论道德选择中的权变问题

On Contingency in Moral Choices

权变是人们在进行道德选择时需要时常面对的一个复杂问题 ,所以正确理解和对待权变 ,是人们进行正确的道德实践的一个重要前提。中西思想史上 ,关于权变问题曾出现过多种不同的理论。所谓权变 ,就是人们在特殊情境中 ,为了避免不必要的利益损失 ,或者为了维护更大的道德价值 ,对自己所认可的某项道德准则所采取的背离行为。权变具有多方面的特征。权变发生的情境可概括为非必要代价情境和准则冲突情境两种 ,相应地 ,权变也可分为非必要代价型权变和准则冲突型权变两种。对待权变 ,既要承认其必要性、合理性 ,也要有批判和审慎的态度。

Contingency is a complicated problem which people must often face in their moral choices. So it becomes an important prerequisite for right moral practice to correctly understand and treat with contingency. In the history of Chinese and Western thoughts, there were many kinds of viewpoints on it. Contingency can be defined as: in some peculiar situations, in order to avoid unnecessary lost of benefit, or in order to preserve more important moral value, people deliberately take the actions that are against a certain moral rule which they themselves approve of. Contingency has a few characteristics. The situations in which the contingencies happen can be divided into two sorts, that is to say, the situation of unnecessary-cost and the situation of rule-conflict; accordingly, either do the contingencies themselves. As to contingency, we should recognize its necessity and rationality, meanwhile we should have attitudes of criticism and prudence.