Empathy And Moral Sentimentalism

At present,people’s excessive praise of science and technology and rationality and neglect of moral emotion lead to the serious moral dilemma of human society.Although there is still the opposition between rationalism and sentimentalism in the field of management,and rationalism occupies the main position,it seems that this kind of ethical theory is difficult to explain the moral crisis in our daily life,sosentimentalism has aroused people’s attention again.As the main representative of contemporary moral sentimentalism,Michael Slote adapted to the revival of virtue ethics and developed and perfected his theory of moral sentimentalism.To a certain extent,his ethical thought inherits and develops Hume’s moral sentimentalism,and is directly influenced by caring ethics.At the same time,it also draws on the latest theoretical achievements of contemporary moral psychology.This change from rationalism to sentimentalism,which integrates the theoretical achievements of many fields,makes Slote’s ethical thoughts receive much attention.The relationship between empathy and moral sentimentalism is the core of Slote’s ethical thought.In Slote’s theory,empathy is a psychological mechanism,that is,"a kind of emotional resonance based on empathy",and from a specific type,it refers to a kind of emotional empathy.It involves emotional infection and cognitive infection,which can make us empathize with other people’s emotions,and at the same time enable us to obtain knowledge of the outside world from other people’s cognition.Moreover,this kind of emotional empathy tends to focus on others,which is congenital,inherent good and partial.Slote regards this kind of empathy as the starting point and foundation of his theoretical construction,and thinks that "Empathy" is of great significance in the field of morality.Due to the innate nature of empathy,the modified semi Kripkean reference fixing theory also endows moral words with objectivity;At the same time,we will find that empathy for empathy,namely "second-order empathy",can produce a kind of moral approval and disapproval that can be described as "warm or cold " feeling.This kind of moral emotion precedes moral judgment and is the basis of moral judgment;In the process of demonstrating the basis of moral behavior,empathy also plays a key role.In addition,Slote uses the theory of moral sentimentalism based on empathy to explain the issues related to the private sphere and the political / public sphere.In the field of private morality,Slote takes the case of "paternalism" as the starting point to analyze the respect for others’ autonomy.He thinks that paternalistic parents often interfere too much with their children and can’t understand their children’s wishes.But the patriarchal system is not all bad.The key to whether the patriarchal system shows a lack of respect for autonomy is empathy.In the field of public morality,slote focuses on justice,and points out that the method of empathy can be applied to specific social justice,international justice and global justice.In a word,Slote’s theory of moral sentimentalism based on "Empathy" is unique in the development of contemporary ethics and has rich theoretical and practical value.For example,Slote developed a new development direction corresponding to Aristotle’s "cool" virtue ethics,that is,the "warm" virtue ethics of sentimentalism;Moreover,his emphasis on care as a virtue opens up a virtue approach to care ethics,which is opposite to the relationship approach,and provides new ideas for the development of care ethics.In addition,this theory is of great significance to the development of moral education.However,Slote’s theory of moral sentimentalism still has some limitations that can not be ignored.The excessive dependence on emotional motivation and empathy highlights the one sidedness of this theory,and also greatly affects its handling of autonomy and justice.