The Evolutionary Logic Of The Traditional Western Ethical-Moral Relationship And Marx’s Transformation

This dissertation takes the evolutionary logic of the traditional Westernethical-moral relationship as the starting point of the theoretical focus, systematicallysorts out the development of the ethical-moral relationship so as to present the changes ofthe ethical-moral relationship in the historical development of Western philosophy,analyzes its evolutionary stages and general trend based on the interpretation of itshistorical development, and by interpreting its problems, demonstrates Marx’s critiqueand transformation of the past tradition and his achievement in the unity of ethics andmorality on the basis of human perceptual activities, thus deepening our understanding ofMarxist ethics and enriching the theoretical study on Marxist philosophy. Meanwhile,based on domestic and foreign researches and the reading of Marx’s thoughts on ethicsand morality in his original works, the dissertation outlines the development and internallogic of his thoughts on ethics and morality and presents the specific, historical andpractical ethical-moral viewpoints, and by absorbing the rational crux of the currentresearches on Marx’s thoughts on ethics and morality, provides theoretical reference forthe Chinese socialist morality construction. The major contents of the dissertation are asfollows:Chapter One serves as the introduction, which briefly introduces the research aim,research status at home and abroad, main contents and theoretical and practicalsignificance of the dissertation.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the evolution of the Western ethical-moralrelationship in the early period and expounds the development from the ethical rationalityin the West in the early times to moral rationality to the unity of the two. In the West, theearly Greek philosophy takes the first principle of all things in nature as its majorresearch object. The relationship between human beings is projected onto the backgroundof nature and universe and philosophy of nature is in essence a kind of ethical rationality.This kind of rationality, however, is lacking in subjective self-consciousness and internalself-control. Though the early philosophers reflect on man’s own ethical life, theirreflection on ethics goes to relativism due to their simple experimentalism, yet it lays the foundation for Socrates to pursue the internal principles of self. Greek experimentalismmakes the interpretation of morality dissolve with relativism and meanwhile enablesSocrates to hold the concept of morality rationally.Socrates seeks for the internal deterministic principles from his own subjectiveworld and moves from the external ethical norms to the internal moral reflection.“Socratic principles changed the whole world history and the turning point of this changeis that the testimony of individual spirit has replaced oracle.”①Plato divides spirit intorational part and irrational part and puts forward “the form of the good”, asserting theworld of Forms is the realest and highest existence, and constructs his hierarchicalrepublic with “participation” and “the form of the good” in human nature. Aristotle isagainst Plato’s abstract and hollow “form of the good”, arguing there does not exist thesingle, general and absolute form of the good.“The highest good” is where Aristotle’sthoughts on ethics start and end. Man’s pursuit of the highest good is a process ofself-realization, which involves the internal activities of self and is the process ofconstant interaction between self and abstract moral principles.Chapter Three mainly deals with the differentiation of the Western ethical-moralrelationship in modern times and Hegel’s approach to the unity of the two. In the MiddleAges, ethics and philosophy were seen as part of theology. It could be said that ethics,morality, politics and law were under the control of theology at that time. As theRenaissance Movement thrived, people began to shift their attention from the heaven tothe secular life. Machiavelli proposes that politics should get rid of the traditional moralviews and the restraint of theology and authority should be substituted for morality as thefoundation of politics. Machiavelli’s theory and realistic and empirical research methodsdirectly influenced the development of ethics in the16th and17th centuries.Hume, the representative figure of empiricism, believes that ethics is based onobservations and experiments instead of rationality, and by using empirical andpsychological analytic methods to construct an emotionalist ethical system it can becomea practical science. According to Hume, the foundation of ethics is man’s emotion ratherthan rationality. Rationality can only help us identify the truth of things, yet it fails to help us distinguish the good from the evil. Apparently, Hume’s theory of ethics doesn’tgo beyond the category of empirical psychologism and his psychological thoughts havebeen away from human social moral practice.Therefore, Kant thinks that the experiential thing is individual and occasionalwithout universal inevitability, the concept of rationality is hollow and both of themcannot bring forth the highest principle of the morality, so the human rational nature mustbe explored. According to Kant, the rational being makes the law for himself, so willmust be self-disciplined and it can be freed because of self-discipline. The completeseparation of “to be” and “ought to be” makes Kant’s moral rules stay away from the reallife and become an abstract formalist thing. Until Hegel, morality and ethics weredistinguished from each other in reality. Hegel holds that morality is also a kind of law orright, a kind of subjective will law and a kind of “ought to” thing. However, thissubjective will law or “ought to” can only become a reality in ethics. Hegel puts theethical stage as the actual development process of objective spirit, including the family,civil society and the state. Hegel uses the absolute idea to replace Kant’s practicalrationality, and places the moral development in the objective and rational historicaldialectical system. Hegel realizes the unity of ethical rationality and moral rationality onthe basis of absolute rationality.Chapter Four and Chapter Five mainly expound Marx’s reflective critique andtheoretical transformation of Hegel and Feuerbach. Marx maintains that Hegel stands inthe position of idealism and uses the abstract non-person’s rationality as the subject, andthis pro forma “absolute spirit” does not have the function of a real man, and the unity ofethics and morality based on absolute rationality is not the unity in the true sense. Theproblems of ethics are interpreted from the family, civil society and the state in Hegel’sphilosophy of law, in which law, economy and politics are all closely linked withmorality, although it is idealistic in form, but it is realistic in content. Therefore, we saythat Hegel’s ethics has realistic characteristics. However, Hegel’s speculative philosophyis idealistic, for he thinks the spirit exists before the material world. The labor herecognizes is only mental labor, and his philosophical reflection is always in the pursuitof his “absolute spirit”. He deems that the world history is spiritual by nature. Therefore,we can also say that Hegel’s philosophy is unrealistic and pure speculative. Although he restores the authority of materialism based on perceptual natural people, Feuerbachregards people as abstract “people” in the biological sense instead of social people andinterprets the essence of people as the abstraction inherent in the individual. Thefundamental limitation of Feuerbach’s philosophy lies in its perceptual intuition, so theunderstanding of human reality is limited to physical existence and cannot rise to thecritique of practice, only establishing a kind of ethics of abstract love in a perceptualmanner.Based on the reflective critique of Hegel and Feuerbach, Marx is against all abstract,hollow ethical preaching and advocates the moral study should take the actual socialexistence and human life as the basis, and investigates the human perceptual activities inhistory. Marx thinks morality is a kind of man’s essential power, which is generated anddeveloped on the basis of practice. Morality and the man’s real life are inseparable and itis a product of life practice in the final analysis. And ethics as a kind of social norms is aproduct of moral externalization based on practice. Therefore, only based on theperceptual activities can the real unity of ethics and morality be achieved.Chapter Six mainly analyzes the realistic significance of Marx’s thoughts on ethicsand morality mainly from the practice of reform and opening-up. Reforming andopening-up makes the contemporary Chinese society in the new transitional period, wheninevitably arise the changes in moral values and some undesirable phenomena. How toovercome the bad morality and establish the new morality that is beneficial to practicaldevelopment deserves our consideration and research. Therefore, we must base theethical norms on practice, return to the life world, shape ideal personality and reallyachieve the unity of external ethical norms and internal moral freedom so as to provideguidance and reference for the socialist moral construction in China.