Nankai University Lectures in East and West Philosophy
南开大学东西哲学系列讲座
Philosophy East and West
Professor Michael Slote
Lecture 1
Yin-Yang, Mind, and Heart-Mind
May 7(Monday) 2:00-4:00p.m.
College of Philosophy Room 318
Lecture 2
Moral Self-Cultivation East and West: A Critique
May 9(Wednesday) 2:00-4:00p.m.
College of Philosophy Room 318
Lecture 3
Philosophical Deficiencies East and West
May 11(Friday) 2:00-4:00p.m.
College of Philosophy Room 318
Michael Slote is UST Professor of Ethics at the University of Miami and is author of From Morality to Virtue (1992) and Morals From Motives (2001). He was previously professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, and at Trinity College Dublin.
He is widely recognized as a leading figure in the recently renewed field of virtue ethics. He argues that virtue ethics, in a particular form which draws on the concept of an ethics of care, offers significant intuitive and structural advantages over deontology, utilitarianism, and common-sense morality. He has also recently endorsed the meta-ethical view of moral sentimentalism in opposition to moral rationalism (see his articles from 2003, 2004, 2005a and his books (2007 and 2010)). Most recently he expanded his work on sentimentalism into a philosophy of mind (book 2014). In his latest work he also stresses the importance of receptivity as a virtue, a value and as a psychological characteristic (article 2014 and book 2013). The significance of receptivity feature was first considered by Nel Noddings in 1984, but did not receive further attention in the ethics of care neither was it used to criticize typical Western philosophical values. In The Impossibility of Perfection, he argues against moral perfection as it was endorsed by Aristotle and the Enlightenment and defends a more realistic view of moral issues. At a seminar in Hong Kong in October 2014, titled The Philosophical Reset Button: A Manifesto, Slote argued that Chinese thought has never gone to the extremes of Western rationalism, and there is every reason to think that as China gains in power and prestige throughout the world, Chinese philosophers and thinkers will be in a position to correct or reset Western philosophy through drawing on their own deepest historical traditions, traditions which have recognized the value of emotion and sane ordinary living much more than has been typical in the West. You Chinese should realize that you have much to offer the West and not be too modest with your self-image or reticent with your philosophical ambitions.
