The Mission Of University Moral Education In The Consummer Society

Morality is the set of standards and norms that people hold for social living andbehavior, representing the positive social values, and playing the role of judgingwhether the conduct is proper or not. Code of Ethics is a society’s conscience (EmileDurkheim). The contemporary society is undergoing a transformation from theproducer society to consumer society, in which the nature and status of consumptionhave changed utterly, bringing evidently both opportunities and challenges for moraleducation in universities. Therefore, in view of the new characteristics of the times, theresearch on “the mission of university moral education” in the aspect of arousingpeople’s moral need can, on the one hand promote the specialization of the disciplineof moral education and consumption sociology, while on the other hand guideindividual consumption, and provide policy recommendations for China’s constructionof a conservation-oriented society and a harmonious society.The core issue of this paper is divided into two aspects: First, what are the basicfeatures of a consumer society, and what opportunities and challenges it brings for themoral education in universities? Second, how can university moral education keeppace with society and make self-assessment, and assume new missions throughreflection and reform, so as to lead the freedom and liberation of human as well as theharmonious development of economy and society, and to show its value and publiccredibility?The consumer society is an economic and social development era whenproduction and economic development are stimulated by consumption, and people’sdaily life and popular culture are led by consumption, as a result of relatively surplusgoods and services that are produced. The mission of moral education in universitiesrefers to the significant and critical responsibility that moral education, as a socialconsciousness, has for social development and people’s living. The main researchcontents and conclusions of this paper are as follows: The first part of the text analyzes the consumer society and its impact on theuniversity moral education. The emergence of global consumer society is the result ofa historical process including embryo (England in18th century), formation (Americain early20th century) and development (since the1960s). Its basic characteristicsinclude five aspects: the abundance of goods and surplus of material, consumption forsensual pleasures, female consumers in domination, symbolic consumption, andconsumer autonomy."Morality is a social cause."(Francona) The consumer societybrought the impact of both positive and negative aspects to the social morality as wellas Moral Education in Universities. On one hand, through symbolic consumption andconsumers Community Union, consumer society has stimulated the moral needs of thepeople, brought the legitimization of the moral economy, reformed some traditionalmoral concepts and values, and given birth to the "hedonic ethics”. These are positiveimpacts. On the other hand, consumer society has tricked people into consumeralienation, mental degradation, and values disorder, subverted the traditional values(the concepts of happiness, labor, aestheticism and sustainable development); somebad consumption behaviors such as exclusive consumption and vanity consumptionhave led to the "de-moralization” of people. These are negative impacts.The challenges of the consumer society to moral education in universities mainlyincludes: firstly, how to guide students to handle the relationships between theconsumption of material goods and spiritual (cultural) goods, material consumptionand symbolic consumption, etc.? How to organically integrate consumption needs withself-liberation and harmonious development? Secondly, how to dialecticallydistinguish reasonable consumption and spendthrift behavior, recognize the significantvalue of consumption, deal with the problem caused by excessive consumption andinsufficient consumption? Thirdly, how to understand and deal with the problem ofconsumption and the protection of the natural environment? Especially, universitymoral education in the consumer society is showing symptoms of more marginalizedstatus, more utilitarian purpose, more externalized studies and more knowledge-basedform, so it is urgent and pressing for university moral education to fulfill its mission. The second part is to demonstrate the necessity and urgency of restoring themission of university moral education in consumer society. University is to educatepeople rather than turn them into machinery. The mission of moral education refers tothe critical and important responsibilities of constructing the student’s moral spirit,which has four characters such as subjectivity, spirituality, dynamic and significance.History of the mission of moral education in China’s universities has experienced twomajor shifts: classical mission featured by political thought (political conversion),modern mission featured by economic thought (training the economic man), andcontemporary mission featured by humanistic thought (discovery of humandevelopment).In the consumer society, however, people’s reasonable appeal to rightsand need for consumption are highlighted, and their ideology and consumptionawareness are undergoing profound changes. In addition to the positive and healthymainstream ideology and culture, unhealthy culture represented by money worship,hedonism, extreme individualism and consumerism still exists. Therefore, universitymoral education must play a leading role in developing advanced culture, supportinghealthy and useful culture, transforming the backward culture and resisting decadentculture. In a word, it should play the role of demonstration, radiation and elevating inthe construction of consumer culture.The third part is about theoretical analysis of university moral education’s missionin the consumer society, which refers to people’s rational perception and pursuit ofideals in the context of this new era, which can provide guidance for us toscientifically understand and make consumption. It includes four elements. Firstly, Howto re-understand consumption is the biggest challenges that consumer societybrings,University moral education must promote college students’ systematic andcomprehensive understanding of consumption, including consumption evolution,attributes, types, value, evaluation standards, consumer freedom and responsibility, andso on. Secondly, university moral education leads the consumption morality ofcommunity and takes the responsibilities of social consumption justice. Thirdly, todefine, compare, evaluate and criticize consumerism. Finally, the core of university moral education’s mission in the consumer society is to promote consumer justice andcultivate ethical consumers.Consumption in history has two basic connotations:"exhausting" and "exchangesystem", with natural attributes, subjective attributes, social property, cultural propertyand symbol attributes. There are two basic consumption types, one is need-basedconsumption and the other is want-based consumption. Consumption in the consumersociety is no longer simply to meet the needs of human life, but it means theconsumption of culture and social systems design, such as fashionable consumption andpopular culture consumption. The significance of consumption lies in the fact thatlegitimate consumption of individuals has triple benefits to the development of itself,society and ecology. Evaluation criteria of reasonable individual consumption includeshierarchy of needs, economic utility, social norms and ecological effects, among whichthe standards of economic utility and ecological effects are the bases, social norms is thecore, hierarchy of needs is the backup. Based on the evaluation criteria of consumption,the games between consumption freedom and responsibility, between consumerism andconsumption justice are naturally derived. The mission of university moral education isthe critique of consumerism, promotion of consumption justice, the latter leading andsurpassing the former.The fourth part focuses on the measures to fulfill the mission of current universitymoral education. The paper takes full consideration from the view of reconstructinguniversity moral education: in terms of moral education goals, to develop a "lifeexpert", to teach students to recognize the value and meaning of life,and to make theirconsumption more rational and more civilized; in terms of moral content, tospecifically undertake consumption moral education, environment moral education,leisure education and civic education, etc.; in terms of moral education methods, to layemphasis on moral communication, dialogue, aesthetics, experience, etc.; in terms ofeducational environment, universities should advocate a scientific and civilized massconsumer culture, including humanistic consumption, fair consumption, sustainableconsumption (green consumption) and moderate consumption.