伦理美德的社会及人格心理学分析:道德特质的意义、困惑及解析

从社会及人格心理学的角度来看,伦理美德是一种道德特质。它是一种面对道德情境时,人们的直觉而自动化且相对稳定的行为意向,包含着认知、情感和动力的过程。这一新观点可以解决美德伦理学与规范伦理学之间表面上的冲突,阐明了伦理美德与伦理规范对应的不同心理机制,认为它们都是人类伦理道德系统的重要组成部分。美德对应的是无意识、自动化、包含情绪、无需努力和认知资源且基于联结的直觉加工系统;而规范对应的是有意识、受控的、不含情绪且需要努力和认知资源且基于规则的推理加工系统。基于这些差异,现代的伦理道德教育应当将两者分开,对伦理规范可以采取讲授的方式且着重于理解,而对伦理美德应该采取更多的训练方式且着重于实践。

Social and Personality Psychological View on Ethical Virtues: the Meanings,Puzzles and Solutions of Moral Traits

Virtue ethics is different from normative ethics,and it was considered to be less important in modern ethics.We propose that virtues could be viewed as moral traits,very much like other personality traits,which are intuitive,automatic and stable behavioral dispositions,and can be revealed when facing special moral contexts.Ethical virtue and ethical norm do not contradict each others;instead they correspond to different mental processes.Virtues are linked with unconscious,automatic and affective system of intuitive reasoning processing,do not require too much efforts or cognitive resources,and are based on mental associations.In contrast,norms are linked with conscious,controlled and evaluative system of systematic reasoning processing,do require efforts and cognitive resources,and are based on rules and principles.These differences should have profound implications for moral education,suggesting different routes for improving ethic and moral standards.The ethic norms and rules can be taught and people’s understanding to be the best way of achieving good purposes;however,ethical virtues can only be trained and people’s behaviors are the keys of shaping ethic individuals.