A Study On Zygmunt Bauman’s Postmodern Ethical Thought

Based on the crises and challenges faced by humanity in the 20 th century,thinkers have proposed solutions from the perspectives of political systems,cultural construction,and economic reforms.Thinkers represented by Zygmunt Bauman and others,based on the dimension of moral reflection,try to explore possible ways to rebuild human civilization based on the individual’s survival situation and modern moral dilemmas.Faced with the social conditions of "moral indifference" and "moral blindness" in the West,Bauman explores the internal mechanism of modern rational civilization from a postmodern perspective,that is,through the torture of modern ethical norms,moral conscience and individual responsibility,he is committed to microscopic level to reveal the roots of modern moral crises and the theoretical construction of moral reconstruction.Bauman attributed the crisis of modern morality to the fact that the heteronomous and universal system of ethical norms constrains moral subjects and that rationalized ethical rules replace independent moral choices,thus leaving individuals’ moral conscience and sense of responsibility dormant state.Therefore,Bauman strives to find a transcendent path to overcome the modern moral crisis from a postmodern perspective,aiming to re-individualize moral responsibility,restore individual moral power,and provide the possibility for the "moralization" of society.First of all,this article explains the historical background and theoretical origin of Bauman’s postmodern ethical thought,and discusses the specific influence of thinkers such as Kant,Marx,Durkheim and Levinas on Bauman’s thought.Secondly,it discusses Bauman’s criticism of modern ethical norms from a postmodern perspective,revealing that universally rationalized ethical norms transfer individual moral responsibilities to a transpersonal,morally neutral agency mechanism,obscuring individual moral existence the true state.Thirdly,it discusses the moral status of postmodern society and deeply analyzes the duality of postmodern morality.Finally,it discusses that Bauman explores the possibility of moral generation from two levels:individual responsibility and a good society.It is worth noting that in the process of moral reconstruction from a postmodern perspective,Bauman does not deny or abandon the characteristics of modern moral concern,nor does he intend to replace the existing moral paradigm with a new moral paradigm.On the contrary,Bauman’s position is to refuse to use traditional modern methods to deal with moral issues,aiming to deconstruct modern ethical norms and then explore the problem of moral reconstruction in the postmodern perspective.Of course,the individual responsibility advocated by Bauman cannot ensure the true revival of society’s moral potential,because postmodernity is both the destruction of the moral individual and the opportunity for his rebirth.But it is undeniable that the personalization of moral responsibility provides a kind of moral spiritual restraint and protection to promote moral reconstruction from a postmodern perspective.