道德理性與人文關懷——牟宗三先生論人文主義

Moral Rationality and the Care for Humanities: Mou Tsung-san's Exposition Of Humanism

亞倫‧布洛克在《西方人文主義傳統》中指出西方人文主義的傳統中「最重要和始終不變的特點」有以下幾點。第一點是：人文主義以人為中心，從人的經驗開始；第二個特點是：強調人的尊嚴；第三個特點是對思想十分重視。但是西方人文主義有其缺憾，如走向自然主義、美學情調的客觀主義與泛神論等，而最終未能開闢價值與理想之源。牟宗三先生認為，這是因為在西方只有康德，才真正開主體之門。牟先生明確指出，人文主義能成為指導文化生命的最高原則，道德主體的挺立是首要條件。儒家通過內在道德性的樹立，不單開了主體之門，更開了人文主義之門。然而儒家雖具備人文主義得以開展的主體方面的條件，但在客觀精神方面卻非常薄弱；如要人文世界得以生成及延續，除了以心性之學作為生命的總綱維之外，還須將道德心客觀化以建立日常生活的常軌；即在政治方面呈現政治主體並建立政治生活上的文制；在知識方面呈現知性主體以建立邏輯、數學、科學等獨立的知識系統。本文以布洛克對西方人文主義的論述出發，繼而根據牟先生的分析，展示西方人文主義的各個階段的特性、局限、與可能的發展。進一步闡釋人文主義與道德理性的關係，並說明儒家式的人文主義之所見與所蔽。最後討論儒家式人文主義的未來發展重點。

Alan Bullock in his book The Humanist Tradition in the West describes three characteristics of the western humanist tradition. Firstly, it is based on a thought of treating human beings as the center of the cosmos. Secondly, it emphasizes the value of human beings, from which dignity is derived. The third characteristic is that it regards thought as of high importance. Although it puts enormous weight on human beings, starting from the time of Greek, the western humanist tradition expressed itself in the forms of naturalism, objectivism, or pan-theism, none of which is able to serve as the ground of human value. This constitutes the inadequacy of western humanism. Mou Tsung-san argues that it is due to the inability of establishing the subjectivity of human. Mou also claims that the moral subjectivity which is the sole origin of values and ideals has been discovered in ancient Chinese culture. However, humanism as the highest principle of culture includes the recognition of science and the development of democracy, both of which were under-developed in Chinese culture. This paper starts from an examination of the characteristics of humanist tradition in the west by utilizing Bullock's exposition. It goes on introducing Mou Tsung-san's account of the cultural history of the west and its shortcomings. In the later part of the paper, the limit and possible development of western humanism are discussed. In the discussion, the relationship between humanist spirit and moral rationality is the central concern. Finally, it turns back to the issue of how the full-blooded humanism can be established within the context of Chinese culture.