倫理學在中西方都有長遠的傳統,西方一般將倫理學分為描述倫理學、規範倫理學與後設倫理學。中國雖然沒有把倫理學發展成一門專門的學問,但儒家的倫理思想與西方倫理學對比起來,可說是一種主張實踐的倫理學。本文旨在詮釋與分析儒家倫理思想之特色,它強調道德倫理的實踐,肯定人格的可完美性,人必須在現實生活中遵守既有的社會規範,並實踐道德倫理,遵行道德義務與陶鑄最高德行。現代社會不能把儒家的倫理思想,只放在個人倫理道德實踐和人格修養層次去了解,而應該進一步提升到落實「公與私、群體與個人」的關係內涵,即是指實踐社會公平正義的層次,也就是社會公平的正義觀。儒家論證社會倫理的實踐,一定要提升到群體社會公平正義的實踐,儒家的倫理思想與現代公民社會落實公平正義有相同的理想。儒家主張:人人在二十一世紀都有成德的義務,在社會倫理上人人雖有各自不同的義務和責任,卻也應該共同為群體社會的和諧與社會公平正義之實踐而努力。儒家的仁、義、禮等觀念,可以在德行的統攝之下,在現在社會獲得合理的一致性(Rational Coherence)。換言之儒家倫理思想經由吾人之詮釋,可以在二十一世紀的社會中,發揮思想指引的功能。
There have been far-reaching traditions in Chinese and Western ethics. Ethics can be classified into Describing Ethics、Normative Ethics and Meta Ethics. Although the Chinese ethics were not developing into a special science, But The ethical thought of Confucianism had laid claim to the practical one, comparing with Western ethics. This paper is aimed to analyze the virtue values of ethics and morals in Confucianism. The Confucianism has a long developing history in Chinese and Taiwanese society. It emphasizes the fulfillment of moral ethics and affirms the personality can be perfect. In the modern society we can't only place the ethical thoughts of the Confucianism on the level of the practice of personal ethics and the personality cultivation for understanding. But we should further promote them to the implementation of the relation contents for「the public and private, community and individual」. It means to practice the level of justice for social fair and also is the justice view for the society fair. The most important parts of Confucianism which have influenced people everyday are the ethical and moral philosophy. The assertion of Confucianism is that everybody has an obligation of being moral in the 21st century, although everybody has one's own obligations and responsibilities on social ethics, everyone should also work hard for the fulfillment of harmony and social fair justice of the community society, and the government has the duty to fulfill the social justice by public policy. What are the special characters in Confucianism? It is very important to know how to interpret its modern meaning? We will point out that the Confucian virtue-priority ethical and moral philosophy still can afford us the guidance for modern life.