“德”“法”互补:一个儒家—康德式的反思(上)

对于儒学而言,德与法同等重要,它体现在由孔子的德性说到孟子的仁政说再到荀子的隐含着法精神的"礼"制说的发展过程之中。我们应当以一种审慎的态度修正我们对于儒家哲学的某些成见与偏见,即,通过认同孟子和荀子对孔子经典思想所指向的一致性,来认识儒家德性与法律间的统一。通过批判-综合的研究方法,分析概念在各种语境及文脉中的蕴涵,哲学地反思西方道德、政治或法律学说以汲取某些概念和理论资源,探讨从亚里士多德到康德对道德与政治理论关系问题思考的转变,将能够使我们以开阔的视野和新的思路理解从孔子到孟子再到荀子对于儒家德、法理论的发展,从而赋予现当代语境中德治与法治结合以新的涵义。

A Confucian-Kantian Reflection On Mutuality and Complementarity of Virtue and Law

It is the thesis of this article to show that for Confucianism both virtue and law are equally important and this recognition of the equal importance in Confucianism comes in a process of development of Confucian morality to a Mencian theory of moral government and then to a Xunzian theory of implicit laws in terms of principles of li. It is now a high time to recognize the unity of law and virtue via recognizing unity of Mencius and Xunzi as intended in the classical views of Confucius. I call my approach critical-integrative in the sense of exploring into the contexts and contextual implications of the concepts and meanings involved in understanding the Confucian position and its evolution. I shall draw some conceptual and theoretical resources from the philosophical reflections on the moral theory and the political or legal theory in the West. Specifically,I shall focus on the transition from Aristotle to Kant in considerations of the relationship of the moral theory and the political theory. To understand this transition in the West will enable us to open our mind to a new way of understanding the development of Confucian theory of virtue and law from Confucius to Mencius and then to Xunzi,which would give new meaning to the rule by law in conjunction with rule by virtue in the modern and contemporary sense.