From "Rationalism" To "Sentimentalism":Construction Of Morality

In the history of western moral philosophy,reason has always been dominant in morality,while emotion is dominated and controlled by reason.Morality is regarded as the obedience of emotion to reason or the restraint of reason to emotion.With the development of modern ideological liberation movement,theoretical philosophy realized the "epistemological turn" under the first philosophical principle of Descartes "I think,therefore I am",moral philosophy and theoretical philosophy are closely related,and the transformation of theoretical philosophy paradigm has laid the ideological foundation for the transformation of moral philosophy paradigm.With the establishment of human subjectivity in modern philosophy,moral philosophy began to pay attention to human nature,and morality began to be constructed on the basis of human nature.The role of reason and emotion in morality in human nature determines whether morality moves towards rationalism or sentimentalism.Sentimentalism takes emotion as the basis of morality on the basis of empirical investigation of human nature.The representatives of sentimentalism mainly include Shaftesbury,Hutcheson and Hume.Shaftesbury,as the pioneer of modern emotionalism,established morality on the basis of emotion for the first time,and put forward the core concept of moral philosophy of modern sentimentalism— "moral sense".Hutcheson inherited Shaftesbury’s "moral sense" theory,clarified the "moral sense",and proposed that benevolence emotion is the basis of morality.Hume made a scientific investigation of human nature by means of empiricism,and proposed "sympathy" as the first principle of morality.The development of sentimentalism is a process in which rationality gradually fades out of practical philosophy and morality is built on the basis of emotion,which clarifies the emotional source of morality.The basis of moral judgment becomes "moral sense".From the pleasure brought by "moral sense",the consequences of behavior can be seen.Therefore,utility is also the standard of moral value evaluation.Happiness is a strong and lasting spiritual pleasure,the highest level of happiness,can only be felt through the "moral sense",so so only has the virtue can finally realizes the morality.