《道德情操论·卷二·论功劳与过失·一·总论功劳感与过失感》第1节
INTRODUCTION.--There is another set of qualities ascribed to the actions and conduct of mankind, distinct from their propriety or impropriety, their decency or ungracefulness, and which are the objects of a distinct species of approbation and disapprobation. These are Merit and Demerit, the qualities of deserving reward and of deserving punishment. It has already been observed, that the sentiment or affection of the heart, from which any action proceeds, and upon which its whole virtue or vice depends, may be considered under two different aspects, or in two different relations: first, in relation to the cause or object which excites it; and, secondly, in relation to the end which it proposes, or to the effect which it tends to produce: that upon the suitableness or unsuitableness, upon the proportion or disproportion, which the affection seems to bear to the cause or object which excites it, depends the propriety or impropriety, the decency or ungracefulness of the consequent action; and that upon the beneficial or hurtful effects which the affection proposes or tends to produce, depends the merit or demerit, the good or ill desert of the action to which it gives occasion. Wherein consists our sense of the propriety or impropriety of actions, has been explained in the former part of this discourse. We come now to consider, wherein consists that of their good or ill desert.
注释摘要
你在这里看到的，是斯密为全书第二卷定调的一段文字。它像一座桥，把第一卷讲完的「合宜与不合宜」，连接到第二卷要讲的「功劳与过失」。他一开始就提醒我们，人评判行为时，心里运行着两套不同的尺度。一套问的是这个行为「恰不恰当」，它的根扎在情感和激起它的原因之间是否成比例；另一套问的是这个行为「该不该得到奖赏或惩罚」，它的根扎在行为带来的结果上。这两套尺度各自对应着…