A Study Of Moral Capacity

For everyone, "how to be a person" is a fundamental issue to face and deal with. Actually, "to be a person" means a process of humanization. Humanization is not only a process of natural growth, but also a process of active practice which means conducting oneself is only way to be a person. Conducting oneself is a process of human subjectivity practice in which human's capacities are cultivating. For human, the key of conducting oneself basically means being a moral person which is both qualification and ideal of conducting oneself. As a way of human being, morality is a fundamental of human existence, and it is the essence of humanization. So being a moral person is the most important embodiment of conducting oneself, and it is a process of moralization, which we call it as morally humanization, in which human's moral capacity is cultivating.Generally speaking, moral capacity hasn't been a mature theory category in ethic research, and this mainly manifests that moral capacity hasn't been systematically constructed and expounded in theories although the thoughts on moral capacity widely existence in the tradition of ethic research. On one hand, it can be explained that the academic validity hasn't been really admitted, on the other hand it explains the difficulty to study moral capacity in depth. From the angle of ethic research, moral capacity can be considered to be a basic ethic issue which is closely connected with moral being of humans. Human being is essentially a kind of cultural being, and this actually means moral being is a basic way of human existence. Furthermore, moral being can be explained as a kind of being as "ren(humaneness)", and ren is the origin of human nature and the personality ideal of moral being. In other words, ren is the essential definition of moral being, and the nobly ideal at the same time. So to human beings, ren means a self-fulfillment of moral being, and this can be understood as a transcendence process which occurs from "human" to "ren". We call it as a process of morally humanization, and moral capacity is something to achieve this process. To some extent, moral being and moral capacity is a unity which means moral being can be realized as moral capacity, and moral capacity gives expression to moral being. So moral capacity is such a kind of capacity to realize morally humanization of human beings, and it makes the moral definition and moral ideal of human being come true. Therefore, moral capacity is not a kind of skill which may or may not be needed, but a kind of capacity to be a human being which must be possessed and should be improved constantly for people. Furthermore, the research of moral capacity is not only the academic requirement for theory, but also the life requirement for meaning. To much extent, modern society is such a kind of society in which the more physical quality life is developing and the more mental quality life is degenerating. Modern people feel lost in the modern paradox of material and mental, and this intensively focuses on confusion of life meaning. In other words, the issue of being a person is more obvious in modern society. "How to be a person" and "to be what kind of person" are becoming a important problem which confuses modern people. Moral capacity is a crucial approach to solve this problem, for it is meaningful to help modern people realize mental piece and growth.Form the academic angle of morally humanization, the thesis makes a systematic research of moral capacity at the basis of the thought of personality cultivation coming from Confucianism. The definition of moral capacity:it is such a kind of self-cultivation capacity to accomplish morally humanization, which means human's realizing moral potential and constructing moral personality. In other words, moral capacity is not a kind of special skill, but a kind of potential to be a person who is constantly in pursuit of self-fulfillment. Moral capacity is essentially a kind of capacity to pursue the moral ideal of "accomplishment themselves and accomplishment the other people", and this is concretely embodied in two ethic dimension of moral capacity which can be explained as "for oneself" and "altruism". In details, "for oneself" and "altruism" is the essential value commitment and the base of validity of moral capacity. In order to explore the essential of moral capacity, the thesis makes a careful research of moral capacity in a category of transcendence which can be explained as a process consisted of four phases:to feel ren by caring people, to understand ren by learning proprieties, to cultivate ren by taking care of conscience and to be ren by self cultivating. In other words, to feel ren, to understand ren, to cultivate ren and to be ren are specific phases of a human's morally humanization. Caring people, learning propriety, conscience and self cultivating are the reality embodiment and the transcendence process of moral capacity. In details, moral capacity stems from human's benevolence which can be understood as the capacity to care people, and it symbolizes the beginning of morally humanization. Secondly, moral capacity develops in human's complying with their duties which can be understood as the capacity to learn proprieties, and it shows that moral capacity development is on track. Thirdly, moral capacity matures when people try to cultivate their conscience, which is the mental mechanism of moral capacity, and this shows that the morally humanization has been basically accomplished. Fourthly, self cultivation is eventually the way of making moral capacity improved and it can be understood as an ultimate explanation of moral capacity. But it must be emphasized that the ultimate means not a end but a endless process to transcend. For people, morally humanization never ends, and human's moral capacity is also being improved and transcended.