荀子“心”析論

Analysis on HsunTze's "Heart"

許宗興(Chung-Hsing Hsu)

《臺北大學中文學報》 2期 (2007/03) Pp. 51-78

摘要

荀子是先秦儒家重要代表人物之一，不過他的學說歷來被排拒在正統儒家之外，「心」是荀子學說的關鍵處，本文將嘗試從「心」的角度切入，以說明荀子義理之內涵、風格與限制，並論其學說之正與歧。
首言「心」在荀子學說中的重要性，以及撰述的立場等；次論荀子心的意涵。本文分就內涵與作用二方面說明；又因荀子的心是向上超拔的力量，而荀子的性是生命墮落的根源，故接著說明心與性之關係；荀子學說最終理想仍是道或善，故跟著論述心與善的各種關係；最後則作總結。
本文以為荀子學說的諸多問題，實都繫於對「心」瞭解不夠深入與全面，首先荀子對於無限心體會不夠深邃，所論亦少，對於孔孟「踐仁知天」、「盡心知性知天」之終極道德理想，幾乎無法觸及，於是高度嚴重不足；其次，對於有限心亦只從「認知心」的角度闡述，未給「道德心」等以位置，對於生命中的美善，無法在心中找到安立，使道德學說無根，非人人可成聖，且「善」不得不向外求取，更嚴重的是荀子的「善」或「道」，只是一套「禮義之統」，而非孔孟「聖」或「天」的內涵，這些義理缺漏，便使荀子學說無法躋入正統儒家之林。

關鍵字

性惡論 ； 荀子性惡論 ； 荀子的心

並列摘要

HsunTze is a representative personage of the early Qin Confucianists. However, his theories were always excluded from the orthodox Confucianists. ”Heart” is the key to the theories of HsunTze. This paper attempts to explain the content, style, and limitation of the theories of HsunTze from the perspective of ”heart” and discuss the pros and cons of his theories.
Hsun Tze's concept of the ”heart” has been emphasized in the first section of the paper and then the significance of his concept of the ”heart” has been explained. Focusing on the content and functions of the ”heart,” the relation between the ”heart” and human nature can be distinguished clearly, because the heart is elevative while human nature to Hsun Tze is always corruptible. Finally the paper concludes in an exposition of Hsun Tze's final dialectics of Tao and goodness in various possibilities of the interaction between the heart and goodness.
This paper suggests that problems concerning the theories of HsunTze are mostly due to lack of thorough understanding on ”heart”. First, HsunTze had no profound understand realization of ”infinite heart”, which was incomparable to Confucius and Mencius' ultimate morality ideal of ”understanding the nature with one's full heart in order to understand the world”. Secondly, his ”finite heart” was only discussed from the perspective of ”cognitive heart”, but neglected ”morality heart”. It is unable to find a balance for beauty and goodness in one's heart, and has no root for the morality doctrines, hence, not everyone could be a saint, and ”goodness” has to be obtained from outside. Most importantly, HsunTze's ”goodness” or ”way” was only a set of proprieties without connotation like Confucius and Mencius' ”saint” or ”heaven”. The lack of those righteous theories has kept the HsunTze's theories out of the acceptance of orthodox Confucianists.

並列關鍵字

theory of evil human nature ； HsunTze's theory of evil human nature ； HsunTze's heart

參考文獻

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牟宗三(1994)。名家與荀子。台北:台灣學生書局。

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許宗興(1987)。孟子義理思想研究(博士論文)。政大中研所。