Postmodern Ethics And Its Implication For Moral Education

The modern society underlied by objective rationality and mechanistic viewpiont is characterised by relative shortness of morality and permeated crisis, in which social ethics and morality embody a static and close moral norms system. Moral education in school is constrained to the instillation of universal rules and norms which ignores the real moral situation, students' experiences and creativity. Moral education eventually has become the abstract inculcation which makes moral education less effective and moral quality of students poorer. One important dimension for us to resolve these existent problems is to base moral education on a broad human cultural context from which we can draw rich cultural resources to improve moral education and enlarge our insight in it. The paper is intended to do so. That is, the author will explore the moral implication postmodern ethics has displayed and open a new vision for both theoretical and practical moral education.Although postmodern ethics has not developed into a whole system, its significance and progressiveness can't be denied because it is representative of a different thinking on human society world and morality. Therefore, the author tries to elaborate the postmodernethics systematically and brings to light its implication for moral education. The whole paper is divided into three sections:The first part expounds the social background and theoretical foundation. Generally speaking, postmodern ethics is responses to post-industry society. The human beings are prompted to reflect and criticize the traditional ethics and values by the changes in social structure, the pluralistic tendencies on the world and the extremely serious crisis in life and spirit. And at the same time, postmodernism trend is pounding at the traditional cultural philosophy and mental orientation, which initiates a sweeping revolution in the mode of thinking, providing man with a new perspective for observing the world. It is on these bases that postmodern ethics arises and becomes a human moral value pursuit.The second part concerns the thesis of the postmodern ethics. Knowing clearly the moral crisis in late capitalism society - moral norms out of function; the minishment of moral responsibility and the old collapsed authority, postmodern ethics analyses and criticizes the modern morality from it's own values direction. From the perspective of postmodernity, modern ethics is seen as being directed to the universal, normative legislating of human action, seeking to eliminate morality itself and replacing it withrule-governed behavior because it has not paid full attention to moral situation and individuals' experiences. Postmodern ethics argues that morality is ambivalent, not universalizable and aporetic. Moral phenomenon can't be explained thoroughly by rational, universal moral rules. Instead, it should accommodate much more emotion, tuition and impulse. Then postmodern ethics puts forward such subjects as "moral situationalism", "morality without ethical code " so as to liberate individuals from the modern moral admonishment and entrust to them the creativity and opportunity for free moral selection. These efforts will culminate in the emancipation of the autonomous moral self and the vindiction of its moral responsibility. Individuals then can grow freely and completely, living a really human life.The third part discusses the implication and inspiration postmodern ethics has suggested for moral education in China. After generalizing the basic features of the present moral education from a postmodern perspective, the author points out that moral education in China hasn't gotten rid of the mode of modern objective rationality. Namely, the subject in educational process is the established moral concepts and norms; the aim of education is "perfect men" or "saints"; the main teaching method is inculcation. This is obviously unfit for the pace of social development. Given this, moral education has to break through the obsolete model and construct a new one: executive one ki...