Search Of Meaning In A Secular Age

The age from 1895 to 1920s was the "Era of Transformation" in Modern China. In this period, Chinese culture and thought experienced a momentous change from tradition to modernity. The May Fourth Era was the climax among this period. Based on the perspective of thought-transformation, one of the crucial phenomena at this time was the crisis of value-orientation. After the breakdown of the traditional ethics ("San gang Wu Chang") in the late Qing, the transcendental morality of Confucianism ("Ren") was also up against the tremendous challenge at May Fourth era. A great change in the moral conception was happened at that time.Influenced by the utilitarianism, individualism, and theory of social evolution, a series of transcendental concepts of Axial Age were overthrown in late Qing. After the transformation, the moral value came from "Heaven" no longer, and it was legitimized by the historical teleology of human evolution itself instead. "Ren", the soul of traditional morality, was substituted by "Happiness" and "Utility" in the May Fourth era. On the other hand, the individualism based on personal will made rapid progress at this time. The free will was revitalized with the person's liberation from the yoke of traditional morality. It was recognized generally that people could determine and arrange their own lives with "Happiness" and "Utility". Obviously, during the process of the secularization in Modern China, the validity of morality came from transcendence not any longer, people themselves became the legislators of morality."A secular age" means the disorganization of the transcendental world. As it was mentioned previously, the morality of May Fourth era was established on the secular welfare and happiness. But, is that necessary to find the value of our lives in such a secular age? Does the modern society need a public ethics to support or to hold together? This dissertation indicates that "new morality" of May Fourth intellectuals was influenced deeply by the soul of John Miller's Utilitarianism and abandoned the negative of Bentham's. Even though the materialism and ego-centric individualism affected the citizens'everyday lives, it couldn't be legitimized by the intellectuals. From the intellectuals'viewpoints, the happiness from the spirit and the devotion for the common welfare were much more valuable than the satisfaction of personal enjoyment of material desire and lust. Based on the "new morality", intellectuals of May Fourth share with such a comprehension as bellow:a life with spiritual invigoration and endeavor for the common welfare is a meaningful one indeed.On the other hand, the "new ethics" in May Fourth extended the judgment of "Qun(collectivity)/Ji(self)" from late Qing and ideal of "Datong society (Utopia)" inherited from traditional China. The May Fourth intellectuals confirmed that the interest of society and humankind ("big self") was superior to the freedom, happiness, and benefit of each person ("small self"). It was clearly that the morality of May Fourth intellectuals not only included the Traditional judgment on personality-become a Confucian sage, but also the ideal of"Datong society"-realizing the value of immortal"big self"in the process of the struggle for common welfare.This dissertation includes three parts: introduction, main body, and conclusion. The introduction indicates the interrelated academic background, dissertation structure and research methodology. The body is divided into four chapters. Chapter one discusses the transcendental resource of the Chinese morality-"Heaven". Determined by Heaven, self, society, and universe jointly construct a united, holistic, and meaningful moral world in tradition China.However, in late 19th Century, the transcendental cosmology ("Tianli") was clashed by the modern science and technology and the theory of evolution. As the substitution, mechanistic cosmology ("Gongli") became the new origin of morality and political order. That was a process of "disenchantment" and "secularization" in modern China as Max Weber mentioned in his works. From then on, with the breakdown of the Confucian ethics, the traditional morality could not remain its identity and lost its orientation.Chapter Two focuses on the new contents of the moral conception of May Fourth. In this era, Chinese morality has changed totally. With the temporal happiness and utilities replaced "Ren" and turned into the new morality, the degree of secularization became deeper and deeper in the Chinese society. On the other hand, independent individual was inspired and cheered up by the ascending self-determination and self-sufficiency. People believed that everyone could determine their own fate by himself. Therefore, individualism and utilitarianism were the two aspects of May Fourth morality.Nevertheless, due to the lack of religious tradition as the west, when the Confucian morality was broken down in late Qing and early Republic of China, utilitarianism and individualism were both out of control necessarily. So, the reconstruction of world view and philosophy of life turned into the center of the intellectuals'thinking on morality. That is the main content of Chapter Three. May Fourth intellectuals accepted the utilitarianism as their common philosophy of lives, but they also refused the hedonism and materialism firmly. In addition, influenced by the view of "immortal society", intellectuals combined their personal ideals with a strong responsibility of social construction through the wide social movements in May Fourth era. The moral connection between"small self"and"big self"embodied a deep human consciousness and world emotion.Chapter Four discusses how to certify the validity of public ethics. As it was mentioned before, in a secular age, each person has the right and freedom to choose his own faith and behavior. Its consequence is that holistic morality will be divided into plural ones. So, what is the foundation of the universality of our public ethics? The May Fourth intellectuals tried to link the morality and ethics and focused on the interaction of these two dimensions of the moral conception. That is to say, the public ethics is supposed to base on the community of moral person. On the other hand, the society or the state is not only a constitution-based "political community", but a morality-shared "moral community". In other word, the intellectuals still tried to verify the validity of public ethics in a Confucian moral frame. The relation of "Good" and "Right" presented a Chinese style in the intellectual history of Modern China.The conclusion comes back to the questions referred in the introduction. First, even traditional morality lost its transcendence during the late Qing and early Republic of China. The moral conception did not fall into the swamp of relativism. They put moral conception in a morality-ethics framework all the same. It was quite explicit there was an independent standard of morality in the May Fourth intellectuals'eyes. The exalted free will, fine sentiment, and strong social responsibility were also the crucial parts of their philosophy of lives. Above the"small self", there stood a"big self"to balance the materialism and ego-centric individualism. In conclusion, searching for the meaning of life was the aim of personal morality in the May Fourth era.Secondly, personal morality was indispensability in the process of public ethics'shaping. And it was impossible to verify the political order without the public ethics as well. Obviously, the new moral conception of May Fourth era was also put in the inner-logic of Confucian morality. The intellectuals still tried to strengthen the interaction and link between morality and ethics with the "creative-transformation". Therefore, morality-seeking played an important role in the moral conception of May Fourth intellectuals. During the history of secularization in the west, the liberalism separated the morality and ethics to overcome the paradox of pluralism, but the intellectuals of May Fourth insisted on the positive interaction of personal morality and public ethics. No doubt, in the historical process of secularization in Modern China, the moral conception of May Fourth created a kind of new modernity.