Edification And Transcendence-the Historical Transmutation Of Value Orientation Of Moral Education In China

With the guidance of the basic principles of Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism, by means of historical and logical research approach and reconstructing on the basis of criticism, the thesis discussed the theory and basic paradigm of transmutation of value orientation of moral education which is decided jointly by the contradictory structure of edification and transcendence, following the abstraction-to-concreteness way of thinking.All things are in a state of flux in the living world and all realities will become non-realities, which is the intrinsic regularity of the living world. The intrinsic regularity is derived from interactions of various forces which formed the thing itself and contradictory movement in the universe. Edification and transcendence, as a way of human existence, constituted internally the principal contradiction of moral education. The different treatment of the contradiction of moral education in our country in different times not only formed internally historical patterns of the evolution of our moral education, but also reflected the value orientation of our moral education in different historical stages.The thesis constructed the basic theory about the transmutation of value orientation of moral education on the basis of the contradictory structure between edification and transcendence. It refined the edification and transcendence to the life style of people, examined moral education and revealed pattern and ultimate reasons of the historical transmutation of value orientation of moral education. Beginning with the realistic living situation of trinity people which is involving "individual", "social" and "the State", the thesis considered the "individual" and "social" as the historical categories and gave them new definitions when researching the realistic reform of historical foundation, thereby making "individual-oriented" and "social-oriented" of moral education genuine integrated in the theory and logic. In the thesis, "The German Ideology" problems hidden in moral education were revealed in the course of sorting out "the concepts of good and evil" involved by edification. On the basis of this, the thesis pointed out that it was arrogant to change the human nature by moral education and it was possible to create "new people" by changing form of expression of the human nature in moral education.In the structure of In-Welt-Sein, human is to exist. And the structure constitutes the prerequisite for human survival. Therefore, if the individual want to become a member of society and gain successfully the quantification of the members of the community, he has to learn to adapt to social life of the specific society. Individual is inherently not what he should be, but to become what he should be. Becoming a qualified member of society means transforming eventually the original natural state into a specific individual of particular society through accepting universal edification. In this way, the individual not only contains the specificity, that is "personality", but also contains the universality reflected in the participating in common social life. This course is called edification. The purpose of edification is to maintain the stable state of reality and make the individual adapt to reality. However, owing to the nature of self-denial and self-transcendence possessed by the individual, the individual transcends constantly the reality so as to achieve a new ideal state, which is the internal contradiction between edification and transcendence. In the society, the individual obtains the actual power and membership of the society by accepting enlightenment. Meanwhile, the individual achieves constantly breakthrough in society and nature. The breakthrough is individual's transcendence from "the realistic self" to "the ideal self". Moral education, which is on the basis of human transcendence, should examine rationally and criticize reflectively the current reality of moral life and provide transcendent values for the realization of the ideal moral life.Based on the theory of the transmutation of value orientation of moral education decided jointly by the contradictory structure between edification and transcendence, the thesis analyzed the basic characteristics of transmutation of value orientation of moral education,that is from the "holism" to "people-oriented". And the thesis analyzed in depth the typical cases which occur in the turning point of value orientation of moral education, revealed the combination of the "necessity" and "contingency" in history, mined the valuable point of the "transcendent" power of moral education and manifested the significance of the view that being a person means becoming a person.The theory of "Other-oriented moral education" was put forward in the thesis, which provided the value orientation should be upheld for the further development of moral education in China. The thesis indicated that the other-oriented moral education provided infinite possibilities for the human transcendence. Other-oriented moral education is a transcendence and resistance to moral idealism. Respecting for life, being concerned about the other, reconciliation and coexistence are the full implication of value orientation of other-oriented moral education. Other-oriented moral education is not only a kind of resistance to self-denial, self-restraining and the extreme form-"totalitarianism" in the holistic value orientation of moral education, but also a kind of sublation of the "solipsistic" hegemony and extreme "individualism" caused by subjectivism. Other-oriented moral education is not the specific mode of operation, but the value orientation which moral education should have. It is an idea which moral education should uphold, a way of thinking to construct moral education theory, a philosophical spirit to guide the moral education practices and a spiritual character and value conscious which the moral education practices should possess. Becoming people is the core purpose of other-oriented moral education. It advocates communication and responsibility, and creating history through fostering people. The objective of other-oriented moral education is to foster people with individuality and the overall-developed people.