論佛教倫理（學）以緣起法為闡述基礎的問題

A Critique of Buddhist Ethics Constructed on Pratitya-samutpada

何謂佛教倫理（學）？這對當今的佛教界來說是個重要，不過尚有爭議性的問題。本文的主旨是想關注一個尚未被深入討論的議題：以緣起法為基礎而來論述佛教倫理（學）的問題。因在東西方有一些佛教學者，如釋昭慧、李明芳、Tetsuro Watsuji、Joanna Rogers Macy（也許嚴瑋泓及Jay Garfield），認為緣起法是可為佛教倫理（學）的基礎。以緣起法為基礎而來論述佛教倫理（學）的似乎唯一好處是：其可以統攝佛教大小乘的倫理觀而比較無爭議性。換言之，既然緣起法為原始佛教重要教義之一，且也是大小乘佛教所共同推尊的佛法，那以此法所詮釋建構出來的佛教倫理（學），也應該是會被大小乘兩者所共同接受。此可避免爭議是沒太大的疑慮，但問題是以緣起法作為佛教倫理（學）的基礎是否恰當？尤其是當中的一個重要問題：緣起之「此緣性」(idappaccayata) 是否具有「相依性」？這是本文所想深入探討的。

What is Buddhist ethics? This is an important and yet controversial question for contemporary Buddhism. This essay is to explore one undiscussed issue: the problems of Buddhist ethics constructed on pratītya-samutpāda. For some Buddhist scholars such as Chao-Hui Shih, Ming-Fang Lee, Tetsuro Watsuji, Joanna Rogers Macy (maybe Wei-Hung Yen and Jay Garfield) do offer such an argument or theory for Buddhist ethics.
The only merit of constructing Buddhist ethics on pratītya-samutpāda seems to unify Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhism. That is, since Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna Buddhists no doubt agree that pratītya-samutpāda is one of the Buddha’s essential teachings, both should accept this construction of Buddhist ethics based on pratītya-samutpāda. However, whether it is appropriate is questionable (especially whether the idappaccayata of pratītya-samutpāda has the feature of interdependence or dependent co-arising) and this is the primary goal of this project.
This paper principally will focus on Chao-Hui Shih’s two books since they have more theoretical reasoning. We will explore the problems of Buddhist ethics constructed on pratītya-samutpāda from two aspects: from Shih’s theory and from Buddhist ethics.