A Research Of Cai Yuanpei's Duty Theory

The spread of modern western thought accelerated the deconstruction of relatively unified Chinese traditional ethical discourse.In the light of national identity crisis which caused by diversification,Cai Yuanpei tried to reintegrate a new ethical discourse system based on the concept of Duty which can promote the development of Chinese and development of Chinese Society.Duty is a concept in the Chinese traditional thought which be formed early and used broadly.Basing on the available ethics resources in Chinese and Western thought,Cai Yuanpei gave duty with new connotation which formed a distinctive view.From the perspective of positive and negative,he general meaning of this duty is divided into Can't do and Must not be.Conscience is regarded as the source of the duty concept and the ideal be regarded as Judgment basis which based on his criticism of traditional conscience theory,happiness theory,restraint theory.Except for elaborating the general connotation of the duty,taking oneself as the limit.The duty is divided into cultivating one of the duties and access the duty in different practice fields based on object of the duty function.The former is the embodiment of self-cultivation,the latter is the embodiment of getting along with others,which creates a complete moral subject together.Cai Yuanpei's attempts can be confirmed by his group view.There are two ways to integrate group discourse:One is to inherit Chinese traditional ethical philosophy,construct a new set of Self-Group social organization,and regards Duty as the main value,through the relationship between the individual and the group.The second is absorbing modern western enlightenment ethics resources,seeking discourse paradigm from the traditional imperative discourse to conversational discourse relying on the interpretation of Duty-Right theory,thus to highlight the equal value of moral subjects,and the relationship between the individual and the group is based on new value.