Michael Slote's Concept Of "Empathy"

Michael Slote is a famous American ethicist in the contemporary era and a famous representative figure of contemporary sentimental ethics.He was inspired by the results of the research of modern psychology,innovatively inherited and developed the 18th century sentimental ethics thoughts,broke through the limitations of ethics of care in the context of the revival of moral ethics,and established a system of virtue ethics of sentimentalism based on the sense of "empathy".Slote used the empathy as the starting point and foundation of his virtue ethics construction.He believed that "empathy" is of great importance to morality.Slote feels that "empathy" has played a considerable role in the process of people making correct moral judgments and having correct moral behaviors.He proposed that empathy is a universal moral emotion that human individuals naturally have,is the basis of all moral emotions.Empathy is an emotional attribute that has partiality and makes people feel warm or chilling;in the mean time,empathy is also an emotional mechanism behind emotions.So it gives us attitudes of moral approval and disapproval,and we can make moral judgments based on it.And because empathy have attribute of making people feel warm or chilling,it allows us to make moral judgments while gaining the same morality motivation.Slote' s research on the "empathy" issues is unique and deserves our high attention.He tried to transcend the normative ethics based on rationalism and establish a perfect and convincing sentimental ethics.In the theoretical sense,as the concept of empathy is introduced into the ethics of sentimentalism,the situation that the moral judgements facing the accusation of lacking of universality has been improved,and the objectivity of morality has been maintained;in practical terms,the theory of the morality of sentimentalism education will head to a new level.This article focuses on the core concept of "empathy" in Slote's ethics and conducts a relatively complete study.It not only describes its theory and connotation but also reveals its practical significance.It aims to understand his ethics of sentimentalism more deeply and comprehensively.The dissertation is divided into three parts:The first part mainly expounds the ethical history background of Slote's concept of "empathy".The second part mainly introduces the intrinsic characteristics,operating mechanism and moral value of Slote's concept of "empathy".The third part mainly analyzes the theoretical contribution and limitation of Slote's concept of "empathy".