Discussion On Volunteerism

Volunteerism involves an abundance of moral values and ethical connotations. The source of volunteerism can be traced back thousands years ago, to Chinese traditional ethic categories such as, Ren, Shan, Yi and Ci. In the west, the source is from ancient Greece as well as charitable contributions from Christianity. In making a general survey of the development of volunteerism in western countries and Asia, faith, civility and government support has been defined as the common factors in achieving volunteerism. A better understanding of volunteers and volunteer services are the foundation of reaching a high quality level of volunteerism.The theoretical basis of volunteerism includes deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics and moral deserves to determine its own characteristics of volunteering, public welfare, voluntary labor and dedication. Volunteerism, with a unique value and mission, plays a crucial role in raising civil awareness, spreading virtuosity and encouraging globalization. To carry forward a spirit of volunteering in China, an increasingly significant issue for the Chinese government is the wealth gap with its distorted social value and moral indifferences, resulting in a lack of moral responsibilities as well as moral judgments influenced by materialism and conformist mentality. Improving volunteerism can be the solution to building a harmonious society in China.The notion of Good and evil is the key moral evaluation standard in volunteerism, and its effect has generated sixteen different ethical behaviors. The ethical behavior of volunteer can be derived from dedicating oneself to achieve entire (pure) altruism, improving oneself to achieve partial altruism and respecting oneself to achieve partial egoism. According to the evaluation of those three ethical behaviors, the bottom line of volunteerism with its essential good, is based upon the behavior to achieve a partial level of egoism through benefiting others. Analyze of moral final standard is indispensable to evaluate the level of good. The final moral standard of volunteerism is the same as all the final moral standard, which is to improve everyone’s benefits and the whole society’s benefits.A key consideration of volunteers and volunteerism is the moral influence upon motivation when benefits are conflicting with limitations. In fact, all ethical behaviors have their own moral value. It should be completely altruistic, and, sometimes involve self-sacrifice when the benefits are conflicted. It should not be completely altruistic due to the suppression of self-desire and freedom; volunteerism’s values are concerned with improving society’s morality without harming anyone’s benefits. Thus, avoiding the benefits of volunteerism is like a moral kidnapping and the relationships between benefits and volunteerism should be correctly understood. Finally, the achievement of long-lasting volunteerism is the key way to avoid voluntary failure and makes it an efficient service for society.