Mencius, Hume and the Foundations of Ethics ANNOTATION
What is the most distinctive feature of human nature? Does human nature play any significant role in explaining ethical objectivity? How do we arrive at moral judgements? What is the relationship between moral judgements and moral motivation?
In answering these questions, this book defends a naturalist, realist and internalist theory of the foundations of ethics. This theory, grounded on a particular concept of humanity, combines insights from Mencius and David Hume. The views of each show how important features left underdeveloped by the other can be supplemented and refined. The unified theory that results is a robust contender among current ethical theories.
This illuminating book, relating Chinese and Western philosophical traditions, presents a unique account of the unity of the virtues in Mencius, breaks new ground in Hume studies through its discussion of the concept of sympathy in Hume's theory, and brings combined insights to bear on contemporary analytical theories of ethics.
About the Author:Xiusheng Liu, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, St Cloud State University, USA
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"What is the most distinctive feature of human nature? Does human nature play any significant role in explaining ethical objectivity? How do we arrive at moral judgments? What is the relationship between moral judgments and moral motivation?" "In answering these questions, this book defends a naturalist, realist and internalist theory of the foundations of ethics. This theory, grounded on a particular concept of humanity, combines insights from Mencius and David Hume. The views of each show how important features left underdeveloped by the other can be supplemented and refined. The unified theory that results is a robust contender among current ethical theories." This book relating Chinese and Western philosophical traditions, presents a unique account of the unity of the virtues in Mencius, breaks new ground in Hume studies through its discussion of the concept of sympathy in Hume's theory, and brings combined insights to bear on contemporary analytical theories of ethics.
SYNOPSIS
Revising his 1998 Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Texas at Austin, Liu (philosophy, St. Cloud State U., US), investigates fundamental issues in meta-ethics, which deals with ontological, epistemological, semantic, or psychological issues about morality and moral claims. He proposes and defends a naturalist, internalist, and realist theory of the foundations of ethics, combining the moral teachings of the fourth-century BC Chinese and 18th-century English philosophers. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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