On Virtue Ethics From The Perspective Of Modernity

In the context of modernity, the moral construction ofsociety faces many difficulties:People’s moral behavior is out of order frequently, and the society is facing the loss of the moral ideal and the discarding of moral feeling. The root is that the normative ethics in the modern society occupied the mainstream, and failed to pay attention to the quality, emotion, motivation of humankind.Therefore, the analysis of the relationship among modernity, normative ethics and virtue ethics not only can deepen the theoretical study of ethics, but also can seek a cure for a recipe for the moral crisis in modern society, and answer the practical problem about how the modern people to settle down in the modern society.Modernity in the form of market economy system, modern political system and the spirit culture of modernity show in the real life. Rationalism, subjectivity and individualism are the core values of modernity.They are the spiritual temperament of the modern society. The development of western ethics has experienced the moral ethics of ancient Greece, the theological ethics in the middle ages and the normative ethics represented by the theory of obligation and utilitarianism in the modern times. Normative ethics is the main form of ethics in modern society. It contains the basic features of behavior as the center, the principle of universality, the sense of obligation of moral subject. In modern society, normative ethics is fit for the core value of modernity, which can be adapted to the structure of social mass production, and plays a regulatory role in the stranger society. Normative ethics has been criticized with the negative effects of moral tools, ignoring the internal feelings and needs of the actors, and the birth of "hypocrisy" and other negative effects in the moral life.On the formation of the Renaissance in the moral crisis of modern moral ethics. Virtue ethics is a moral theory which takes the actor as the focus. It emphasizes the integration of moral emotion and moral psychology, and takes the pursuit of the whole happy life as the goal. The contemporary return of virtue ethics can regulate the psychology and spirit of the subject, and help the modern people to achieve the moral character, and also give the effective response to the moral crisis of the modern society.Virtue ethics criticizes normative ethics that only pay attention to the performance of the moral rules, but ignore the concern of the moral subject, and make the social relations become cold and stiff. And normative ethics argues that contemporary virtue ethics theory foundation is weak, unable to construct its theoretical independence in modern society, and normative ethics also accused virtue ethics of overstating the moral standards, with idealistic tendencies. The debate between virtue theory and normative ethics embodies the complexity of the modern society. Marx’s materialistic conception of history believes that the economic base determines the superstructure, and the development of ethics theory comes from the need of practical activities. The complexity and risk characteristics of the modern society require that ethics can be timely response to modern society. Normative ethics can guidance and constraint people in the form of heteronomy,and virtue ethics focus on shaping the main intrinsic character, which can survey the moral problems in the form of self-discipline. Therefore, normative ethics and virtue ethics can cooperate with each other to construct a perfect modern moral life.