美德伦理学视域下的孟子伦理思想探究

An Exploration of Mencius’ Ethical Thought from the Perspective of Virtue Ethics

美德伦理学着眼于道德行为主体,以人的道德品质为指向,这种理论与古代儒家孟子的思想有相似之处。孟子的整体思想以人性本善为核心,人性本善的核心在于道德行为主体的良心,从而表明,孟子思想的实践方式是向内求证的,以人的本心为善作为起点,进一步涵养善端的同时推广善端,从而在经验世界中实践美德,孟子这一道德实践方式彰显了以道德行为主体为核心的美德伦理学特征。在孟子看来,美德与规范并非来自外部经验世界,而是源于行为主体的天生情感,最有效的规范方式并不是持续学习外部客观知识,而是需要培养自身的四端之情,涵养四端之情并扩而充之,由此便可以尽性知天。孟子的道德思想充分体现了美德伦理学的基本特征,为美德伦理学思想的探究提供了新的视角。

Virtue ethics focuses on the subject of moral behavior, taking the moral quality of people as the orientation, and this theory has similarities with the ideas of ancient Confucian Mencius. Mencius’s overall thought takes the inherent goodness of human nature as the core, and the core of the intrinsic goodness of human nature lies in the conscience of the subject of moral behavior, thus showing that the practice mode of Mencius’s thought is to seek verification inward, taking the original intention of man as the starting point, further cultivating the good end and promoting the good end, so as to practice virtue in the empirical world. In Mencius’s view, virtue and norms do not come from the external empirical world, but from the innate emotions of the actor, and the most effective way to regulate is not to continue to learn external objective knowledge, but to cultivate one’s own four-end feelings, to cultivate the four-end feelings and expand them, so that you can know the heavens as much as possible. Mencius’s moral thought fully embodies the basic characteristics of virtue ethics and provides a new perspective for the exploration of virtue ethics thought.