Meaning and Morality: An Examingation of the Meaning of Life

意義與道德：關於生命意義的探索

In this essay I shall examine the relationship between meaning and morality, which is a major theme in the discussion about the meaning of life in the contemporary philosophy. There are basically three different views one can take concerning the relationship between meaning and morality: First, one may separate meaning values from moral values, so that the inquiry about meaning is distinct from and independent of the inquiry about morality. Second, one may maintain that ultimately, meaning values are not different from moral values. Third, one may argue that although meaning values and moral values are not identical, they are nonetheless interrelated, so that the inquiry about meaning cannot be separated from the inquiry about morality. In this essay, I shall defend the last of these views. I shall note the unsatisfactoriness of the first two views by examining what I shall call the Problem of Immorality and the conceptual difference between meaning and morality. I shall defend the last of these views by utilizing Dworkin’s conception of the Kantian principle of self-respect and by proposing the idea of meaning as having a hierarchical structure.

在本篇文章筆者將探討意義與道德之間的關聯。在討論生命意義議題的哲學家之間，針對意義與道德之間的關聯，基本上有三種不同的看法：一、意義價值與道德價值完全區分的主張；二、意義價值最終等同道德價值的主張；三、意義價值與道德價值互相關聯的主張。在此筆者將試圖替第三個主張辯護。首先，經由探討「無道德的問題」以及分析意義與道德概念上的不同，筆者將指出前兩個主張的不足之處。接著，筆者將以Dworkin的「康德的自我尊重原則」以及意義作為有層次的結構的想法為依據，試圖論證第三個主張是比較完善的。