| "How should I act" and "why should I act for a certain reason" are the core problems to be faced by the research of human moral behavior,and also the moral normativity implied behind the behavior.It can be said that it is the different understandings of moral normativity that enable ethics to explore different aspects of the human nature and thus construct different forms of moral theories.Based on the reflection and reconstruction of human nature by reason,modern moral philosophy has realized the modern construction of moral normativity from different perspectives such as the consequences of moral behavior and the good will and motivation of the agent.According to the principle of "dichotomy of fact and value",there are two main approaches to achieve this,one of which is the tradition of moral sentimentalism,which appeals moral normativity to human nature.Another one is the tradition of moral rationalism,which bases internal normativity on the doer’s will,that is,self-autonomy.The former,represented by Hume and Bernard Williams,starts from the desire and reality of human moral psychological state,and believes that moral motivation and normativity come from human’s natural moral sense,and the actor universalizes his personal moral judgment through the psychological mechanism of "sympathy".Williams also believes that all reasons are internal reason,establishing an internal connection between reason and motivation,and combining normative concepts with descriptive concepts.On the contrary,the latter,represented by Kant and Korsgaard,insisted on the transcendence of human emotion and constructed moral normativity from rational necessity.Kant analyzed the autonomy from the concept of free will.The rational causality established by self autonomy is not controlled by any external causes,and it chooses the categorical imperative as its law.Then Korsgaard makes a constructivist understanding of Kant’s theory through the analysis of self-identity and practical identity.Even though there are obvious differences between these two traditions,they still have deep similarity in the relationship between understanding and rationality.At present,with the in-depth researches on human behavior and moral psychology in natural and social sciences,moral philosophy based on these research achievements cannot be separated from the theoretical background of naturalism when constructing normative theories.What they all point to is the question of what kind of agent to shape in normative theory,which contains the requirement of a deeper understanding of the human nature.Two of the traditional working to shape an independent,rational behavior,partly out of the reality of the human situation,so that ignores the reality social interaction between self and others,especially the dependency and vulnerability underlying the history of human evolution.However,this got the attention of contemporary virtue ethics.Introducing dependence perspective to explore the moral reason and moral normativity could not only provide new thinking to break through the rational choice dilemma,but also be able to provide reality basis for shaping independent practical reasoning in the relationship between self and others in the community.At the same time,for the present moral philosophy,it could be helpful to respond to the challenge of neurophysiology and social psychology and to provide the reference for the reflection of the social dilemma faced by the community. |
