The Philosophical Significance Of Receptivity

Michael Slote has always been devoted to criticizing rationalism.He believes that Western philosophy has always placed too much emphasis on the role of rationality and reached some unbelievable conclusions.In his book Moral Sentimentalism,he established moral sentimentalism with empathy as the core to oppose rational-based ethics of Kantianism and Utilitarianism,later,he found that receptivity was more capable of criticizing them than empathy,so in the book From Enlightenment to Receptivity:Rethinking Our Values,he demonstrated that receptivity can be used to balance the over-emphasized rationality,thereby helping Western philosophy out of the plight of rationalism.Later,he found that Chinese Yin-Yang thought coincided with his thought of criticizing western rationalism with receptivity and he could even use Yin-Yang to deal with the relationship between receptivity and rationality more accurately.Therefore,receptivity has a very important role in Slote's philosophy.This article is to explore how receptivity explained by Yin and Yang works in ethics and epistemology.This article will prove that empathy is inadequate for moral norms and moral judgments,because empathy cannot define the rationality of emotions,and empathy is also difficult to apply to the non-moral field,and its role in epistemology and ethical prudent practice is very limited.This article believes that empathy is just a form of receptivity,and the real receptivity also includes a comprehensive perception of the surrounding world and the situation of others.Therefore,receptivity can overcome the limitations of empathy and play a fundamental role in both ethics and epistemology.In ethics,if we want to live a good life,we must maintain a more recognized rather than skeptical attitude to some values in our lives,and we must face up to the doom and misfortune in our lives and the limitations of individuals,and appreciate the imperfections of personal and life.Only by appreciating these "regrets" can we reflect about them concretely and improve them;if we want to truly care for others,we must not only maintain empathy and receptivity for others 'emotions,but also maintain sufficient receptivity for others' situations.Only in this way can we not only have the motivation to care for others,but also know how to help others to really get out of the predicament and implement the care;In our practical reasons,receptivity not only makes us understand the source of prudent reasons,but also provides a good explanation for our moral reasons.In the field of epistemology,Slote put forward a kind of sentimental epistemology of virtue,which is also called the epistemology of yin and yang.Among them,receptivity and decisiveness are two basic virtues of this kind of virtue epistemology.This article will explore the role of receptivity in this kind of virtue epistemology,and believe that receptivity can not only provide confirmation of noninferential knowledge for us,but it is also a prerequisite for inferential knowledge,what's more,any cognitive virtue has a certain kind of degree of receptivity.Therefore,this article believes that receptivity can not only overcome the failure of empathy for moral interpretation,it can also be widely applied to the field of ethics and epistemology.