Mencius' Alternative to "Human Rights": An Illustration of the Mencius in General Education

大學通識教育中《孟子》的現代相關性：以人權及生態問題為中心

黃俊傑(Chun-Chieh Huang)

《通識教育季刊》 5卷3期 (1998/09) Pp. 89-121

https://doi.org/10.6745/JGE.199809_5(3).0008

摘要

本文主旨在於扣緊「人權」與「生態」兩項議題，論證孟子思想在二十一世紀之價值及其現代相關性。本文並建議以《孟子》作為大學通識教育核心課程之一，並就教學策略與方法略加論述。
本文論述共分四節，第一節探討孟子所處的戰國時代與二十一世紀之類似性，第二節分析現代社會對「人權」與「生態危機」之處理態度件旨出前者以個人為中心，後者則不免於「人類中心主義」之問題，從而指出孟子深邃的智慧在上述兩大課題均有深刻之啟示。第三節論述孟子的政治理想以及人與自然和諧相處的思想，在現代乃至後現代的啟示。本文第四節提出結論性之看法，並建議三項教學方法。

關鍵字

孟子 ； 儒家 ； 現代 ； 人權

並列摘要

This paper argues the relevance of Mencius to the post-modern issues of the twenty-first century, and suggests that the Mencius be offered as a core course of university general education.
In the first section, we analyze the sociopolitical situation Mencius was in, and realize how similar it was to today. Then (in Section 2) we examine our two reactions to our situation-individualistic human rights, ecological awareness. We see how, taken independently, either one reveals an identical ambivalence, that is, we do not know how to place ourselves, how to understand human persons as individuals in relation to the socio-cosmic whole. If there is any crisis of postmodernity, this is the one at the very level of ideal and life-imperative. After examining both the situation (Section 1) and our twin problematic reactions thereto, individual ”human rights” and collective ”ecological awareness”(in Section 2), we then (in Section 3) realize the wisdom and the biting relevance of Mencius' passionate proposal, the populist governance solidly based on homo-mundane continuum and anthropo-ecological interdependence. We conclude (Section 4) by showing how exciting and important a topic of critical research for general education this Mencius' proposal constitutes.

並列關鍵字

Mencius ； Confucianism ； Contemporaneity ； Human Rights