Study On The Ethical Thoughts Of Communitarianism

Communitarianism, as the western political philosophy school on later stage of the 20th century, develops during the process of reviewing and criticizing liberalism. This article devotes to studying on the ethical thoughts of communitarianism. It points out that communitarianism takes the "community" as its ethical entity, "community standard" as its value orientation, "good taking precedence over right" as its ethical idea."Community", as the ethical entity, is the foundation of the ethical thoughts system of communitarianism. It is a forming key element to the individuals and self-identity. Community is extensive on range, and it is a kind of necessity and the highest good for individuals in nature.Regarding "community standard" as its value orientation, it emphasizes that the community and historical tradition are prerequisites for individual survival. The community determinates individual essence and the right of the community takes precedence over individual rights. Communitarianism's ethical idea, which is "good taking precedence over the right", maintains that the justice, which is in order to standardize the individual rights, is a kind of moral characters. The moral characters including justice are defined according to "practice". They are restricted by and belonged to the community.Ethical thoughts of communitarianism are meaningful to our political civilization. But, it did not analysis the relation between individuals and community dialectically. The Just theory based on moral Lacks the practice route and the historical doctrine lacks the constructive content. At last, communitarianism, as the post-liberalism, remains ideology of the capitalist class.