学术资讯｜比较哲学工作坊第五十讲：家庭哲学：专业哲学的一个新分支

Comparative Philosophy Workshop (50th)

Organizer

Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai)

Sun Yat-sen University

Topic

Philosophy of Family as a New Subfield

in Professional Philosophy (Virtual）

Speaker

Roger T. AMES

Professor

Department of Philosophy

Peking University

Moderator

Jun-Hyeok KWAK

Professor

Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai)

Sun Yat-sen University

Time

September 19th, 2025

9:00-11:00

VOOV

677-896-217

ABSTRACT

In the professional discipline of philosophy, there is an abundance of stipulated subfields that circumscribe acknowledged areas of cultural importance such as philosophy of education, of language, of religion, of art, of science, of sport, of literature, and even “metaphilosophy” as philosophy of philosophy itself. A major lacuna in the contemporary philosophical discourse is that, in spite of the seminal importance of family (and perhaps because family is animated by partial rather than impartial values), the professional discipline of philosophy has not regarded this institution as a relevant model for regulative practices or as a paradigmatic source of social and political order. Is there a rationale then, for making this rubric “philosophy of family” a subfield in professional philosophy?

Confucian philosophy has a singularly important contribution to make to “philosophy of family” as new initiative in professional philosophy that might add impetus to our efforts to establish this rubric as a subfield in the discipline itself. The very roots of Confucian philosophy are buried in the ancient practices of ancestral sacrifice (jisi 祭祀) wherein the need to communicate with the pantheon of progenitors was the ultimate source of the earliest Chinese written language recovered early in the last century on the oracle bones (jiaguwen 甲骨文). While family is demonstrably a dominant value within the Confucian context, it is not in any way exclusive to the Chinese tradition. Indeed, families have been a source of economic strength and security in virtually every human culture, and in the absence of any viable alternative, will arguably always remain such. In our resource-shrinking and ecologically fragile world with its population fast approaching seven billion, it is doubtful that any national or transnational government will ever be able to provide adequate social welfare services that would diminish the human reliance upon the institution of family.

We might reframe family not merely as a philosophical topic but as a philosophical motif. A closer study of the institution of family and its broad philosophical implications might have something important to add to recent philosophical themes such as social ontology, collective intentionality, shared responsibility, empathy, care ethics, social phycology, relational equity, and intergenerational issues such as environmental sustainability and responsibility for future generations. Again, it will also have something to say to pressing contemporary issues such as aging, gender identity and discrimination, homelessness, alternative conceptions of family roles and relations, a holistic and inclusive model of social justice, a capacious and nuanced role ethics that in addition to rational actors includes children and the elderly, an alternative conception of the political in which effecting social and political order is firmly rooted in personal cultivation within the institution of family itself, and family feeling as a possible candidate for consensus in shaping a minimalist morality for a new planetary social and political order. 

It is thus in our time an urgent philosophical task to inquire more deeply into the role that a renewed philosophical interest in family might play in societal reform as a source of the social intelligence needed to redirect and shape a new geopolitical and geocultural order.

比较哲学工作坊第（50）讲

主办

中山大学哲学系（珠海）

主题

家庭哲学：专业哲学的一个新分支（线上）

主讲

Roger T. AMES （安乐哲） 

北京大学哲学系教授

主持

Jun-Hyeok KWAK （郭峻赫）

中山大学哲学系（珠海）教授

时间

2025年9月19日

9:00 - 11:00

地点

腾讯会议

677-896-217

摘要

哲学作为一门专业学科拥有为数众多的规定分支，这些分支界定了公认有文化重要性的研究领域，例如教育哲学、语言哲学、宗教哲学、艺术哲学、科学哲学、体育哲学、文学哲学，甚至“元哲学”，即对哲学自身的哲学研究。然而，当代哲学讨论中存在一个重要的空缺。那就是，尽管家庭有着深远的重要性，哲学这一专业学科却并未将这一制度视为与规范性实践相关的范式，或作为社会政治秩序的基础典范。其原因大概在于家庭所依赖的是偏私的价值，而非公正的价值。那么，将“家庭哲学”的范畴作为专业哲学的一个分支是否有其理据呢？

儒家哲学在“家庭哲学”这一专业哲学中的新倡议中具有独特的重要贡献，并或许能够进一步推动我们将这一范畴确立为哲学学科的一个分支。儒家哲学的根源深植于古代的祭祀实践，其中与已逝先祖进行沟通的需求最终催生了最早的汉字书写体系，这一书写体系在上世纪初被发现于甲骨文之中。虽然家庭在儒家语境中显然是一种主导性的价值，但其并非为中国传统所独有。事实上，在几乎所有人类文化中，家庭都一直是经济实力与安全的重要来源。甚至在缺乏可行的替代方案的情况下，家庭将很可能继续如此。在我们这个资源日益匮乏、生态环境脆弱，且人口即将接近70亿的世界中，任何国家的或跨国的政府恐怕都难以通过提供足够的社会福利设施来降低人类对家庭这一制度的依赖。

我们或许可以重新界定家庭，不仅仅将其视为一个哲学的议题，而是将其作为一个哲学的母题。对家庭制度及其广泛哲学意义的更进一步研究，或许能够为近年来的诸多哲学主题提供新的见解，这些主题包括社会本体论、集体意向性、共享责任、共情、关怀伦理、社会心理学、关系公平，以及诸如环境可持续性和对后代的责任等跨世代议题，等等。此外，它还将对一系列紧迫的当代问题提出看法。这些问题包括老龄化、性别认同与歧视、无家可归、家庭角色和关系的替代性构想、一种整体性的和包容性的社会正义模式，和一种宽广而富有层次的角色伦理，不仅涵盖理性行动者，还包括儿童和老年人；此外还有关于政治的替代性构想，即将社会与政治秩序的建立牢牢根植于家庭制度内部个人修养的发展上；以及在新全球社会与政治秩序的构建中，家庭或可作为塑造最小道德共识的候选项。

因此，在我们这个时代，一个紧迫的哲学任务是更深入地探讨对家庭的哲学兴趣的复兴在社会改革中的作用，为重定位和塑造新地缘政治和地缘文化秩序提供所需的社会智力支持。

来源｜哲珠新媒体

文稿｜杜　陈

海报｜欧阳欢

编辑｜汪俊豪

初审｜韩　珩

审核｜卢　毅

审核发布｜屈琼斐