Abstract:

The 18^th-century British moral sentimentalism understands moral sense and the mechanism of sympathy from the perspective of projection. Based on different preferences of moral sentimentalists, this school, without taking any established moral judgment principle as a preconceived premise, creates four types of projection, i.e., aesthetic projection, benevolence projection, utility projection and sympathy projection, and use them to understand moral approval/disapproval, which is regarded as the presupposition of moral judgment and normativity. However, under the restriction of projection, the 18th-century British moral sentimentalism fails to establish action as an effective connection between moral approval/disapproval and moral judgment principles and thereby determine the evaluative characteristics of moral goodness. Therefore, the moral judgment and normative principles constructed by this school of moral philosophy are fundamentally flawed.

Key words: moral sentimentalism, projection, moral judgement, moral normativity