From individual virtue to social justice: a comparative study of Slote and Mencius

Abstract

M.Phil.

This thesis will address the criticism that political philosophy cannot be developed from virtue ethics. By taking the virtue ethics of Michael Slote and Mencius as examples, examination on the possibility of deriving virtue politics from virtue ethics and on the substantial contents of justice is to be conducted. Through the comparative study of the two philosophers, the Mencian theory of justice is to be argued better than the Slotean one and its uniqueness will be shown through offering insightful help and solutions to problems in Slote’s theory.

This thesis consists of three main chapters: Chapter one introduces Slote’s ethics of empathic care and the political philosophy derived from it and relevantly attempts to defend against the criticism that Slote cannot legitimately develop political philosophy from his ethics of empathic care in the appendix. Through introducing and demonstrating the approach of how the Kingly Way and the Benevolent Governance can be developed from the benevolent care of a benevolent person by Mencius, the same mode in deriving political philosophy from the ethics of empathic care by Slote will be justifiably argued. Chapter two categorises Slote’s stance in economic distributive justice as a kind of absolute prioritarianism and analyses some main criticisms posed to it with making proper responses to them. Chapter three investigates the problem that at where the absolute level should be set for absolute prioritarianism through analysing the view held by Mencius in distributive justice. It will be argued that sufficientarianism or the sufficiency principle can be a great candidate to supplement the absolute level of prioritarianism and they can be combined together to become the prioritarian sufficientarianism as the guiding principle in distributive justice. Furthermore, after making sufficient responses to criticisms and possible problems of prioritarian sufficientarianism, it will be argued and pointed out that the prioritarian sufficientarianism and its correspondingly relevant policies on taxation and social welfare are the necessary outcomes of the political philosophy and ethics of care of Mencius and Slote. Finally, the thesis will end with the conclusion that both Mencius and Slote hold “Justice as Prioritarian Sufficiency” in distributive justice while “Justice as Benevolence” and “Justice as Empathic Care” are the fundamental ideas in their respective conceptions of justice.

本論文將針對德性倫理學不能開出政治哲學的批評，以邁可．斯洛特和孟子的德性倫理學為例，探究從德性發展出德性政治學的可能和當中實質的正義內容。並將透過比較二者指出孟子的正義理論更為優勝，而且能為在斯洛特所面對的理論疑難提供妥善的解決方案，並從中展現其理論的獨特之處。

本論文主要分為三個章節:第一章介紹斯洛特的同感關愛倫理學及從同感關愛推導出來的政治哲學，和透過引入孟子從仁者對萬物的仁愛關懷之心發展出「王道」、「仁政」的進路論證斯洛特可以相同的模式從同感關愛推展出政治哲學，並且將在附錄嘗試就針對斯洛特不能正當地從同感關愛發展出政治哲學的批評作出回應和辯護。第二章將斯洛特在經濟分配正義中的立場歸類為一種絕對優先主義，並分析一些對優先主義的主要批評並對其作出恰當回應。第三章主要就絕對優先主義中「絕對」的標準該如何釐訂的疑難作出探討，透過分析孟子在分配正義上所持守的主張得出充足主義可作為對該標準的補足，兩者相互結合成優先充足主義作為在分配正義的指導原則。在充分回應優先充足主義所面對的批評和可能疑難後，再進一步論證指出優先充足主義及其相應之稅收及福利政策皆是孟子和斯洛特各自的關愛倫理學及政治哲學的必然結果。最後將總結出二人在分配正義方面持守「優先充足即正義」的觀點；而「仁即正義」及「同感關愛即正義」則作為各自的正義觀的核心思想。

Chung, Kin Man.

Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2017.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-144).

Abstracts also in Chinese.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on 10, February, 2020).