| In this paper, I will study empathy which is the main defense of moral sentimentalism in western modern times, and I will lay stress on the background of empathy and significance in moral sentimentalism. Modern moral psychology has researched the relation between empathy and morality with empirical methods from the view of multi-level and multi-angel, which confirm Hume's theory of empathy. Empathy is not only the main moral psychology design of western moral sentimentalism, but also the possible basis and hope to construct universal ethics.Moral reason and moral sentiment in the individual moral consciousness are always inseparable and interpenetrative. Moral reason is always permeated with moral sentiment, and moral sentiment is always accompanied by certain rational cognitive process. But the relationship between moral reason and moral sentiment has long been separated in the history of western ethics. One's role in the morals has been put undue emphasis while the other has been ignored or depreciated. Therefore the division between moral rationalism and moral sentimentalism appeared in the history of ethics. Moral rationalist argues that morality comes from reason, and reason is the basis of morality and criteria of moral judgment. After setting the value goal and the highest good that people pursue in the moral life, more significantly, any kind of ethical theory should provide the appropriate explanation driving their behavior in moral psychology. However, moral rationalist has to find a general moral psychology in order to argue the objectivity and university of the theory, e.g."sense of duty" in Kant's deontology. In Kant's theory,"Sense of duty" is not a sensible, psychological moral sentiment, but a responsibility based onreason. It comes from awesome to God, obedience and original sin in Christian ethics. It has lost the theological background that duty could be implemented universally during the declining of religious belief, therefore the sense of duty as a universal moral psychology could not explain the actors' real moral psychology reasonably in any context. The inconsistence between the moral psychology and the reason of action in reality is called "the schizophrenia of modern ethical theories" by Michael Stocker.Moral sentimentalists think that morality is rooted in some kind of moral sentiments. It's sentiment, not reason, that plays a decisive role in moral judgment and moral evaluation. Moral sentiment is inner experience and subjective attitude whether a person's moral needs are met. It can really reflect the actors'state of moral psychology in doing some kind of moral behavior. Moral sentimentalism indeed avoids the defect that moral rationalism ignores moral psychology. Moral sentimentalists think that morality comes from some kind of sentiments, while sentiments have characters of instability, differences of individual emotions, etc. So, moral sentimentalism has the risk of relativism and subjectivism.In modern times, the most important defense position in the developmental process of moral sentimentalism is to establish the basis of morality on empathy that everyone was born with, and empathy is a major design in moral psychology in moral sentimentalism. Empathy plays the role to defense for moral sentimentalism since David Hume, Adam Smith. Martin Hoffman, a developmental psychologist, carried out the research on empathy on the basis of inheriting and developing Hume's theory of sympathy. He realizes the transformation of empathy from traditional to modern theory. The main theoretical forms of contemporary moral sentimentalism are care ethics and Michael Slote's moral sentimentalism. These theories absorb new achievements of modern psychology, and take empathy as actor's main psychological mechanisms in order to demonstrate the importance of empathy in moral development and altruistic behavior. They made a vigorous defense for moral sentimentalism more in line with people's common sense of morals. But, moral sentimentalism does not understand the relation between reason and sentiment correctly just as moral rationalism, so it naturally can not effectively demonstrate moral requirements of moral sentimentalism to put emphasis on the role of empathy. However, this does not preclude the theoretical and practical significance of moral sentimentalism. It caters to people's demands that ethics should reasonably explain the needs of a variety of moral psychology, and reflects the importance of moral psychology in ethics.In the introduction, I first investigate the division between moral rationalism and moral sentimentalism, the background and moral appeals of moral sentimentalism from diachronic dimension. Then I analyze the main theoretical forms of moral sentimentalism in contemporary revival, and summarize research status about empathy and sympathy at home and abroad. At last I analyze the paper's research approach and methods.In the first chapter "the main contents of theory of empathy", I mainly investigate the background, connotation and structure of empathy, and the distinction and relation of empathy and other similar concepts. Empathy although first appeared in aesthetic field, it has a direct origin with philosophy especially with Kant's philosophy. Empathy is most widely researched in the field of psychology. Its connotation is different in different schools of psychology in different periods. But in general, the basic connotation is consistent. This is the precondition to pursue empathy that has a complex historical background.The second chapter tries to introduce British moral sentimentalism and the important role of sympathy in moral sentimentalism. Moral sentimentalism was first put forward by Shaftesbury, developed and perfected by Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, et al. Hume isn't the earliest advocator of moral sentimentalism, but clearly he is a comprehensive synthesist in the field in the competence of the theory.The first person who regards sympathy as a kind of psychological mechanism is Hume. Hume's use of sympathy is very close to today's empathy. Sympathy was used by Hume as defense to moral sentimentalism, which played a strong explanatory force at that moment. Moral sentimentalism based on sympathy became a competent theory with moral rationalism dominating in the long history of ethics.In this chapter I also compare the different understanding about sympathy of Hume, Smith, Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Max Scheler from the perspective of ethical pedigree of sympathy. Their comprehension of sympathy is different according to their different design of their theory system. Among them, sympathy ethics constructed by Hume and Smith in which sympathy is regarded as a moral psychological mechanism, completely