An Introduction To Public Welfare Ethics

Public Welfare Ethics is an important topic of study that is drawing wide attention. The study of the topic is of both theoretical and practical significance.Narrowly speaking, public welfare is the sum-up of all the non-governmental public-welfare activities, which are characterized by non-profitability, non-compulsoriness, and the spirit of public aid and contribution. One of the conditions for the rise of public welfare affairs is the existence of the weak in society. Public welfare has the features of non-profitability, non-compulsoriness, sociality, and the spirit of public aid.The so-called Public Welfare Ethics refers to the sum-up of the moral principles and rules regulating the various kinds of relationships between the subject of public-welfare activities and its object. It reflects the moral consciousness, moral behavior, and moral psychology that appear in public-welfare activities. And Public Welfare Ethics also expresses the results of social ethics' attending to public-welfare activities, that is, the cognitive results based on reason and the lifting of value in the development of social ethics.Public Welfare Ethics can be traced back to early western history. It includes public welfare ethical thoughts in the Middle Ages. And it is also found in emotionalism, utilitarianism, deontology, and the theory of evolution in modern west as well as liberalism, communitarianism, and the theory of The Third Road in contemporary west.Traditional Chinese culture contains colorful public-welfare ethical thoughts. For example, Confucianism advocates the idea of beneficence and that of Great Unity;Buddhism propagates the idea of causal justice;Daoism emphasizes the importance of Dao and morality. In modern China, public welfare is even of the historical significance of saving thecountry from perishing and reviving the Chinese nation. Humanism comes into public welfare ethics. What's more, Public Welfare Ethics get a kind of support based on plural values.The weak in society should enjoy the same living rights, developing rights, working rights, and the rights of being treated equally as the strong. Ethically speaking, these basic rights are rights granted to the weak by morality to maintain their social status, freedom, and demands. Accordingly, these basic rights finally become the moral duties of the subjects of public-welfare activities. It is no question that the weak really have the moral right of being aided by the society;however, they also have the duties to gain self-pride, self-reliance, and self-help to change their own destiny. They should learn to overcome the difficulties and setbacks in their lives.All ethics will be eventually reflected by a series of principles. So is Public Welfare Ethics. There are three chief moral principles in Public Welfare Ethics, that is, the principle of justice, the principle of benevolence, and that of contribution. Public Welfare Ethics also has its own pursuit of value. It seeks to realize social public good, to promote human happiness, to maintain social fairness and justice, and to push forward social progress and harmony.