本文通過對「天」的基本含義的分析說明，天人之辨主要是一個倫理學命題。天的意含在不同哲學家那裡側重各有不同，但這些哲學家從不孤地講天道，而是與人道聯繫起來，講天道是為了論證人道的合理性，進而建立道德神學或道德形而上學。這樣，天人之辨理應涵蓋的人與自然的關係被嚴重忽視了，荀子一系的主張並未被後世發揚光大。正是從此意義上，本文認為近年流行的對天人之辨的生態學理解是不符合古人的思想實際的。

Through the analysis of the essential meaning of “Tien” (Heaven) this paper tries to show that Tien-jen-chic-pien is an ethical proposition. Different philosophers appreciate different aspects of the meaning of “Tien,” but they never talk about the way of Tien as an isolated subject. Instead, they relate the way of Tien to the Way of “Jen” (Mankind). The discussion about the way of Tien is to demonstrate the rationality of the way of Jen and in turn construct moral theology or moral metaphysics. Therefore, that relation between mankind and nature should be within the range of Tien-jen-chic-pien is seriously ignored, and as a consequence, the claims of Qun Tzu's (荀子) school have not been developed. In this way, this paper argues that the recently popular ecological understanding of Tien-jen-chic-pien does not consist with what the ancient philosophers had in mind.