On The Ethical Spirit Of The Contemporary Chinese Public Intellectual

Although there was intellectual in ancient times, as a modern category, it is a special outcome of the modernity. From the end of 19th century, she is praised as"the conscience of society", who represents basic worth of mankind such as: fair, justice, rationality and truth. When come to the 1960s and 1970s, however, being under the triple pressures of market economy,the post-modern society and the splitting in the intellectual, most of intellectual change into be a professional intellectual. The professional intellectual is backward people, keeps off the society and wholly plunges into a knowledge research of some realm. Facing to the loss of the publicity of this group, the American scholar Russell Jacobs put forward"public intellectual"concept in 1987, which causes mankind put attention to the existence and the development of intellectual.Public intellectual is a special group which parts from intellectual, she is not only the successor of culture and knowledge, but also is the undertaker of social justice and public ethical spirit .Out of her sense of moral responsibility and historical mission, with the help of the thinking and speech, using the available professional knowledge, through the mass media or public platform, she supervises and maintains the system of justice and the social justice.Based on the publicity crisis of the intellectual as the logical starting point, to study the history and reality description of Chinese intellectual as the central background, from the perspective of ethics, this essay is to seriously examine and reflect on the ethical spirit of the contemporary Chinese public intellectual. This essay believes that the ethical spirit of the contemporary Chinese public intellectual which is taking shape and growth manifests mainly in three aspects : First, in terms of values, she pursues social ideal state; Second, in the moral cultivation, she establishes the awareness of social responsibility; Third, in the external appeal to values, she have the social critical spirit.