Self-discipline & Heteronomy-Practice Of Rationality In Moral Building

Civic moral building can be regarded as both a significant project in socialist construction characteristic of China and an essential subject worthy ofconcern and research in ethics.As a remarkably meaningful practice of the present prevailing gist, civic moral building needs to be, first of all, rightly oriented since it calls for practice of rationality both related and different to such social activities as economics and politics; and it is also concerned with the choice of paths, measures taken, methods adopted, and with evaluation of effects in actual practice. A theoretical approach adopted, this thesis is aimed at an in-depth investigation into such major questions as the social mechanism in the development of civic morals, the practical nature of it, as well as dependence upon the path of rationality in corresponding civic moral building.This thesis falls into three major parts:Part I. Civic Society & Civic Morals, in which the basic meaning of civic morals and the social mechanism for the formation of civic morals are discussed in some detail.This thesis maintains civic morals are a system of values concerned with the judgment of right or wrong and the norm of behaviors like " What or how people should behave". The practical nature of civic moral building determines that this discussion of its origins, content, and function has to be conducted through social activities, and therebytheories concerning social structure as a solid form of interactive factors in social activities constitute the theoretical support of this research paper. With the transition from nation and society being an integrated structure to a social structure consisting of national government, civic society and market economy come the emergence of civic autonomy and civic independence, along with the acquiring and building of civic morals as a realistic social support and a call of the times. In this sense, civic moral building, to the last analysis, marks more an advancement of human civilization than a matter of moral upgrading.Part II. Duality in Civic Morals - Self-discipline & Heteronomy, which exposes the duality of self-discipline and heteronomy based on the practical nature of civic morals.Carl Marx once wrote, " the foundation of morals is self-discipline demonstrated in human spirit", in the light of which, the nature of morals is often wrongly defined as self-discipline. However, what Marx stated here is in a specific context and primarily meant to differentiate it from moral self-discipline in the religious sense, rather than to define it for a scientific & standardized description of the nature of morals. From the point of view of historical materialism, " it (self-discipline), as social morals, can only mean an organic unification of self-discipline with heteronomy."(Marx's statement). This research paper, by resorting to a scientific approach to the correlation between them, believes that self-discipline and heteronomy in the sense of logic and history reflect the dual nature in the practice of civil morals, and it is the contradictory operation of them that becomes the driving force of civic moral building.Part III. Choice of Paths in Civic Moral Building, which further looks into the choice of paths taken in the practice of civic moral building on the basis of self-discipline and heteronomy, duality of civic morals intheir practice.In civic moral building, the dual nature of self-discipline and heteronomy with their calls for rationality in the practice determines that the choice of paths taken must be multiple and varied. In this paper, the proposed right or effective path under socialist market economy should be a good interactive and integrative way between subjects with self-conscious moral cultivation and the appropriate limitations imposed upon by society; between the cultivation of civic awareness of right and duty and the establishment of social norms.