「意志軟弱」與王陽明的「知行合一」

Weakness of Will and Wang Yangming's Theory of the Unity of Knowledge and Action

意志軟弱（weakness of will）作為日常生活的常見現象，當代西方哲學業已就其出現「是否可能」、「如何可能」展開豐富的討論。由戴維森（Donald Davidson）起始的古典模型指出：對於一個理性的人而言，若其行動的最終判決是建基於充分理由的話，則不可能知而不行。瑟爾（John Searle）則認為：意欲實現為行動的過程中，存在著不同的鴻溝，致使意志軟弱在實際行動中成為無可避免的可能。然而，方克濤與王啟義指出：中國哲學從道德實踐的角度入手，提供了解說意志軟弱問題的另外方案。本文旨在建基當前的研究成果，以王陽明的「知行合一」說為中心，探索宋明理學的心學傳統，如何能為意志軟弱的問題提供更進一步的理解可能。期望本文能夠辨明中西哲學不同的理論特質，並彰顯儒學思想對當代相關議題的普世價值。

"Contemporary Western philosophical dialogue has covered extensively on both the ''possibility of '' and the ''manifestations of '' the daily occurrence of ''weakness of will''. The extended dialogue has come across Donald Davidson's classical model which establishes a rational person's impossibility for inaction on the basis of ''proper knowledge'' on given circumstances. In a more skeptical note, John Searle underlines the inherent rift separating will and action, and as a result human will's susceptibility to weakness in the real world. There is a third path, however, as Chris Fraser and Kai-yee Wong suggest, Chinese philosophy's traditional focus on the practical aspects of morality constitutes an alternative theoretical approach on the issue of ''weakness of will''. In this article, I shall examine new interpretations on ''weakness of will'' based on Wang Yangming's famous notion of ''unity of knowledge and action''. By further analyzing and examining the study of heart-mind in the Neo-Confucian tradition, this article intends to engage in the ongoing east-west philosophical dialogue while also seeking to evaluate the interactions between Confucianism and contemporary philosophical issues."