摘 要：孔子提出仁者爱人的思想，但他本人与后来的儒家却未能追问仁者为何应当爱人。未能追问这一根据直接关涉并影响到儒家哲学与中国传统文化的一些根本性问题，包括孔子哲学的经验性思维方式、儒家伦理的义务论性质、公私观与权利意识缺位，以及中国法律史上的民法缺失的问题，等等。哲学的形而上发问的意义也由此可见。
关键词： 孔子； 儒家伦理； 义务论； 权利
Why the Benevolent Ought to Love the Others? Also on the Significance of the Metaphysical Questioning in Philosophy
CHEN Jia-ming
Abstract: Confucius put forward the thought that the benevolent loves the others, but he himself and the later Confucians did not make a detailed inquiry into the reason why the benevolent ought to love the others. Being unable to inquiry this ground directly influenced some fundamental issues in Confucianism and traditional Chinese culture, including the empirical way of thinking in Confucius’ philosophy, the deontological feature of Confucian ethics, the ideas of public and private interests, the absence of the idea of rights and civil law in Chinese legal history. Thus the significance of metaphysical questioning in philosophy can be seen.
Key words： Confucius; Confucian ethics; deontology; rights
