| Professor Michael Slote,the founder of contemporary moral sentiment theory,has opened up a new direction of emotion in the revival of moral ethics in modern times.He argues that our moral actions are not simply acts of obedience to the rules,but actions that emanate from the emotional motivations of the human being,caring for others.He attributes this emotional motivation to the moral potential that motivates us to care for the well-being of others.Specifically,Slote believes that empathy is such an emotional trigger-a key to our moral motivation and an ability to interpret our moral intuitions and moral judgments.So,on the one hand,empathy is an intrinsic emotional motivator,on the other hand,it becomes an external standard in moral judgment,which is related to our moral approval or opposition.All in all,Slote uses empathy as the basis for his ethical views to develop or refine ethics of care,so he calls his theory The Ethics of Care and Empathy.While introducing his thoughts in detail,this paper also tries to demonstrate that Slote’s ethics of care and empathy is actually a rich hypothesis for the moral and moral theory of Aristotle virtues.We outline the main deduction of this paper as following.First,in slote’s works,he uses the concept of empathy as the basis or even the core of his theory,as in The Ethics of Care and Empathy.Therefore,this article will begin with a detailed explanation of Slote’s definition of empathy,which mainly studies its characteristics and how empathy,as a psychological concept,becomes the basis and even motive of moral behavior.Secondly,after discussing the concept and function of empathy,this article will introduce how Slote uses empathy as the basis of care and expand the scope of caring ethics.That is,how empathy,as the key to all aspects of moral life,can better explain our moral life.In order to argue that the ethics of care of empathy is universal,the moral life is not only confined to the moral behavior of individuals,it also has to do with our moral attitudes and ethical standards,and even to the issue of freedom and justice.Thirdly,having established the relationship between empathy and morality and the moral role of empathy in the former,this article explores the relationship between the ethics of care of empathy and the ethics of virtue.For this purpose,these two ideas need to be introduced and compared.And then we can find that the ethics of care and empathy is actually a theory of virtue ethics,but it is not an independent system,because empathy does not produce virtue sufficiently.In fact,empathy is only part of the Aristotle virtues,and it confirms the important role of emotion in virtue.Finally,Slote’s demonstration of the support of modern psychology for the formation of virtue can not only serve as a reference for the development of Chinese traditional culture in modern times,but also supports the modern Confucianism. |
