我们的“做人”观念——涵义、性质与问题

Our Notion of Becoming a Person

“做人”是中国人的一个重要的日常伦理观念 ,是中国人关于日常交往实践事务 ,关于一个人在私人交往生活的范围内处理日常交往实践事务的方式与行为倾向的观念 ,是中国人的日常的实践观念 ,是中国文化中一个既古老又保持着生命力的人文观念。“做人”的观念同一种“内部”观念密切联系 ,关注人的名誉的清白 ,并具有平凡的特性。“做人”的观念关注的主要不是高尚与超卓 ,而是某些基础性的德性。“做人难”所涵指的感情交往上的矛盾也构成“做人”观念上的重要特点。“做人难”与“做人”是中国文化中一根而发、如影随形的日常生活观念。“做人”的观念带给国人的丰富感觉能否同每日每时在把国人卷入其中的公共交往生活的实践事务相互协调 ,并普遍产生健全的人格意识 ,是中国新世纪中的实践问题。

Becoming a personis of great importance as an ordinary notion of ethics. It is indeed a notion of ordinary daily practical affairs in the category of private communications. Thus it is in fact a notion of daily practice, being an old but still living conception of humanity. There is a connection between the notion of becoming a person and that of internality of some sort. The former notion is characterized in that it focuses on the innocence of the personality of a person and that it is concerned with commonplace affairs. Hence it pays attention not mainly to virtues of high ranks but those essential ones. A further characteristic of this notion is that the claim that it is difficult to become a person goes along with it, which always denotes a contradiction in private communications with emotions. The claim grows out of the same source as the notion of becoming a person, both turning out to be ordinary conceptions of life in Chinese culture. The notion of becoming a person always enriches our feelings of life. It is an issue of practice whether or not the feelings it brings us can harmonize with the feelings people get from the life of public communications into which people are more and more involved everyday, and whether consciousness of sane personalities can grow up universally in the process.