Moral Thinking On The On-looker Phenomenon

Content:China has always been cherishing the fame of"a state of ceremonies". However, in the course of social transition, the phenomenon appears time and time again that on-lookers see someone in mortal danger but offer no help to save him. This phenomenon is a typical reflection of moral indifference, which has the individual cause and the social cause as well. If it goes on like this, the correct social outlook on value and moral norms will be desalinated and abandoned, and morality will lose the ultimate reason for its existence.. This not only has a serious negative impact on the healthy development and perfection of individual morality, but also obstructs the orderly development of social morality. Therefore, a correct understanding of the on-looker phenomenon in the present society, exploring the deep-rooted cause, and seeking out an effective route to tackling this phenomenon, is an issue badly needed to be solved in the course of strengthening the building of socialist spiritual civilization. This paper, by means of analysis of the on-looker phenomenon and its contributing factors and finding a solution to the contradictions between moral requirement and moral conduct in the present society, tries to attain the aim of caring for each other, unity and mutual assistance, harmony and co-existence, and mutual promotion between the main bodies of our society, enable the human being to live in the present society freely and harmoniously, and provide a theoretical supporting for the all-round development of morality itself and the orderly development of social moral development. For this reason, the topic of this paper, has not only important theoretical significance and academic value, but also has important practical significance.This paper gives its exposition from the following three aspects:The first part analyses the on-looker phenomenon that appears repeatly in newspapers, summarizes its definition, analyses from the viewpoint of social psychology as on-looker effect, that is, the individual reaction to emergencies, and draws the essence from the angle of ethics, that is, on-lookers escape the danger by escaping their moral obligations, and abandon their conduct and social responsibility they should shoulder. This paper , based on the understanding of the group of on-lookers, discusses the conditions for this phenomenon: the poor interpersonal relationship makes individuals unconnected with each other, the loose group condensity provides the feasibility to look on; the influence of ancient negative culture and contemporary public culture causes the main outlook on value to malposition, thus providing the cultural root for the long-term existence of the on-looker phenomenon; the absence of social moral models makes us unable to tell beauty from ugliness, good from bad, thus providing the soil for the existence of this phenomenon. Furthermore, this paper explains the negative consequence of this phenomenon: the estrangement of interpersonal relations and the indifference and utilitarianism of social morality.The second part profoundly analyzes the cause for the on-looker phenomenon from the three aspects of psychology, main body, and society. The first is the psychological reason: faced with emergency, on-lookers will experience a series of psychological activities as to whether to take actions or not from hesitation to act to dispersion of responsibility to giving up obligation. The second is individual moral reason: the individual moral reason leads to the on-looker phenomenon, such as the absence of individual moral conscience, the indifference of individual moral feelings, the absence of moral obligation and courage, the absence of individual moral beliefs, the ineffectiveness of moral outlook on honor or disgrace, right or wrong. The third is the social reason. The on-looker phenomenon is caused by exceedingly complicated social reasons, such as the absence of social value orientation, the absence of social environment, the lessening of social morality control, and the absence of social relief system.The third part explains the countermeasures to eliminate the on-looker phenomenon. As individuals in the society, we should heighten our moral accomplishments from many aspects, such as nurturing moral feelings, stimulating moral necessity, excavating moral conscience, and establishing moral belief. In addition, our society should strengthen the education of moral modernization and love, perfect social legal system, set up supervision mechanism, establish social relief system, and social morality rewards and punishments system.The elimination of the on-looker phenomenon is a long-term process, and calls for the efforts of society and individuals as well. This paper, by means of the analysis of this phenomenon, hopes to seek out countermeasures and solution, and provides support to the orderly development of the construction of the socialist spiritual civilization.