西方伦理学历史分期新探

A New Inquiry into the Periodical Division of Western Ethics History

西方伦理学史的分期不应依据政治标准,而应依据文化标准,应依据文化标准中的哲学标准而非科学标准、艺术标准或其他标准。依据哲学标准,西方伦理学史可以被分为远古、中古、近代和现代四个时期。其远古与中古的界线是4世纪晚期5世纪早期基督教神学伦理学的形成,其中古与近代的界线是17世纪前期英国经验主义伦理学和欧陆理性主义伦理学的兴起,而其近代与现代的界线是20世纪早期英国分析伦理学派(直觉主义支派)和德国现象学价值论伦理学派的出场。历史的连续性在西方伦理学史的每两个时期之间插入了一个过渡阶段:远古与中古之间的早期基督教阶段,中古与近代之间的文艺复兴阶段,近代与现代之间的非理性主义哲学初兴阶段。

The periodical division of western ethics history should follow not the criterion of politics but that of culture, and speaking further, follow herein the criterion of philosophy instead of that of science, or of art, or of any other subject. According to the criterion of philosophy, the history of western ethics can be divided into four periods as follows: ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary time. The boundary between the time ancient and medieval is the maturation of Christian theological ethics in the late 4th century and the early 5th century, that between the time medieval and modern is the uprising of British empiricist ethics and continental idealist ethics in the first half of 17th century, and that between the time modern and contemporary is the occurrence of British analytic ethics (its intuitionalist branch) and German phenomenologicalaxiological ethics in the early 20th century. The historical continuity places an interim into every transition of western ethics history, i.e., the stage of early Christianity between the time ancient and medieval, that of Renaissance between the time medieval and modern, and that of germination of irrationalist philosophy between the time modern and contemporary.