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On the Snowballing Expansion of Horizons and Perspectives in Western Ethics
YANG Fang
2004(3):
33-40.
The horizons and perspectives in western ethicshave been snowballwiseexpanding with its historical evolution. In Greek and Rome ethics finds only philosophical horizon that consists chiefly of perspectives of ontology, of epistemology, of the theory of human nature, and of the outlook on life. In the medieval Christian ethics, philosophical horizon is subject to theological one that ismade up mainly of perspectives of the theory of divine nature, of the theory ofrelationship between God and humans, and of the view of soul. In modern westernethics, philosophical horizon serves as a backbone, while psychological one where perspective of the theory of sentiment dominates, and theological one work astwo wings, and other horizons such as political, historical, and biological function as peripheral limbs. In contemporary western ethics, philosophical horizonwhere perspective of axiology is annexed to the original perspectives, linguistic one including perspectives of semantics and pragmatics, psychological one where perspectives of the theory of unconsciousness, of genetic epistemology, of the theory of need-motivation, and of the theory of environment-behavior are attached to the original perspectives, and theological one rival each other on the stage, whereas other horizons such as biological, anthropological, economic, political, historical, and sociological play a secondary role of their own. The accumulating expansion of horizons and perspectives makes an extensive room for the development of western ethics.
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