儒家倫理與德性倫理之再探

我在二○○一年發表了〈儒家儒理與德性倫理〉一文，探討儒家倫理與德性倫理的相關性；但撰文的目的與其是為了將儒學分類與定性，毋寧是藉着上述的探究，闡釋儒家倫理系統中的核心觀念及特質。該文發表至今，有關德性倫理本身的討論，以至有關中國哲學與德性倫理的討論，都有可觀的進展。可是，有點叫人失望的是，對於儒家倫理的理解及詮釋，時有未中鵠的之處。本文擬對其中一些偏差的見解，再次說明及澄清，因此本文乃屬「再探」，本文的用意不在於將儒家倫理系統與如康德、亞里士多德或休謨等系統作比較，然後討論是否將之歸屬為休謨式的德性倫理或亞里士多德式的德性倫理較切當，卻着眼於儒家在德性倫理的特性方面的立論，從而展示儒家倫理的特殊性格與意義。
In 2001 I published ”Confucian Ethics and Virtue Ethics” (The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 28.3:285-300) which, as its title implies, discusses the relevance of Confucian ethics to virtue ethics. The aim of that article is primarily to explain the characteristics and core concepts of Confucian ethics, rather than to define and categorize the Confucian ethical system. Since then, discussions on virtue ethics as well as on the relationship between Chinese philosophy and virtue ethics have made considerable progress; however, to my disappointment, the understanding and interpretation of Confucian ethics expressed in the discussions were often off the mark. This article is an attempt to explain and clarify further some of the biased and inaccurate interpretations. It shares the focus of the previous article, namely, that it is not to compare the system of Confucian ethics with the ethical systems of Kant, Aristotle, and Hume and then to discuss the appropriateness in categorizing Confucian ethics as Humean, Aristotelian or Kantian virtue ethics; instead, it will concentrate on examining the position of Confucian ethics regarding the features of virtue ethics, so as to reveal its character and significance. What I would like to emphasize is that Confucian ethics should not be limited by (certain types of) ”virtue ethics”, thereby depriving it of its richer connotation.