Zygmunt Bauman Ethical Thought

Zygmunt Bauman, a unique thinker in the field of current European sociology,formed a distinct personality theory with profound insights on the issues ofModernity and Postmodernity by epitomizing a lot of classics. Based on repeatedreading and thinking, and reference to three research works, the author introducesZygmunt Bauman’s life, shift in academic thoughts, definition of “modernity” and“postmodernity”, criticism on the modernity society engineering, description andreflection on postmodern society, moral status in the modern and postmodern eraand the borrowing and absorption from Levinas’s philosophy in this paper, withbooks in his second and third academic stage as main line.Chapter I, introduction to Bowmans life and his works. This part gives a quickbriefing to his rough life experiences. Referring to Dennis Smith’ZygmuntBauman:Prophet of Postmodernity, Zheng Li’Understand Zygmunt Bauman and GuoTaihui’Individual and Politics in the Thought of Zygmunt Bauman, this paper dividesZygmunt Baumans academic career into four stages and describes characteristic ofeach stage. This part scopes the research of this paper. Chapter II, Baumansargument on the modernity morality and postmodern morality. This part describesauthor’s understanding of "modernity" and "postmodern" and states Bauman’sdiscussion on modernity morality and postmodernity morality.Chapter III, Bowmansborrowing and absorption from Levinas s ethics. Explain the influence of Levinas sphilosophy on Bauman’s narrative framework of”Modernity”and”Postmodernity”,including how Bowman deals with “morality” by using the term "the other"appeared in Levin’s works, how Bowman expounds “ethics” through "totality", andHow Bowman extends Levinass morality philosophy to political philosophy.Chapter IV,Enlightenment and deficiency of Baumans ethics. This part firstly examines andcriticizes two aesthetic solutions against moral crisis by using Bauman theory. Moreover, Re-consideration of relationship between morality and rationality and therearrangement of morality, rational aesthetic in Bauman’s ethics are presented.