On The Volunteerism

Historically, the volunteerism initially started in the West, and conceived in religious charities of the West. In particular, volunteerism heavily influenced by the Christian civilization, and embodied a kind of "charity." In China, volunteerism, which is influenced by the traditional morality heritage, is considered a kind of "moral spirit." In any case, volunteerism stemmed from many moral beliefs and ethical norms of different civilizations and different historical periods. From the view of academic studies, volunteerism is a spiritual form, which is not profit-driven individuals and legal statute, based on firm humanitarian values and strong sense of social responsibility, as well as determined to serve public welfare and to promote social progress and human development. It is an important moral experience which individual takes part in public life, a unique part of the human spirit, embodies the strong position of humane care as well as the condensation and expression of human values.The essences of the volunteerism include several aspects as following: volunteerism is the participatory spiritual form which can be shared and emphasizes the moral practice of all people’s participation and the sharing of their life value; its core reflects the life ethic of "mutual help" and humanitarian beliefs; its premise is the individual freedom and the autonomy attitudes, and emphasizes the inner moral freedom rather than the external force; the basis of its germinal and continuity is the self-conducting mechanism of the life of giving and creativity, and emphasizes the volunteerism is the autotelic spiritual existence; the results of its practice is a happy life and valuable life, and emphasize the fortunate acquisition of "freely given".We should recognize volunteerism from the moral, the practical and the value levels. The volunteerism is a virtue in the moral level, a practical sprit in the practical level, and a value proposition in the level in the value level. There are some differences in the three levels, but they are always in the harmonious relationship: the morality laid the starting point of volunteerism; the practice points out the direction (or path) of volunteerism; the value proposition is the final destination of volunteerism.The volunteerism is the "historic modern product" when the human society develops into a certain degree, with a strong of value care and practical orientation. It is the important composition of human culture and a valuable spiritual form, in line with the morality and development trend of human society. The externalization and expression of volunteerism is the practice of volunteerism and the emerging of volunteers’moral realm, that is, the implement of volunteerism is the reflection of their own values. Furthermore, the practice of volunteerism reflects the moral practice which serve others and society, that is, voluntary services.Under the background of globalization, the rapid rise of civil society become the public domain which public participation in social practice. The voice of the people want to participate in society is rising, and voluntary service has become an important way of people’s participation in social affairs. The voluntary services not only constitute the important ways of the realization of the value of life and obtain happiness, but also become the necessary means of promoting the healthy development of society. Although we have made many delightful achievements, there are still some problems in the practice volunteerism. In order to realize the deepening and development of the volunteerism and solve the problems in the practical process, we need foster voluntary cultural in the personal, social, national and other levels, and try to make the voluntary service as the action of the social recognition and fulfillment.