Towards Autonomy:Study On Kant's Moral Education Thought

Kant's moral education thought is not only an important part of his whole ideological system,but also a bright pearl to be exploited in the history of human educational thought.Kant's moral education thought is mainly embodied in the cultivation of the inner moral motivation and good will of the educatee,and advocates the educatee to realize the construction of moral freedom and spiritual significance on the basis of pure practical reason as his own will stipulation.However,the current school moral education in essence is still a kind of "heteronomy" education based on material practical principles such as utilitarianism,emotion,self-love and reputation,which leads to inefficiency and formalization of moral education practice.In this sense,moral education cannot really cultivate the educatee's sense of responsibility and obligation,let alone the sense of moral respect and nobility in Kant's sense from the bottom of the heart.Through the systematic review and in-depth study of Kant's moral education thought,we can dissect the theoretical value of Deontological ethics and its moral education principle,and also lay a solid theoretical foundation for the construction of moral education practice mode oriented by the autonomy of will,leading the reform of current school moral education practice.Promoting educatee towards autonomy is the core of Kant's moral education thought.Autonomy is mainly manifested in the moral intention and practical ability of the rational agent to self-legislation and adapting to legal.Basing on the autonomy of human,Kant made a thorough exposition and explanation of a series of basic issues such as the connotation,purpose,process,principles and methods of moral education.Firstly,Kant put forward that moral education belongs to the field of practical rationality from the point of view of "the endowment of good" and "the inclination of evil".It is a practical rational methodology of subjective criteria of the educated conforms on the objective moral principles,whose essence lies in activating the educatee's intentions of moral progress,highlighting the positive freedom of human beings and releasing the "endowment of good" in human nature.Secondly,Kant,basing on the value basis of "human being is the purpose",emphasized that moral education should manifest the absolute value and noble dignity of human beings in the process of promoting the educatee towards autonomy.It means that moral education must take universal and formal transcendental moral decrees rather than material preference principles as the basis of the educatee's will,thus awakening educatee's good will based on pure practical reason,and then reflecting the essential presupposition of the existence of bounded rationality based on morality in the process of eliminating experiential concern.Thirdly,basing on the duality of human and education,Kant believes that moral education can be divided into two stages,that is,the civilization process of natural intellectuality as the preparatory stage of autonomy,and the enlightenment process of practical rationality as the forming stage of autonomy.The former mainly includes the admonition of children's barbarity,the training of various spiritual skills and the cultivation of civilized education,collectively known as "natural education";the latter is committed to cultivating the educatee's keen moral sensibility and moral judgment,stimulating the intrinsic moral interest and moral motivation of the educatee,collectively known as "practical education".These two forms of education together constitute the complete process of the educatee towards autonomy,and there is both continuity and intersection in time.Finally,Kant combines the essence of critical philosophy with the practice of moral education putting forward moral punishment and natural punishment,moral question-and-answer,self-cultivation,aesthetic practice and other moral education methods,which together undertake the educational mission of promoting the educatee towards autonomy.Kant's moral education thought is the practical application of his moral philosophy in the field of education.In the process of logically demonstrating such moral philosophical contents as good will,moral laws and decrees,good and evil,happiness and morality,from which he draws forth the core idea of his moral philosophy——Autonomy,making it the core idea of his moral education thought.Historically,Kant's moral education thought originated from the critical inheritance of the western moral education thought since ancient Greece.At the same time,it also embodied the wisdom achievements of the contemporaneous moral education thoughts and practices of Pietism,Philanthropists,Rousseau,Locke and so on.Moreover,his moral education profoundly inspired many educators' theoretical understanding of moral education of later generations,outlining a main clue to the autonomy of will in the history of moral education.However,due to the influence of various factors such as historical environment and value standpoint,Kant's moral education thought inevitably has some limitations,for instance,over-formalization and over-idealization,complete abandon of empirical emotions and so on.Based on the comprehensive interpretation and historical analysis of Kant's ideological system of moral education,and on the current dilemma of moral education in China,a self-discipline moral education concept that follows the good will should become a concern of future theoretical research and practical exploration of moral education.