Pomen konfucijanske misli za ohranjanje človečnosti in razumnosti v sodobnem svetu

The article examines the possibility of providing a synthesis of humanness and rationality in the modern world, and considers whether, and how, Chinese philosophical thought in general and Confucian tradition in particular might help us in this endeavour. Chinese philosophical tradition broadly construes rationality as the ability of the human “heart mind” (xin) to engage in wise deliberation, clever discussion, and proper conduct carried out in accordance with the highest virtues of the gentleman. This conception is much more in tune with holistic views of reasonableness than with ideas about rationality that have become rooted in the Western philosophical tradition. In the context of Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, reasonableness is firmly associated with distinct forms of argumentation, primarily with those of analogical inference, metaphor use, and paradigmatic behavioural models which cannot be expressed within the framework of logical (deductive or inductive) reasoning. By focusing on Mencius’s method of “extending” innate human virtues (humanness, righteousness, dignity, and wisdom) from their paradigmatic cases to parallel cases from everyday life, it is possible to get a better insight into the idea of cultivating and practicing reasonableness conceived as a synthesis of humanness and rationality. There seems to be no internal conflict between our self-interests and our morality; on the contrary, actual morality and actual reasonableness emerge against the backdrop of the dynamic interplay between our striving for self-realization and our moral orientation.Govorim o možnosti sinteze človečnosti in racionalnosti v sodobnem svetu ter se sprašujem, ali in kako nam pri tem prizadevanju lahko pomaga kitajska filozofska misel, zlasti konfucijanska tradicija. V kitajski filozofski tradiciji je racionalnost grobo vzeto razumljena kot sposobnost človeške »srčne zavesti« (xin) za modro razmišljanje, pametno razpravljanje in ravnanje, ki je v skladu z najvišjimi vrlinami plemenitega človeka. To je bolj podobno konceptu celostne razumnosti kot pa racionalnosti v zahodni filozofski tradiciji. Razumnost v kontekstu kitajske kulture, zlasti konfucijanstva, je močno vezana na specifične oblike argumentacije, predvsem na sklepanje po analogiji ter uporabo metafor in vzorčnih modelov vedenja, ki jih ni mogoče stlačiti v okvire logične (deduktivne ali induktivne) argumentacije. Ob naslonitvi na Mencijevo metodo »ekstenzije« vrojenih, potencialnih človeških vrlin (človečnosti, pravičnosti, dostojnosti in modrosti) od njihovih paradigmatskih primerov na podobne primere v vsakdanjem življenju lahko bolje razumemo gojenje in izvajanje razumnosti kot sinteze racionalnosti in človečnosti. Pri tem ne vidim nobenega notranjega nasprotja med samointeresi posameznika in njegovo moralnostjo. Dejansko moralnost in dejansko razumnost vidim prav v notranji povezanosti stremljenj posameznika po samouresničenju in moralične usmeritve posameznika