美德与规则的统一——兼评儒家伦理是美德伦理的观点

尽管儒家伦理在其漫长的发展过程中强调了品格的塑造和个体美德的培养,但是儒家伦理并不像一些西方儒学家所认为的那样,是一种美德伦理学的类型。相反,儒家伦理是一种整合了美德与规则于一体的伦理学说。这不仅可以显示出儒家伦理对道德理解的独特方式,也有助于我们全面理解儒家伦理对当代西方道德哲学在建构一种完善道德理论上可能做出的贡献。

The Unity of Rule and Virtue--A Critique of a Supposed Parallel between Confucian Ethics and Virtue Ethics

Some western philosophers argue that throughout its long history, Confucian ethics has stressed character formation or personal cultivation of virtues. Thus it is appropriate to characterize Confucian ethics as a virtue ethics. However, it is not correct to label Confucian ethics as a virtue ethics basing on these similarities. On the contrary, it is better to conceive Confucian ethics as an ethics in which rule and virtue are united. This will help us not only to see its distinctive way of understanding morality, but also to understand the contribution that this distinctive way of understanding morality might make to contemporary western moral philosophy in constructing a more developed moral theory.