Ethical Exploration

Author: Song Xiren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: This book is composed of two sets of lecture notes: "A History of Western Collectivized Ethical Thought" and "A Study of Marx and Engels' Ethical Thought." These two courses were either taught to graduate students in the philosophy department or to advanced training classes in ethics. Both were thematic, not aiming for systematicity or comprehensiveness, but rather tailored to needs and possibilities. Sometimes, only the key points of an individual's ethical thought were discussed, such as early Greek ethical thought; at other times, the main ethical ideas of a person were introduced, such as several typical figures from modern Britain and France; sometimes, a person's ethical thought system was explained in detail, such as Hegel's ethics; sometimes, the developmental patterns of ethical thought in a historical period were summarized, such as medieval ethics; and sometimes, a specific topic was explored in depth, such as Marx's economic ethics in Capital. However, no matter how it was taught, it never deviated from the major trajectory of the development of Western ethical thought or from the original intention of studying Marx's ethics. Although these are two courses, in my mind, they have always been an interconnected process of moral reflection and ethical exploration. Over two thousand years, as history changed and nations rose and fell, Western society's understanding of morality and ethics has also and deepened. From Socrates to Hegel, and then from Hegel to Marx, the chain of inherited and developed thought of numerous thinkers is the logical manifestation of this historical process. In these two courses, I spoke the most about Hegel and Marx because the former is the culmination of Western ethical thought, and the latter is the true inheritor of this culmination, elevating human moral reflection and ethical exploration to a new peak on the basis of a new worldview.