儒學向來具有「尊德性」與「道問學」──道德與知識兩種不同內涵的傳統。其 中「道德」一直是主軸，是人格訓練的中心點。清代則由於考據學興盛，知識發展躍居為 乾嘉主軸，智識主義獲得進一步之發展。但是也由於過度專注在考據學上，產生了「擘績 補苴」、「物而不化」的學術流弊，因此一些不甘囿於訓詁考證的考據學家，便以重智主 義的傾向為出發，試圖在考據學之外重建義理學。如此一來，講先驗道德的理學，便遭到了 講經驗實證的清儒揚棄。清儒以經驗領域內重踐履、貴秩序的義理學，轉化了理學家超經驗、 重思辨的形上道德學興趣。使義理發展能夠直接切入現實生活、人倫日用；也因此清儒能夠 從心性之學的狹隘範疇中跨出，邁向講求人際關係與社會秩序的社會道德發展，開拓了中國 義理學之新境界。本文就是在已然轉向的義理背景下（先於焦循的戴震，已經先建立起重情 欲、重智性的重智主義道德觀了），以焦循「能知故善」說對象，試圖探討他如何將傳統義 理中「先天德性內在」的性善說，轉化成強調「智性」的性善說，並希望由此一窺清儒的重 智主義義理學特色。

　　　　　Confucians have always held to the traditions of "morality" and "knowledge." Of these two, morality is the axis of Confucian thought and forms the basis for cultivation of the human character. While the neo-Confucians of the Sung and Ming Dynasties promoted a transcendental concept of morality, the flourishing of textual research during the Ch'ing Dynasty led to the development of an intellectualistic concept of morality among Confucian scholars. Although scholars of the Ch'ing dynasty focused on rationalism rather than strict intellectualism, the development of this rationalism emphasized evidential empirical knowledge. In other words, these scholars embraced a form of intellectualism in which moral concepts are based on knowledge. This new form of morality not only differed greatly from the transcendental metaphysical morality of the Sung/Ming neo-Confucians, but also opened up a path into the empirical world and social morality for the Confucians. This paper uses Chiao Hsun's theory of "intelligence leads to benevolence" as the basis for exploring Ch'ing scholars' concept of intellectualist morality.