Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (5): 1168-1175.

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“differential justice” and “differential concern”: on the collective prejudices of Chinese moral orientation

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  • Received:2012-07-25 Revised:2013-08-03 Online:2013-09-20 Published:2013-09-20

差序公正与差序关怀:论中国人道德取向中的集体偏见

燕良轼,周路平,曾练平   

  1. 湖南师范大学
  • 通讯作者: 周路平

Abstract: The problem of moral orientation is a fundamental problem in the study of moral psychology, and also a core issue in the moral value judgment. Many moral events that occurred in China in recent years are closely related to moral orientation in a deep way. There are two views about moral orientation in modern Western psychology: One is the orientation of “moral justice”, which is represented by Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg; and the other is the orientation of “moral concern”, represented by Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings. Although “moral justice” is the main part of moral judgment, as the supplement of moral justice, the effect of “moral concern” in moral judgment cannot be ignored. Because of the long influence of history, geography, mode of production as well as traditional culture, especially the Confucian culture, the pattern of traditional Chinese society was differential. The concept of “differential pattern” was proposed by Mr. Fei Xiaotong in his book “Local China”, and he believes that the rural society in China is a society of acquaintances. In this kind of society, kinship and geographic region are unified; it’s clear and overlapped natural geographic and social life boundaries make the society a closed social space. The differential pattern of networks is based on Clan group, and the relationship between people is arranged by kinship. In this pattern, being the center, everyone has his own network. It is just like throwing a stone into the lake, there will be a circle of ripples around the stone, and the distance of ripples can represent the closeness of social relations. Therefore, the Chinese people, especially those who are affected by the Confucian culture, show moral features of “differential pattern”. We can say with certainty, both view of moral orientation in Western psychology also exist in traditional Chinese moral system, i.e., we can find the concepts “moral justice” and “moral concern” in our traditional moral system. However, the difference is that moral justice and moral concern operate in the manner of “differential pattern” in Chinese traditional society, and so can be called “differential justice” and “differential concern”. We believe that the use of “differential justice” and “differential concern” is the most accurate way to describe the moral orientation of Chinese traditional society. This is not only the characteristic of the traditional Chinese moral orientation, but also a moral collective prejudice that flowing in the veins of Chinese people. We believe that with the deepening of the reform, the perfection of various social systems, and the improvement of the modernization level of Chinese people, the traditional moral collective prejudices can be overcome.

Key words: moral orientation, differential justice, differential concern, face moral

摘要: 在中国传统的道德取向中,既有皮亚杰、科尔伯格的“道德公正”,也有吉利根、诺丁斯的“道德关怀”,但是,这两种道德取向在中国社会是以“差序格局”的样态运作的,即以“差序公正”和“差序关怀”的形式存在于中国人的道德判断中。“差序公正”和“差序关怀”的概念准确地表征了中国人道德取向的集体偏见。随着改革的不断深入,各项制度的不断建立和完善,人们的现代化层次不断提高,这种集体偏见正在逐渐得到克服和纠正。

关键词: 道德取向, 差序公正, 差序关怀, 面子道德