Farewell to Renqing, Return to True Sentiments
Abstract: Although sentiments are not emphasized as important concept in traditional ethical theory, it doesn't mean that it is not worth to be analyzed. In contemporary countryside social life, the sentiment named as renqing and expressed as renqing consumption has the tendency of being more and more strong. Taking the concept of sentiment as the key word of ethical theory, the paper intends to construct countryside social ethics from the approach of sentiments. Renqing is neither the foundation of moral sentiments nor the basis of moral judgment. On the contrary, in order to become moral sentiment, renqing has to be passed moral judgment by using the sentimental moral judgment standard. Renqing in moral sense is a kind of true sentiment, in this sense the paper holds that to make true sentiment return to countryside social life is both a theoretical and realistic challenge faced by contemporary countryside ethics.
Keywords: sentiments; Renqing; moral sentiments; moral judgment; countryside community