20世纪90年代以来西方汉学界关于孟学的三次争论

20 世纪90 年代以来,因应于中国局势及与世界关系的变动,西方汉学家诠释《孟子》时,在“孟子与现代民主、人权”“孟子人性论的文化性与生物性”“孟子与德性伦理、角色伦理”等问题上形成了三次较有影响的争论.争论涉及到论辩双方不同的哲学预设和诠释方法,争论的焦点亦高度相关于他们的现实关切与政治选择,尤其是普遍主义与相对主义的文化立场选择.一批卓有影响的汉学家参与其中,《孟子》成为西方各种思潮相互碰撞、激荡的“战场”,这在一定程度上重新激活了《孟子》,使它有可能成为西方乃至现代中国自身思想建构的构成性力量.

Three debates in western Mencius studies since the 1990s

Since the 1990s, in response to the changing situation in China and its relations with the outside world, thewestern sinologists’ interpretations of the Mencius formed three influential controversies, on issues such as “Menciusand modern democracy ＆ human rights”, “the cultural and biological interpretations on Mencian theory of humannature”, and “virtue ethics and role ethics”, making the Mencius a focus among colliding ideas in the West. Thesedebates certainly rooted in different philosophical presuppositions and interpretation methodology, they also focused ondifferent actual concerns and political choices, particularly on the cultural standpoint choice of universalism andrelativism. The debates involve many famous sinologists, re-activate and make the Mencius likely to act as aconstitutive force for western and China’s ideological construction.