著者

三浦 要

出版者

金沢大学人間科学系紀要編集委員会

雑誌

金沢大学人間科学系紀要 (ISSN:18835368)

巻号頁・発行日

no.1, pp.37-56, 2009-03-31

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デモクリトスの倫理学説は,多くの著作断片が残っているにもかかわらず,その自然学説ほど顧みられない.だからといってそれが考察に値しないものであるわけではない.たしかに彼の倫理学的著作断片の多くは伝承の過程でアフォリズムの形へと縮約改変を受けており,一定の学説として再構成することには困難がともなうため,彼を,体系的な倫理学説をもたない,処世訓を与えてくれるだけのモラリストと見なす研究者も多い.しかし,それは彼の思想に対する過小評価と言わざるをえない. むしろ彼は,ソクラテスよりも前に,生の目的を魂の善としての「明朗闊達さ」と措定し,行為の普遍的な規範を規定しようとしており,そのかぎりで彼は体系的な倫理学説を志向した思想家と言える. Although the bulk of the extant fragments of his works deal primarily with ethical matters, Democritus has not received the attention he deserves in his ethics; some scholars merely take his ethical fragments to be a collection of wise saws, and others think of them as a pre-theoretical recipe for happiness; at any rate, such an interpretation places too low a value on his ethical view. My concern in this paper is with Democritus' ethical doctirne which can fully be described as a coherent ethical system. Indeed, it may safely be said that, in spite of the absence of the word telos in his fragments, Democritus offered euthymie or cheerfulness just as telos or the final goal of human life. Euthymie of the soul is identified with well-being and happiness. In Democritus' view, all human actions seek (or should seek) to fulfill a state of cheerfulness, tranquility of mind and self-sufficiency, and the rational choice of particular pleasures in terms of usefulness does produce this cheerfulness, which is itself a pleasure but a supreme one; in this sense, particular pleasures are the necessary condition of the attainment of the cheerfulness. Democritus clearly sets up a single ethical goal and shows the way to achieve it. His ethical theory thus can be called a moderate hedonistic eudaimonism.