运之天。而在孔子这里,除了对二者的批判继承之外,天命又增加了一层天赋道德使命的特殊含义。世人称孔子为"知其不可而为之者",孔子之所以明知不可为而强为,就在于他对天命的特殊理解。孔子的天命论,以主体主动之"知"为桥梁,从主体的理性意识出发,主动承担天赋道德使命,积极进行入世实践,并且对于结果无所挂碍,向上直契人与天地相参的道德理想之境。从"知其不可而为之",可见孔子之深刻的理性精神与觉醒。

In the ideological system of Confucius,the Fate theory can be considered as the basic point of thinking about the relationship between heaven and man.Before Confucius,the concept of fate changed from the God like personhood in the Shang Dynasty to mainly around the external objective power of people after Western Zhou Dynasty.In the theory of Confucius,in addition to criticize and inherit the two viewpoints,fate has added a special meaning of the moral mission of talent.The world called Confucius as'a person tries to do something which is known as impossible deliberately'.Confucius knows what he cannot do but he still to do because he has a special understanding of his fate.Confucius’s theory of destiny,based on the active'knowledge'of the subject as a bridge,starts from the rational consciousness of the subject,takes the initiative to undertake the moral mission of talent,actively carries out the practice of entering the world,and has no obstacles to the results,and directly complies with the moral ideal of man and heaven and earth.It can be seen from'knowing what is impossible and doing it'that Confucius’profound rational spirit and awakening.