Ethics' Views On The Social Vulnerable Groups

The problem of vulnerable groups has become a serious social problem in current china. Even though academic circles have paid much attention to it, but the starting point is partial relatively. That is because their purposes rest with either keeping social steady in order to promote the development of economy or embodying the superiority of socialist system. All of these concerns are short of a conception of humanism concern. So, studying vulnerable groups from the angle of ethics will contribute to solve this problem.Vulnerable groups refer to the multitude that are in a disadvantageous position in society because of some impediments and lack of economic, political, and social opportunities. As far as our country is concerned, the personnel constitution is mainly divided into two categories, that is, vulnerable groups of physiology character and vulnerable groups of social character. The vulnerable groups of physiology character refer to the men who are in a disadvantageous position as a result of inborn or some irresistible reasons. The vulnerable groups of social character refer to the persons who are in a disadvantageous position because of partial institution or some man-made factors. The vulnerable groups have eight primary features, which are poverty of economic benefits, low quality of living standard, faint political influence, sensitivity of interpersonal association, fragility of risk bearing, low ability of social competition, low ability of rights and interests protecting, heredity of vulnerable status. The vulnerablegroups result from some complicated reasons, which mainly involve the following factors, such as objective reasons, subjective reasons, political reasons, economic reasons, cultural reasons and so on.From the view of ethics, ethics concern means paying attention to the living condition of people, confirming the people's dignity and the living condition conforming to human nature, pursuing of the liberation and freedom of mankind. There are two theory fulcrums of ethics concern to vulnerable groups, one is the principle of morality, and the other is the principle of utility. The "morality" is a kind of ethics theory, which takes duty and responsibility as basis behavior. It advocates judging whether a man's behavior being moral or not is based on either the behavior itself or the principle of the behavior. That is no matter what the result is, if the behavior itself or the principle of the behavior is moral, it is moral. From the view of "morality" angle, we should help vulnerable groups is based on the following two reasons. Firstly, helping the vulnerable groups is requirement of defending human being's dignity. Secondly, helping the vulnerable groups is requirement of realizing the justice of society. The "utility" is a kind of ethics theory, which believes that we should bring greatest happiness to greatest majority. So, it takes purpose as standard of judging behavior moral or not. That is the result of a behavior can bring benefits to actor and relative person, it is moral, otherwise, it is immoral. From the view of "utility" angle, we should support vulnerable groups for the following three reasons. Firstly, helping the vulnerable groups can assist to defend social stability. Secondly, helping the vulnerable groups can make the national economy develop sustainedly and healthily. Finally, helping the vulnerable groups can make our country realize common prosperity. As to our country's practice of today, we should integrate the principle of "morality" and the principle of "utility" organically. Which is determined by man's essence and our country's specific condition.Our nation's traditional cultures have profound historic origin of the thoughts of ethics concern to vulnerable groups. In which the most representative thoughts are the Confucianists and the Mohism. In the "kindheartedness" of the confucianists thoughts, there is deep ethics concern to vulnerable groups. First, the "kindheartedness" holds the view of respecting the old and loving the young, which affirms man's...