The Principles of New Ethics I

Book excerpt: From Descartes to Spinoza, Western philosophers have attempted to propose an axiomatic systemization of ethics. However, without consensus on the contents and objects of ethics, the system remains incomplete. This fourvolume set presents a model that highlights a Chinese philosopher’s insights on ethics after a 22-year study. Three essential components of ethics are examined: metaethics, normative ethics, and virtue ethics. This volume mainly studies meta- ethics. The author not only studies the fi ve primitive concepts of ethics— “value,” “good,” “ought,” “right,” and “fact”— and reveals their relationship, but also demonstrates the solution to the classic “Hume’s guillotine”— whether “ought” can be derived from “fact.” His aim is to identify the methods of making excellent moral norms, leading to solutions on how to prove ethical axioms and ethical postulates. Written by a renowned philosopher, the Chinese version of this set sold more than 60,000 copies and has exerted tremendous infl uence on the academic scene in China. The English version will be an essential read for students and scholars of ethics and philosophy in general.