Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.8, 2018

The Modern Transformation and Inspiration of Ancient Greek and Roman Ethical Thought

(Abstract)

Chen Yuehua and Wang Xiaochao

The cultural heritage of ancient Greek and Roman ethical thought faces a predicament in modern academia with regard to the rationality of its ethical connotations and the legitimacy of its interpretive methodology. As the call grows for ethical theory to respond to moral practice, classical ethics has made a return as an important intellectual resource, serving as a prototype of the virtue ethics movement in ethical typology and providing a basis for testing the progressive nature of ethical methodology in a comparison between the ancient and the modern. Transformative research on ancient Greek and Roman ethics must be based on the text and the historical context, and must, jointly with related disciplines, compensate for the scarcity of supporting knowledge about the period’s literature, logic of argumentation, propositional rationality, moral world, personal and societal history, and stage of development of thought. With this in mind, we can use cross-cultural genetics to sift through sources and rebuild pedigrees to deepen our understanding of the modern value of ancient Chinese and Western ethical thought. This will enable us to explore the ethical resources of fine traditional Chinese culture, promote dialogue between the traditions of different civilizations, and seek an ethical consensus that will serve as a basis for the construction of a community of shared future for mankind.