On Moral Need

The concept of moral need is a very important category in ethics, the study of which is of theoretical and practical significance.The so-called moral need can be defined as a dependence on and tendency toward morality by which humans as moral subjects seek to maintain their internal state steady and keep an active balance. The moral need is distinguished by such characteristics as super-utility, association, autonomy and historicity, etc. The main functions of the moral need include (1) regulating people's need-system;( 2 ) motivating people's moral activities;(3) providing an internal enthusiasm for moral action.The foundation of the moral needs lies in the necessity of morality. This question can only be scientifically solved through the dual existence of human beings. Humans do not exist solely as individuals, but also are social animals, determined by the inevitable interrelationship between individuals and society. This dual existence determines that the needs or benefits of humans have a dual characteristics, namely, they are both individual and collective. This dual characteristic in actual life is primarily manifested as the opposition and unification between personal interests and social interests. The opposition and unification determines the necessity of morality for human life. Morality necessarily comes into being in order to cope with the complicated relationship between personal interests and social interests."There must be a beginning for everything ", and the moral need is no exception. The occurrence of the moral needs may be viewed from the viewpoint of humans as a species and as individuals.From the angle of humans as a species, The biological premise ofthe occurrence of the moral needs is an social instinct passed downfrom our ancestors of human;the psychological grounds of which isthe feeling of affiliation and awe resulting from the derivation of fearproduced in their fear struggles in nature when our ancestors chose communal living;the social basis and determining factor of which is the labor.From the point of view of humans as individuals, the existence of the moral needs is of necessity and possibility, which is determined by the character of the moral necessity and its form of expression-the moral principles and norms as well as the prescription of individuals as social existence. The self-consciousness is the psychological mechanism of the occurrence of the individual moral needs. Logically speaking, the self-consciousness is composed of the three links: "what am I", "what should I become" and "what must I become". The occurrence of the individual moral needs is realized through a series of concrete ways, mainly including observational learning, schematic processing, role playing, identification and self-intensification. It is also influenced by some external factors and the inner factors. The external factors mainly consist of the economic, political, cultural and moral circumstances. The inner factors mainly include the wisdom, the psychological quality and the self-consciousness of individual. To reach the ultimate realm where one just follows what one's heart desires without overstepping any moral boundaries, the generation and development of individual moral needs will in general have to go through three stages, namely, the heteronomy, the autonomy and the freedom.The occurrence of the individual moral needs cannot be separated from the moral development. In essence, the development of the individual moral needs is to enable the individual to revere virtue. The methodological demands of which may include combining heteronomy with autonomy, instillation with acceptance and generality with individuality. The main ways to develop the individual moral needs may include environmental optimizing, legal support, educational instillation and moral autonomy.