Why Confucians Must be Social Critics: The Problem of Women's Oppression

為什麼儒家必須是社會批判者：女性壓迫的問題

10.7065/MRPC.201202.0049

安靖如(Stephen C. Angle)

儒家 ； 壓迫 ； 個別主義 ； 社會批判 ； Confucian ； Oppression ； Particulari sm ； Social Criticism

哲學與文化

39卷2期（2012 / 02 / 01）

47 - 67

英文

本文的目的在對當今儒家為什麼需要從事與如何從事社會批判的問題，提供一個清楚的導引。當我論及一些西方哲學與心理學的相關理論時，我還是會努力提出儒家從事社會批判的理由與目標。首先，我想要證明的是，儒學在很早已前就已經預期了一個當代心理學中的重要發現：亦即，我們所處的社會與物理環境，對於我們以何種方式與何種程度成為具有德性的人，具有相當的影響力。但是儒家在這方面的洞見卻受限於他們的個別主義，以致於儒學有時候對於大規模社會與經濟結構條件的系統性影響力，顯得有些盲目。事實上，致使個別情境成為重要的相同種類之邏輯，也同時應用到大規模的環境之中，所以我將論證儒家必須積極關懷他們所處的社會經濟之環境。一個特別使人憂慮的社會結構條件型態是壓迫的問題……也就是當某個群體系統性地被牽制與縮小……也因此當今儒家必須挺身而出，反對壓迫，儘管歷史上的儒家安於許多型態的壓迫。我說明這個主張的方式，是藉由展現儒家應該對他們自己傳統以來放任對女性壓迫的問題提出自我的批判。

The aim of this essay is to provide clear guidance as to why and how a Confucian today should engage in social critique. While I draw on some Western philosophical and psychological theories, I will nonetheless articulate Confucian reasons and Confucian goals for social criticism. My first step is to show that Confucianism long ago anticipated an important finding of contemporary psychology: namely, our social and physical environments have significant effects on the ways and degrees to which we can be virtuous. Confucian insights in this regard have been limited by their particularism, however, so Confucianism has sometimes been blind to the systematic effects of large-scale social and economic arrangements. In fact, the same kind of logic that makes particular situations important also applies to the large scale arrangement, so I argue that Confucians must actively concern themselves with their socio-economic environments. A particularly worrisome type of social arrangement is oppression- when a group is systematically immobilized or diminished- and so Confucians today must stand against oppression, notwithstanding historical Confucian complacency concerning many types of oppression. I illustrate this thesis by showing that Confucians should criticize their own tradition's complicity in the oppression of women.

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