The Research On Huxely's Moral Education Thoughts

Thomas Henry Huxley(1825–1895)is a famous British scientist,thinker,and educator,who has proposed very rich and important theories in ethics,cultural anthropology,and pedagogy,etc.As Huxley's work “Evolution and Ethics” was translated by Mr.Yan Fu in Chinese,the social evolutionism had an important influence on modern China,and the extreme social Darwinism also had a negative impact on contemporary youth values.Therefore,in this paper,it seeks to investigate Huxley's moral education ideologically and systematically,then interprets the relationship between his theory of evolutio,ethics and its educational ideas,so as to give a certain inspiration to the theory and practice of current Chinese moral education.Based on an in-depth understanding of the original work,in this paper,it believes that taking evolutionary ethics as the theoretical premise and human's uniqueness as the possibility of moral realization,Huxley introduced the moral principle including sympathy,conscience,self-restraint and honesty,as well as the Trinitarian moral education goals.The science education and liberal education that strongly advocated by him contain rich resources for moral education.In this regard,firstly,Huxley emphasized that students are encouraged to pursue truth and rationality in the science education,and are cultivated with scientific methods for a realistic and scientific attitude,finally students should develop honest quality.Secondly,while conducting aesthetic education and enriching human nature,it should emphasize to shape a just social education environment and cultivate students' sense of justice,good and evil.Thirdly,it should enhance individual's willpower and conscience through self-education.Finally,in this paper,it believes that Huxley's evolutionary ethics helps young people to understand morality from the perspective of scientific rationality,while the moral education,implicit moral education,and autonomous education that are emphasized in the education also have important reference value.Of cause,when absorbing the essence of Huxley's moral education ideology,we should also avoid its ideological disadvantage and recognize the incompleteness of Huxley's philosophy that was criticized by Marx and Engels.We should start from the materialistic theory of historical practice,fully understand human beings,so as to avoid falling into the "agnosticism" trap.