从“理念论”到“目的论”——亚里士多德对柏拉图“至善”观的批评与超越

From “Idea” to “Teleology”—Aristotle’s Criticism and Transcendence of Plato’s View of the “Supreme Good”

“善”是人类追求的最高目标,对“善”的认识关系到如何能过一个好的生活的问题。柏拉图基于自己的理念论,把世界划分为现实世界和理念世界,并认为在这两个世界之上有一个最高的“善”的理念引领着万事万物的运行,人们只有摒弃各种感性欲望,运用自己的理性才能认识到“善”的理念、获得幸福。柏拉图分裂可知世界与可感世界的做法在后世遭到诸多批评,其中以亚里士多德的批评最为深刻,亚里士多德肯定人的情感欲望在生活中的作用,认为人的每一种实践活动都会伴随着以某种“善”为目的,人在各种各样的实践活动中追求各种“善”目的,这些目的累积起来即是至善、是幸福。本文试图分析亚里士多德是如何批评柏拉图的理念论从而建构出自己的目的论思想,指出亚里士多德目的论对理念论的超越,以及它是如何指引人们过上好的生活,并分析这一思想对当下社会生活的意义。

“Goodness” is the highest goal pursued by human beings, and the understanding of “good” is related to the question of how to live a good life. Based on his own theory of ideas, Plato divided the world into the real world and the world of ideas, and believed that above these two worlds there is a supreme “good” concept that leads the operation of all things, and that only by abandoning all kinds of perceptual desires and using their own rationality can they realize the concept of “good” and obtain happiness. Plato’s practice of splitting the knowable world from the perceptual world has been criticized in later generations, the most profound of which is the criticism of Aristotle, who affirmed the role of man’s emotional desires in life, believing that every practical activity of man will be accompanied by a certain “good” as the purpose, and that man pursues various “good” purposes in various practical activities, and these purposes accumulate to be the supreme good and happiness. This article attempts to analyze how Aristotle criticized Plato’s theory of ideas to construct his own teleological thought, pointed out the transcendence of Aristotle’s teleology over the theory of ideas, and how it guided people to live a good life, and analyzed the significance of this idea for the current social life.