Study Of Public Moral Basis From Modern Perspective

Since the access of traditional society to a modern society,the moral life basis and structure of human relations have been radically changed by market economy.On the one hand,the individual "private life" separated from the social community has gained relatively more independent existence space.On the other hand,public life also provides room for rapid expansion of the public life so that the public problems are growing. Specially,the paradigm of ethics theory from the virtue ethics to the norm ethics,and the central view which emphases on the importance of personal inner life and the relation between self and others have been transferred to the public life.From the structure of modern society,it can be divided into four spheres:the political public sphere,social public sphere,the market sphere and private sphere.The social overall order depends on the formation of relatively independent each ordered sphere,as well as the positive interaction between them.In addition to the private sphere,the first three spheres for their public nature become a broad public sphere and differ from the private spheres.On the one hand,the political public sphere,social public,the market sphere have their own moral features because of the differences in moral basis;On the other hand,the structural interaction among the three as a whole in order to maintain the human social life and the need of people's raising behavior on the legitimacy of the request,that is,citizens must cultivate a kind of emotional and spiritual qualities suited to the universal validity of the ordered public life,such as respect,tolerance,trust and the spirit of public participation,that is the essence of public morality in our times and a basic moral demand.This dissertation,from the perspective of moral subject,i.e.the citizen,attempts to study the public morality.It suggests that public morality refers to the concept awareness and behavior act of respecting others,caring for public affairs,maintaining public values and undertaking public responsibility,based on the citizens' correctly understanding of individual interest in the public life sphere.Such cultivation of the concept awareness and behavior act not only results from the individual subjective cultivation,but also is closely related with the political system of modern social democracy,the modes of market economy and with the public communicative ways of civil society.To the people in modern times,market economy provides more room for the possibility of increased social attributes.By the constitutional system,it provides effective civil rights protection for the individual to supply enough free space to the pursuit of their happiness in everyday life,but meanwhile,he must be consciously constrained by law and public morality,and he must take over public citizens' responsibility. On the one hand,he owns an ability to rethink and choose the morality of the laws,institution and organizational structures,and undertake the moral responsibility for systems;on the other hand,through the cooperation with others in public areas,he accesses to basic knowledge of public responsibility,self-realization by the personal to the public as the most important changes in personality,in order to make the combination of people's material life of pleasure-loving,freedom-loving and concerned about public affairs in the public and private areas,realize the enjoyment of the physical and spiritual realm and improve the dual objective unity.This is the necessary conditions to maintain the social life in order,and the bases for harmony of justice and social.From the aspect of moral formation and implementation of the conditions,modern society in the public sphere provides better material conditions and practical field to the cultivation of civic virtue.Before the basic problems of survival been solved,citizens can plan their own personal lives,personal attention to the world outside in a free system environment,so the pursuit of personal morality is entirely possible not only to stay in compliance with the rules of life and moral level,but also he has the ability to choose his own high moral life,just as the increasing number of volunteers in the world today.Since China's reform and opening up,economic system transformation has made substantial shocks to the strongly and heavily traditional life structure which is full of Chinese natures through thousands of years of accumulation.With the expansion and changes of public space in public life,moral demands in the process of constructing public order such as the market,social and modern states highlights the public awareness of a free and equal right ethics.To the contemporary Chinese ethics,the theoretical thinking of building the ethics order of public life,not only sucks the nutrition from the traditional moral culture, but also gains the extension of moral view from the contemporary Western rationalism universal norms of ethics and moral ethics,try to avoid the modern moral dilemma caused by over-emphasis on individual rights and neglect of social ties in the West,which is our only option.