On Shaftesbury 's Ethical Thought Of Moral Emotion

Emotion is characteristic of the psychological activity, it is also the important factors that affect behavior。Moral emotion theory produced in modern times, it is one of the important theories in the western ethics。As the creator of the moral emotion theory, the emotionalism of Shaftesbury has its unique thought factor, therefore, it is necessary to carry out the idea completely thorough research. First it is very necessary to carding emotionalism ethics thought background. Emotionalism ideological background is complex, mainly displays in the following two aspects: first, the influence of the Renaissance; Second, the enlightenment of the guide. As the coming of the era of sailing, the British capital primitive accumulation is rapid, greatly improve the productivity of left over from the middle ages the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy has seriously hindered the development of capitalism. The British capitalist revolution need a theory, as a result, a Renaissance in Europe’s rapid rise of the movement, the movement the center of the movement is the spirit of humanism in Renaissance Roman civilization in ancient Greece as the slogan, to disperse the shadow of theology, m Return to the human nature. With the deepening of the Renaissance, people’s humanity consciousness gradually awakening, Britain followed the "glorious revolution", entered into a capitalist society. Adjacent to the UK, France has the enlightenment in the late of Renaissance. In general, the influence of the Renaissance movement is limited in the area, in order to reduce the motion resistance at the same time, it did not completely will from theology, but as the auxiliary, religion for the revival of literature and art. Instead of religion as the tool, the enlightenment to people’s rationality as a tool, has carried on the more thorough criticism to theology, make the person completely liberated from the bondage of religion. It is in this social context, the moral emotion theorySecondly, the moral emotion theory of Shaftesbury is in line with the western philosophy, in the theory, we can see the shadow of Aristotle, and can also find hidden in the signature of the empirical behind it. Analysis the moral emotion theory of Shaftesbury, starting from the source of moral, in his claim that "the feeling of moral" as the logical starting point, through the discrimination of good and evil of ordinary biology, Shaftesbury points out, it is not absolute good and evil, and only relative, but still has its purity, between good and evil, good and evil source can only be natural temperament, namely for biological, is conducive to the development of the continuation of the population and guided emotional behavior is good, the opposite is evil. But it is not enough to discuss upon a biological level, good and evil, Shaftesbury and perspective from the biological level good to human virtue, he thinks, must to be in the framework of rational, to control their own passion for the good of the public appropriate degree, thus the emotion is good.Then, Shaftesbury make analyzed as the behavior of the original motive of three kinds of emotions. One is about the nature of public interest emotion, emotion is a kind of self-interested, and the other is no interest in anything cold emotion, namely the unnatural emotion. Natural emotion, he argues, is a purely spiritual emotion, emotional nature will create a self-reflection ability, make oneself itself out in the public interest to behave in ways that engender a feeling of shame aversion, and the correction in practice. And the affection of self-interest, mostly based on the principle of physical pleasure, if it is limited to a reasonable range, is acceptable. The unnatural emotion is the lack of moral sense, should be avoid. And natural emotion biggest role is to adjust the three kinds of emotion, to keep the proper proportion. Therefore, Shaftesbury thought that the moral emotion(mainly about emotional nature of public interest), under the guidance of people completely have the ability to make a moral judgment, and produces a feeling of respect or in their own sense of shame aversion. At the same time, he demonstrated that human only have natural emotion, to master the ability to be happy, to the pursuit of the highest happiness, will eventually agree to happiness, moral will eventually reach the object, implementation.The theory of Shaftesbury still has some limitations. First, the feeling of moral is individuality. Due to individual differences, the same moral behavior can produce different degree in different individual emotion, it will directly affect the degree of generalization of moral emotion; Second, the natural emotion is innate, or need to cultivate it? If they are need to cultivate, that in what form should be trained, Shaftesbury did not mention, therefore, the theory of practicality is questionable. In spite of this, the theory that moral emotion of Shaftesbury’s for the contemporary construction of spiritual civilization still has important reference value, therefore, grasp the core of the theory of value, discuss its practical significance, is necessary.