以道心與人心揭示荀子之倫理學基礎

On the Foundation of Xunzi’s Ethics in the Dao-mind and the human mind

荀子人之情性乃可被詮釋為人主觀的致惡動機，禮義乃人客觀判斷善惡之準則。然二者皆不能決定人如何行動，因為人仍舊可拒絕或接受之，此荀子由心擇之義表示人可對情性與禮義作出肯可與否。依此，其所謂人心也者，乃在一作出自主抉擇的主體。然心另有虛壹義，此表無蔽於一見而害另一見；如是，各選項能被設想為非原初地相互否定，而是並群於心中，從而人能設想倫理抉擇之可能性，這值得一道心之名。道心乃表人心之圓滿義，不偏一物，情與理不互傷。如是人心所表之能擇義即能被理解，人被評為善或惡之可能性依此亦可得到說明。

Xunzi’s emotional nature of human beings can be interpreted as their subjective motive for causing evil, while rituals form the objective criteria for humans to judge good and evil. However, neither can determine how people act, because people may reject or accept them. Such agreement or disagreement with the emotional nature or ritual are expressed by Xunzi’s concept of mind as an ability for decision. Therefore, what he names“the human mind (renxin)”is nothing but a subject to make a decision by oneself. However, there what one might label a“privative”(or“negation as unbiased,”xuyi) meaning of xin, a mode of the mind that is not blinded by one perspective towards another perspective. In such a state the mind does not conceive the options for action as primordially opposed but as co-existing side by side; this allows us to conceive the possibility of moral deliberation. This is worthy of a name of Dao mind. The Dao mind means the perfection of human mind, not biased towards one thing, and emotions and rational principles do not hurt each other. In this way, the ability of the human mind to choose (specifically to choose justice) can be explained, and the possibility of judging someone good or evil also explicated.