A Tentative Study On Moral Education And Liberty

Viewing moral education as one part of the whole society, a historical process together with the development of society and the vicissitude of morality, the author puts great emphasis on Liberty, the basic theme in materialistic view of history and reveals the inability of moral education to build a free world, tells the various relationships between moral education and life in different historical stages in China, and foretells the possibility of moral education propelling the liberty process today in certain way.The introduction gives a brief review of two kinds of liberty theory in western world, and then puts emphasis on the liberty theory supplied by materialistic view of history that the liberty of human is a historical process with its own laws and morality, together with moral education, may propel this process in some way and to some extent.The first part is a brief review and some comments on Confucian moral education theory, which has a lasting deep influence on our moral education. The Confucian thinkers held that morality could rebuild the world, provided a society-reformation program which relied on the arete of gentlemen and the prince to found the ideal country and liberated life in the sense of morality, and here, moral education came to be of great importance in this process. Based on materialistic view of history, the author reveals the Utopian nature of morality rebuilding theory, and the historical limitation of Confucian society and life ideal, and the conflict within Confucian theory.In the second part, the author analyses the function of two kinds of moral education on society and life in feudal society, and holds that the social civilization and school moral education supported and charged by the Dynasty, which was the dominant kind of education then, was essentially the training of allegiant slaves and servants of the long who boosted as a sage and shared the so-called prince-sage. Confucian thinkers designed a different kind of education, which was in fact a basic part of their positive attempt to change the society with the moral energy of the gentleman who had developed pure arete and noblecharacter. While there was no room for Confucian critical education and practice in real life, the Confucian gentleman was rather lonely with setbacks in political and educational issues. In the third part, the author deals with the modem transformation in China and foretells the possibility of moral education propelling the liberty process and the necessity of education transformation. The social transformation is to the end the transformation of man from traditional subjects to modem citizens, and the process of social development requires the positive acceleration of modem citizens with modem concepts supplied by modem society. To cultivate citizen morality is what Education should take on today, but to educate modem citizens, moral education is destined to be brand-new in educational goal, materials, and methods, which, in the author's point of view, is indeed the subjectivity moral education and the developmental moral education.