Support Of Kindness

Due to the difference of logical starting points in the Chinese and western traditional moralities there are lots of differences in the two set of moralities. The difference in belief foundation is one of the obvious points in such difference and conveniently subject to comparison. Traditional morality in the western world is based on religious belief, whereas Chinese traditional morality is evolved from the belief of "nature and man the one". Each of the different modes of belief has its own characteristics. Both of the two sets of beliefs, regardless of the external transcendence of the western religious belief or the internal transcendence of the Chinese belief in "nature and man the one", enable their believers find the ultimate settlement in minds. Besides, both bestow the ultimate basis for moralities and kindness. From the case of the gap between social moralities and the belief, we find a universal phenomenon that the general moral quality will be high when moralities are closely connected with belief or takes belief as its foundation; on the contrary, the social morality will come to the other end when belief is disengaged from morality or comes to an extremity. Currently, some of the problems in social moralities are directly connected with the lack of belief. Without belief, the mind cannot rest or get settled. Accordingly, morality has no basis in the internal life.Taking lessons from history, we have to reflect on the current social moralities so as to find the way out and contribute to the Chinese socialist morality building up. For this purpose, we should take the strengthening of belief as a chief foothold. The strengthening of belief is a rough problem in China---a country with such a large population, so weak a belief and complicated social status. It is impossible that all the people have an identical belief because that is equivalent to the case there is no belief. Belief should demonstrate variety and free selection. Regardless the forms of beliefs, the point is that belief should settle the mind and soothe the heart, bestow nobleness and sacred quality to morality and accord with the development of society. Starting from the status in belief in China, the present author explores the logical process from three aspects:the belief in Marxism, the merge of Confucianism and Marxism and religious belief. The dissertation is composed of five chapters.Chapter one is the preface.In the part, author states the reasons, significance of the subject, the previous studies and the fundamental way, etc. Starting from the status of socialist morality building up, the present author analyzes the necessity and feasibility of the comparison of belief. Based on the previous studies and an analysis of these studies, I lay out the fundamental way of study, the difficulties, the creative points and the defects of the dissertation.Chapter two is devoted to the basic principle of morality and belief. Starting from the difference of the concepts of morality and belief, the present author defines and analyzes related concepts of morality, belief and belief foundation. Furthermore, the inner connection between morality and belief as well as the significance of belief to morality are expounded. This part also serves as the preparation for the comparison of Chinese and western traditional moralities.Chapter three is focused on the foundation of western traditional morality. Any traditional morality is evolved from the opinion and idea about human nature. In the western world, a basic idea about human nature is the "evil nature of man", which is combined with religious culture. As a result, the assumption of evil nature becomes the starting point logically in western traditional morality. Under the background of western religious culture, religious belief becomes the root of traditional morality and accordingly forms the external transcendence. The inspiration of Kant's religious thought as well as the development and change tendency of religion in modern and postmodern society testifies the significance of belief to morality.Chapter four concentrates on the belief of "man and nature the one"---a basic assumption in Chinese traditional morality. The logical starting point in Chinese traditional morality is the kindness of human nature. Human nature is originated from the nature, just as a Chinese saying goes "god's will is human nature". Man's way, man's morality and man's principle are expounded from the foundation of nature's way, nature's morality and nature's principle. In fact, the doctrine of "nature and man the one"becomes the philosophical foundation of Chinese traditional morality. In contrast with the external transcendence in the western world, an internal transcendence and a moral practice of "knowledge and action the one" come into existence in China. When one is the morality practice, he or she will naturally obtain transcendent feeling and spiritual comfort. This is the very essence of Chinese traditional morality.Chapter five is devoted on historical lessons and reflections on current situation---the logical way of belief in socialist morality building up. Based on previous comparison and analysis, the present author comes to a conclusion and makes an evaluation with the emphasis on the explaining of the inspiring effect on socialist morality building up. Supports and methodological guide for the settlement of current morality problems are provided. A comparison of the belief foundations of Chinese and western moralities ensures us a better understanding of the logic rules governing the development of Chinese and western traditional moralities. In combination with the current situation of morality and belief in China, we make further reflections on the basic way of socialist morality building up. For this purpose, in this dissertation, the present author puts forward the logical way of belief as the foundation of Chinese socialist morality building up. An intensive analysis is made from three aspects:Marxism belief, the combination of Confucianism with Marxism and religious belief.Conclusion is an advocate of kindness. Through a summary of the whole dissertation, the significance of belief in Chinese socialist morality building up as a philosophical support is stressed for a second time. Despite the brevity of the dissertation, it indicates the courage of reflection in face of reality; meanwhile this is also an expectation.