A Study On Brentano’s Theory Of Groundwork For Ethics

Brentano’s philosophy is one of the most important sources of the mainstream of modern western philosophy,and his ethical thoughts also have an source significance to modern Western ethics.However,this significance has been poorly recognized and even underestimated until now.This paper focuses on the core of Brentano’s ethical thought--Groundwork for ethics,reconstructs the dual dimension of his Groundwork for ethics,clarifies the essence and influence of this thought,and clarifies the intrinsic value of Brentano’s ethical thought and its source significance to modern western ethics.In general,Brentano’s theory of groundwork for ethics is mainly in the background of the transition from western traditional ethics to modern ethics.In order to make ethics become a science,he lays the foundation of ethics on the basis of "science" and tries to solve the problem of how ethical cognition is possible.The essence of Brentano’s "science" is to point out evidence,so scientific ethics is the evident ethics.Evidence comes from internal perception,which is the research subject of scientific psychology.Therefore,the "scientific" basis of ethics is to take scientific psychology as the foundation of ethics,and further to describe psychology and consciousness theory as the theoretical basis of ethics.Under the guidance of this "science",Brentano laid the foundation of ethics in two dimensions: one is "deconstruction",which mainly criticizes the basic principles and foundation of modern western ethics and lays the basis for the foundation of ethical cognition;The second is "construction",which mainly constructs the source of goodness and lays the foundation for the origin of ethical cognition.Therefore,he put forward a set of ethical thought system of psychological consciousness.This theory of groundwork for ethics inherits and criticizes the past western traditional ethical thought and has a profound and lasting influence on the later western modern ethical thought.Specifically,the first is about "deconstruction",that is,laying the basis for the foundation of ethical cognition.Brentano takes "whether the principle of ethics is cognition or emotion" as the question to lay the foundation of ethical cognition again.Brentano believes that the crisis of relativism that ethics has been facing lies in the lack of real rigor and universality of the basic principles of ethics.Then,he takes evidence and validity as the standards of the basic principles of ethics to criticize the main principles of modern ethics(Clark’s "self-evident" principle;The "consequence" principle of utilitarianism;Wollaston’s principle of natural reason and Kant’s principle of categorical Imperative)show that the basic principles of modern ethics are based on the cognitive and emotional basis is problematic.Furthermore,after criticizing Hume’s emotional basis and Kant’s a priori comprehensive knowledge basis,Brentano shows that the basis of ethical knowledge is neither emotion nor reason,but only "cognition of feelings" from experience.In order to further reflect on the basis of ethical cognition,Brentano proposed a "formal deterministic imperative" ethics basic principle in his criticism of "right purpose" : "Choose the best of the attainable ends",thus entering into the inquiry of "what is good".Secondly,it is about "construction",which is the foundation of the origin of ethical cognition.Brentano takes the origin of the guiding concept of ethical cognition--good--as the question,which lays the foundation for inquiring "what is good".Brentano enters into the construction of the source of good from the new basic principles of ethics.From the perspective of descriptive psychology,Brentano defines goodness as a kind of love emotion whose experience is correct,and demonstrates the existence characteristics of goodness with the ontological theory of exclusivism,refuting the accusations of psychologism.Starting from the new definition of good,Brentano established the concepts of the better good and the practical supreme good as well as the principle of preference and the principle of the summation of good.Finally,Brentano established the source of good in "psychological consciousness",and also explained the meaning of the psychological consciousness dimension of the new basis of ethical cognition--"cognition of feelings".Therefore,we can see that Brentano lays ethics on the basis of "psychology",which is different from the metaphysical Groundwork for ethics.It is a kind of prerequisite criticism to the consciousness analysis of ethical cognition,similar to but different from the meta-ethics’ prerequisite criticism to the language analysis of ethical cognition,and as the beginning link of phenomenological ethics and the rudiment of meta-ethics,it opens a new paradigm of ethics research.Contains a kind of orthonomous ethics which is different from autonomous and heteronomous.This foundation thought synthesizes the reasonable factors of ethical relativism and absolutism and provides a new way to overcome ethical relativism.It is of great value and significance to phenomenological ethics,meta-ethics and modern moral ethics,and provides a paradigm and field for the transformation of western traditional ethics into modern ethics.It points out the ethical power of "the right path of the mind" for the contemporary and future society,and provides the possibility of re-laying the foundation of ethics.Although the scientific tendency and psychological basis of Brentano’s ethics foundation have theoretical limitations that cannot be ignored,his encyclopedical and profound ethical thoughts deserve our serious attention and continuous exploration under the background of changing times.