Code Of Ethics And Social Order

Moral education is a topic of concern at all times. As similar to the law and acting as a standard, morality shapes and constrains the behavior of people and maintains the integration of social order.In the19th Century, the French society was under the impact of the industrial revolution. While the people’s life was overwhelmed by the great wealth of material, the spiritual beliefs and collective consciousness faded gradually, and the whole society was on the edge of moral destruction. Considering such adverse condition, Durkheim put forward rational moral education theory to criticize the traditional religious moral education system. Through redefining the three elements of morality, discipline、 attachment to a group and individual autonomy, he constructed the secular moral education system. Rousseau’s thoughts of moral education started in Europe in the18th Century, during the Enlightenment. As an outstanding representative of romanticism, Rousseau stood against depravity and slavery in the civilized society. He raised the hypothesis of "natural person" and put forward the idea of people’s "natural liberty and equality". Rousseau’s goal was to realize people’s "human nature" through his educational theory. He tried to achieve "moral freedom", to develop "moral citizens", and to build the ideal moral community ultimately.This paper compares Durkheim and Rousseau’s moral education thoughts in its three sections. The first section is the introduction, which includes the background, significance, and related literature review. The second section is the focus of the paper. It first combs Durkheim and Rousseau’s moral educational thoughts systematically by reviewing the social roots, ideological foundation, main content and ideological implication of both, respectively. Then it compares the similarities and differences between Durkheim and Rousseau’s ideas in order to better demonstrate the question of the relationship of "moral education and social order" in their theories. The last section is a summary on the theories of the two and some extensional discussion from the author. The purpose of the last part is to provide some useful advice for the current moral education predicament in China.Through combing and comparative analysis of Durkheim and Rousseau main ideas, the author wishes to provide some modest contribution to the knowledge of mankind, while hoping to inspire some thinking and practice regarding moral education in the whole society.