생명체에 대한 도덕적 의무와 세대 간 정의에 대한 성리학적 탐구

Abstract

This article explores the moral obligations and intergenerational justice of living things from the perspective of Neo-Confucianism, assuming that the crisis of climate change is urgent due to the need for ecosystem integration and securing biodiversity, the validity of moral obligations to living things, and the common demand for the improvement of human welfare and Earth's sustainability. I emphasized that explaining the implications of debates and the moral basis in ecological ethics is the best that ethics can do, and pointed out that it has become more important to reach a universal consensus on the obligations of living things. Therefore, this paper explores whether Neo-Confucianism can provide a meaningful moral basis for human obligations, and discusses what Neo-Confucianism can suggest to ecological ethics on the issue of intergenerational justice to contribute to the promotion of human welfare and the Earth's sustainability. First, it was analyzed that Neo-Confucianism took an appropriate attitude through intellectual judgment from a differential perspective on humans and living things, focusing on 'Build up living things'[成物], ‘Love living things’[愛物]. In other words, in Neo-Confucianism, it was viewed as a human moral duty to judge the timing and rules appropriate to the principles of other living things and to treat other living things justly in a way that did not violate empathy and compassion. Subsequently, I thought it was time to interpret the ethical implications of the relationship with future generations and its impact on future generations, based on an agreement on the moral obligations of living things. Therefore, we discussed the issues of justice and responsibility among the ethical issues that arise from these characteristics while exploring the characteristics of the relationship between the present and future generations. I believe that we can find keywords that can embody the ecological sensitivity of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism as intergenerational justice, in addition to keywords such as humanity[仁] and the will of life[生意], which I noted in previous research achievements. We explored whether we can clarify the definition between the present and the future generations by examining the meanings of ‘Benevolence and Filial piety’[慈孝] and ‘Learning’[學], ‘Grace’[恩] of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism. This is because the present generation can only then seek the principles of practice that are justifiable for future generations of human welfare and the Earth's sustainability.