The Ethical Research Of Consumption Alienation

Consumption is one of the subjects of the existence and development of human society.Its ultimate goal is to achieve and develop the human subjectivity. But in the consumersociety, consumption breaks away from its original meaning, producing a series of"consumption alienation" phenomenon. People’s material living standards have improvedsignificantly, but the spiritual life is extremely empty. People have enamored of secularmaterial desire and pleasure, so become slaves of consumption.People have even lostthemselves in the "false needs", and have been alienated they in the " false satisfaction". As aresult, people can not get long-awaited happiness, even more the free and comprehensivedevelopment of human being. Consumption exists not only as an economic problem, but alsoa serious social problem. Now Chinese is facing the trouble of consumption alienation, thetraditional value system of thrift and self-discipline has been collapsed. The uncontrolledconsumption and constant obtainable demand from others and the nature have causedadverse consequences, such as weakened individual happiness increasingly, unfairdistribution of social resources, even serious damage of the ecological environment. A seriesof alienation remind people that it is imperative to establish a healthy and perfect idea to getrid of negative effects of consumption alienation and balance human and the nature.Based on philosophical connotations of consumption and its alienation, first, the writeris going to analyze the phenomenon of consumer alienation from an ethical point of view,further more, to research the four dimensions which should be followed and the nature ofconsumption alienation. Second, from the phenomenon of consumption alienation ineveryday life, the writer is going to analyze the negative effects of consumption alienationincluding the deviation of individual happiness which caused by consumption alienation,unfair distribution of social resources, ecological crisis aggravation, to explore a path ofmoderate consumption from the theory analysis of deep roots of consumption alienation. Inpractical terms, people expect to unify material consumption and spirit consumptionharmoniously by moderate consumption. Meanwhile, moderate consumption can increasepersonal happiness and achieve equitable distribution of resources between generations. Sothen, conservation-oriented society will be built; sustainable development and ecologicalharmony will be achieved by advocating green consumption.