A Comparative Study On The Virtue Ethics Of Pre-Qin And Ancient Greek

Paulsen, the German famous philosopher and ethicist, once pointed out: If those who do not constitute a retrospective of today's general trend of moral civilization of the important tributaries of the source, any one could be spelled out loud and clear understanding of the complexity of our times (often confusing) ideas and aspirations. The virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek is the source of modern Virtue ethics, in which the "virtue" has been researched very detailed. These thoughts had a profound influence to later generations. In a certain sense, the later virtue ethics thoughts were the supplement, amendment or development of the virtue ethics in this period. As a traditional moral resource, the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek are still an important component of modern morals. Therefore, it is very necessary to dig, hackle and compare the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek in-depth.Since the beginning of the 20th century, human's moral life is changing constantly. One conspicuous change is that people have too much pursuit of material interests, efficiency and utilitarian, neglecting the pursuits of the spiritual world, moral beliefs and the inherent virtues, which has caused "moral decline." People rely on Normative Ethics, particularly the Deontology and Utility theory, while Virtue Ethics are "marginalized." However, in modern society, Virtue Ethics still has its space to grow and impact. The norm and the duty are not the moral entirety, and the moral norm is not the universal implementation, it is also necessary to resort to people's moral consciousness, highlighting the essence of Virtue Ethics.Therefore, the comparative study the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek could increase our in-depth understanding of the true meaning of Virtue Ethics, learn the Western thoughts and methods of the Virtue Ethics, and build a harmonious spiritual order and a harmonious social order. So this comparative study has important theoretical and practical significance.In this paper, by using comparative study, and by applying the Marxist Ethics stand, viewpoint and method, I made a comparative analysis the background, the basic content and the main characteristics of the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek, and attempted to evaluate them, drawing the inspirations and practical significances of the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek to today.Without exploring the visions which bred both the social and historical background firstly, we can not understand and compare correctly. The natural environment of Pre-Qin was a landlocked type, which farmed an agricultural natural economy, a patriarchal political system linked by blood relationship and an ethical culture focused on human relations. The natural environment of ancient Greek was a marine type, which bred a business economy, a polis political system related to regions and an intellectual culture based on rational. It was the unique socio-economic, political and cultural soil of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek bred with the Unique and splendor virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek Correspondingly. In Pre-Qin, virtues were in the implications of "self-example" being in the quality of resistance, the type was "relations" in the context of the ethics of virtue; in ancient Greek, virtues were in the implications of the pursuit of "excellence" of the outstanding quality, the type was the "purpose" in the context of individual virtue. This led to the other basic virtue ethics thoughts of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek: on functional understanding of the virtues, the Pre-Qin stressed that the virtues of a "self-perfect" and "others-perfect" functions, while ancient Greek stressed that the virtues of a city-state happiness functions; on virtue cultivation, Pre-Qin focused on inherent virtues form, while ancient Greek emphasized on external virtues of education; on the highest virtues, Pre-Qin valued the highest virtues-Moderate, while ancient Greek valued Mean which is no more or less, there are certain consensus.The virtue ethics of Pre-Qin was a traditional virtue ethics of family-based thinking, which started in the contradictory relationships of personal-country; the virtue ethics of ancient Greek was a traditional virtue ethics of city-based thinking, which started in the contradictory relationships of individual-polis. Therefore, in the thinking of melody, the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin was emotionalism, the virtue ethics of ancient Greek was rationalism; in the mode of thinking, the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin was a kind of internal thinking, the virtue ethics of ancient Greek was a kind of external thinking. These characteristics are reflected in the formulation, which was taken care satirical likeness and logical proof of differences. Although as a product of the times, the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek were inevitable with the imprint of that era and the limitations of class, but the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek were reasonable, which had provided us with a historical, spiritual and moral resources for the establishment of a modern virtues Ethics system, the building a harmonious order and the strengthening of individual virtue cultivation, which were still have fresh significances. This is also the focus of this paper and the end result, because my comparison is not partial to ancient and modern or Pre-Qin and ancient Greek, and not to draw the conclusion which is better, but insists the principle that "there are differences in the same, and there is same in the differences," emphasizes on the complements of the virtue ethics of Pre-Qin and ancient Greek, and draws the revelations and practical significances to today.