The Ethical Study On Slote's Thought Of Empathy And Care

The empathy and care theory is a new approach of contemporary moral emotionalism.Michael Slote transcended the limitations of feminist care ethics,based on the revival of contemporary virture ethics.On the basis of absorbing traditional theoretical resources and referring to the literature of contemporary.He put forward the empathy and care theory,which takes empathy as the main psychological mechanism and care as the ethical method.He tried to construct the care ethics based on empathy.From the concept of empathy,empathy is different from Hume's sympathy.Empathy emphasizes that when we see another person in pain,we will involuntarily evoke another person's feelings in ourselves.In essence,empathy is inherent.According to Slote,there are two kinds of arousal mechanisms in human empathy,infective empathy and projective empathy,but he prefers infective empathy because it can improve his empathy ability by observing others.At the same time,empathy has a prosocial motivation.The stronger the ability of empathy,the more prosocial behavior of sharing and helping others will be.Empathy is also an altruistic behavior.Empathy is essentially related to altruistic behavior.When we see others in sadness,we will have empathy,which ia always accompanied by empathy for others.Empathy and care becomes the psychological basis of altruistic behavior.Empathic care ethics is a kind of general ethics method which can explain both individual morality and socia public morality.In the aspect of moral obligation,it expounds the influence of kinship and space-time distance on the moral obligation of actors,which can explain reasonably whether the actors should bear the obligation to others.In the aspect of moral respect,through the analysis of “paternalistic style”,we can know that the respect for others' autonomy can also be explained properly through empathy.In public life,social justice in the field is closely related to people's empathy.Through empathy,social justice can be promoted.In this way,empathy and empathic care has universal value in human moral life.Empathic care theory has important practical and theoretical significance,empathy plays an important role in moral education.Educators can achieve moral education by inducing regulation,allowing students to look beyond the situation,understanding the common characteristic of cross-cultural and multi effect empathy.Reflecting on the theory of empathic care,it is a kind of moral emotionalism different from rationality,which is more suitable for the moral field.In the solution of some moral problems,it has obvious advantages over rationality,which makes the emotional care ethics explain the moral problems well.At the same time,the similarities between empathy and Chinese Confucian ethics provides us with a new way of thinking to continue our study of Confucian ethics.However,because of the uncertainly of emotion,empathy is prone to defect in moral judgment and moral evaluation.We shouldn't only regard empathy as the standard of moral judgment.In the aspect of social justice,we should rationally look at the role of empathy in promoting social justice.Slote's empathic care ethics is not a supplement to the traditional care ethics,but a kind of "well-connected" ethics,which can provide a reasonable explanation for the individual morality and the public political morality.This thought attaches great importance to the human emotion,pays attention to the moral motivation,and shows the concern of human nature.