destroys the foundation of moral rationalism. Therefore fundamental changes have happened in ethics dominated by rationalism for a long time, non-rationalism and anti-rationalism began to appear in ethics.I will examine the relation between empathy and morality in contemporary moral psychology in the third chapter. The interests about empathy mainly focus on the relationship between empathy and morality in philosophy and moral developmental psychology. The focus of their attention is that empathy influence moral development to what degree and in what way. The most authoritative behalf in the research field of empathy is Martin Hoffman, who wrote the famous book empathy and moral development:the implications of care and justice. After years of research, he finds that empathy is the spark of human concern for others, the glue that makes social life possible.He examines on many problems such as the mechanism of empathy, developmental stages of empathy, the influence of empathy on morals, the relation between empathy and moral principles, the relations between empathy and pro-social behaviors etc. He looks upon empathy as an alternative feeling. In addition, C.D. Batson and N. Eisenberg also prove that there is close relationship between empathy and morality from a different perspective. Their research not only inherits and develops Hume's ethical theory, but also provide rich theoretical resources for the contemporary revival of moral sentimentalism.In the fourth chapter I will analyze the view on empathy of a major theory school appeared in contemporary moral sentimentalism. This school is feminist care ethics. Carol Gilligan, the advocator of care ethics, thinks that there are two moral value orientations in human society, which are moral value of justice and moral value of care.Only by combining these two moral values can we depict moral development completely. In the past, people paid too much attention on moral value of justice, while ignored moral value of care. Women speak in a different voice with men in moral reasoning. They emphasize interpersonal relationship. Nel Noddings constructs care ethics in an all-round way on the basis of Gilligan's theory. She puts forward the concepts of the one-caring and the one-cared. She understands care in the relation, relation is the basis of existence, care is the foundation of morality. Noddings'analysis of psychological process of the one caring shows that care in fact still belongs to the category of empathy. Noddings understands care in the relation, and tries to integrate reason with sentiment, but in general care ethics still belongs to sentimentalism. As they study care ethics from the unique feminist moral experience, they encounter criticisms from all sides. Slote suggests that the best way to resolve the problems of developing process in care ethics is to introduce empathy in an all-round way. So care ethics could be developed into a more complete theory.In the last chapter â… will examine the new approach of contemporary moral sentimentalism. Contemporary virtue ethics movement rises in the process of criticizing normative ethics. Contemporary virtue ethics does not agree with that the original diversified moral psychology is came down to a kind of monotonous sense of duty by normative ethics, that a so-called moral rule can demonstrate all the ethical problems. Slote differs his theory from Aristotelian virtue ethics while developing his virtue ethics. He thinks that Aristotelian virtue ethics is apt to be accused as consquentialism because it regard people's happiness as evaluation criterion of characters and behavioral motives.Slote criticizes Aristotelian virtue ethics for it does not find the foundation from the agent itself, while whether the agent's action is right or wrong is linked with the happiness outside the agent. Slote advocates constructing a pure virtue ethics based on the agent. Whether the agent's action is right or wrong depends on the agent's motive and character, which are fundamental and good in itself. His radical views are criticized as subjectivism easily. He finds a new approach of virtue ethics recently in order to defend his theory. One the one hand, he absorbs Hume's concept of sympathy; on the other hand, he uses the concept of care as a source of reference. He tries to construct the ethics of care and empathy, in which empathy is regarded as main moral psychology and care is regarded as main method. Of course, the ethics of care and empathy is not statement or modern versions of Hume's moral sentimentalism. It is put forward on the basis of absorbing traditional theoretical resources and using the achievements of modern moral psychology as reference. It has a stronger foundation than Hume's ethics, and a more spacious view than feminist care ethics. However, the efforts have proved to be a total failure to establish moral foundation on reason or sentiment in the debate of moral rationalism or moral sentimentalism during the Enlightment. Whether moral rationalism or moral sentimentalism has some thing in common that morality is universal and objective. They have tried to regard different aspects of subjectivity, reason or universal sentiment, as the foundation of universal morality. They have some logical flaws in their own arguments, so they can't provide a credible foundation for morality.Reason and sentiment are equally important in moral life, and they are originally inseparable. Any kind of factors of reason and sentiment is indispensable, but a single factor can not play a decisive role. Different social living conditions decide that the agent has different autonomy and active agency. In specific context, the agent may show different dimensions, sometimes more rational side, and sometimes more emotional side. The goal of moral construction in modern society is to achieve an orderly moral social life, but the status of the moral life has frequently been deemed inadequate. Therefore, many people appeal that moral principles should be transformed into systems and laws, realizing institutionalization and verrechtlichung of moral principles. It's going to return to the old path of moral rationalism. Of course, it is not feasible. We should reacquaint and give fully play to the positive role of moral sentiment and moral psychology on the basis of fully understanding the significance of reason in moral construction. We should actively explore the regularity of human psychological changes, and combine the natural order of human mind with the regularity of moral construction, so as to realize the harmonious unity of the two. This is also the revelation of today's socialist moral construction to examine the pros and cons of the western moral sentimentalism.
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