"Sympathy" Thought In Hume's Moral Philosophy

The thought of sympathy is still a hotly discussed ethical topic in Hume's moral philosophy.This is not only because sympathy is realistic and true in human nature and affects people's value judgments,but more importantly,the study of sympathy is equivalent to the study of people themselves in a sense,which is of great benefit to solving problems such as personal conflicts with others and social conflicts.Hume's moral philosophy not only kept the traces of the traditional theory of virtue,but also made a new development of modern moral thought,breaking through the rationalism tradition in the history of western philosophical thought for a long time.He combines moral theory with human nature,highlighting the important role of passion in people's moral behavior.Through observation and empirical research on the science of human nature,Hume explored the nature of moral beings and related laws,and established a systematic theory to explain including human knowledge,passion and morality,so as to explore the path of human beings to obtain happiness.The whole system of Hume's moral philosophy appeals the distinction between virtue and vice to the practice of life,which is helpful to guide human beings to pursue a good moral life.He proved that morality comes from human passion,and the value judgment of virtue and vice comes from human moral sense rather than irrationality.The rise of "affective science" in the contemporary academic circle has a tendency of reduction because of the neglect of the "thick" characteristic of passion,which also makes the sympathy thought neglect its original rich ethical value and moral connotation while highlighting the phenomenon of technical means and experimental methods.As the main source of moral distinction between virtue and vice,sympathy is not only a single indirect transmission mechanism with passion as the object,but also has the humane tendency of caring for others,thus linking personal feelings with others and the society as a whole,and becoming a kind of adhesive in the moral field.By re-reading Hume's main texts on moral philosophy,this paper attempts to trace the origin of Hume's sympathy thought under the background of moral philosophy in the eighteenth century and the evolution of moral sentimentalism in England,to clarify its specific connotation and highlight the important position of sympathy thought in Hume's moral philosophy.The whole text is divided into four parts in structure: Chapter 1 will trace back to the origin of the thought of sympathy in Hume's moral philosophy and present the development process of the thought of sympathy;Chapter 2 will explain the concrete connotation of sympathy and its epistemological foundation,trying to restore Hume's own understanding of sympathy.Chapter 3 will explain the concrete content of sympathy thought in moral philosophy,showing that sympathy is the main source of the moral distinction between virtue and vice,and it is closely related to natural virtue and artificial virtue,revealing the important position of sympathy thought in Hume's whole moral philosophy system.Chapter 4 will discuss the significance of Hume's thought of sympathy not only reflected in the theoretical influence on the development of compassion ethics and moral philosophy at that time and later,but also reflected in the powerful practical significance for modern moral life.