Utilitarianism Public Welfare Ethics Research

In modern sense,the public welfare of China began in the 1990 s,and the current public welfare undertakings are developing rapidly in China.Especially around 2011,the fusion of public welfare and Internet has shown new changes beyond people's imagination.It is quite subversive,and the public welfare in the Internet 2.0 era has entered the era of "micro-public welfare".But on the whole,our modern public welfare is still in its infancy stage,as well as the transition period from traditional pattern to modern pattern.A series of problems about public welfare become social focus while the relevant theory is still immature.The public welfare enterprise is essentially human moral enterprise.Public welfare behavior embodies the goodness of human nature and the value of human,is the realization of joy and happiness,freedom and dignity.Therefore,the discussion on the public welfare ethics is particularly important.From the concept definition of "commonweal" and "charity",this paper clarifies the connotation of "public welfare" and "public welfare ethics" in the modern context.Based on that,this paper sorts out the development of the western public welfare ethical thought and clarifies the characteristics of modern public welfare in China and its social significance and theoretical basis.Also this paper tries to find out the deficiency of the current public welfare ethics in the view of fusion of Chinese and western theories and explores the theoretical construction of public ethics based on the western utilitarianism.From the ethical perspective,public welfare means the realization of "public good".Public welfare ethics which based on different ethical theories probes into the legitimacy of public behaviors,including the goal and motivation of public behavior,moral principle of behaviors,evaluating mechanism of behavior and other ethical issues.The development of the western public welfare ethical thought and related research provide rich ideological resources for the research on the modern public welfare ethics.This paper discusses the connotation of public welfare ethics based on the theories of Bentham and Mill on behalf of Western classic utilitarianism.By analysis,utilitarian principle as the core of public moral ethics is more close to the reality of our country's public welfare compared with the current academic mainstream-altruism as the core principle of public welfare ethics.Utilitarianism believes that unconditional altruism is not suitable for the basis of morality,emphasizes the reasonable self-interest altruistic asthe motive of good act,and emphasizes the protection of the individual's legitimate interests in public welfare activities.Utilitarianism pursues the goal of "the greatest happiness of the greatest majority," and the pursuit of public welfare is a virtue and a means of achieving happiness.However,it does not praise unconditional sacrifices and pays more attention to ensuring that people can share social public happiness through the improvement of external institutions and laws.The development of modern public welfare in our country has already surpassed the one-way public welfare model and develops into professionalization mode of equality as premise and the whole people participating in the social reconstruction.Utilitarianism and modern public welfare share common subjects and goals.From the perspective of history,the development of utilitarianism is in line with the history of the development of western nonprofit ideology.The utilitarianism has developed from ancient Greek utilitarianism and theological utilitarianism to the peak of modern classic utilitarianism;from the city-state public interest to Christian charity and modern philanthropy.Both thoughts always interact with each other.Utilitarianism as an important thought in the history of modern western ethics has become the theoretical basis of the thought of public welfare in the West and has played a huge role in the development of public welfare in the West.Back to the classic utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill,Bentham opened the theoretical system of utilitarianism and became more refined in the revision and perfection of Mill.Utilizing the introduction of the utilitarian masterpiece Introduction to Morality and Legislation and Utilitarianism as the source of text,this paper expounds the ethical connotation of utilitarianism and makes the necessary reflection on it.The last part of the article pays attention to the latest development of public welfare and public welfare ethics in our country including the rise of "micro-public welfare",the concept and connotation of the "micro-public welfare" and “micro-public welfare ethics”,the primary exploration of utilitarianism and tries to illuminate the times connotation of utilitarianism public welfare ethics.