Modern bourgeois ethics is the most active and energetic stage in the development of western ethics since ancient Greece. It critically inherited the achievements of the development of ethical thoughts in the previous two historical periods, noticed the unity of subjective virtue and objective law, consciously recognized and discussed the relationship between morality and interests, and the relationship between personal interests and social interests, and established a relatively complete ethical system. F bacon made a critical investigation on the moral theory of predecessors, tried to establish morality on the basis of natural laws, and combined personal interests with public interests, reason with emotion, morality with science, which played a positive role in connecting the past with the future. T. Hobbes, J. Locke, B. Mendeville (1670 ~ 1733), etc. Developed egoistic ethics from the empirical aspect, emphasized rationality and utility, and tried to realize the coordination between personal interests and public interests through rationality. B. Spinoza and G. W. Leibniz emphasized rationality and utility in theory and reached the same conclusion as empiricism, that is, the so-called rational egoism. British ethicists such as A.A.C shaftesbury, F. hutcheson, D. Hume and Adam Smith regard the special emotion of human psychological activities as the source of moral good and evil, explain the essence and origin of morality with a sense of morality, and determine the criteria for evaluating behavior, thus forming the theory of moral emotion. /kloc-French materialists in the 0/8th century combined reason, experience and emotion, further developed the ethical thoughts of utilitarianism and rational egoism, took correctly understood interests as the basis of morality, emphasized the decisive role of social environment and education in morality, and regarded the humanitarianism of freedom, equality and fraternity as the principle of political ethics, which showed the revolutionary requirements of the bourgeoisie and the tendency to explain moral phenomena from the perspective of human nature. Later, utilitarians such as Bentham and Mill criticized the theory of moral emotion and the theory of natural rights (see the theory of natural state), but they turned the correct understanding of interests into the correct calculation of pursuing happiness, thus vulgarizing the utilitarian thoughts of French materialists. German classical philosopher I Kant established self-discipline ethics on the basis of opposing empiricism and utilitarianism ethics (see self-discipline and heteronomy). Based on good will and transcendental reason, Kant emphasized the pure moral obligation, absolute command and absolute value of human beings, trying to demonstrate and establish the moral law of universal inevitability. Therefore, his ethical theory has the characteristics of seriousness or perfection completely different from modern utilitarianism, and has had an important influence on modern ethical thought. Hegel summed up the achievements of bourgeois ethics at that time and pushed the development of modern western ethics to a peak. He tried to break through the superficiality and limitations of ethical theory based on abstract human nature, emphasizing that morality cannot be divorced from realistic social relations and people's interests, and believed that the essence of moral obligation is "to act according to law and care about welfare, not only one's own welfare, but also the welfare of others" (Principles of Legal Philosophy, p. 136). In his view, the goodness or absolute value of morality can only be realized in the universal relationship of morality, in the dialectical unity of subjectivity and objectivity, motivation and effect, purpose and means, reason and emotion, rights and obligations, inevitability and contingency. Feuerbach denied Kant's pure reason and Hegel's absolute idea, emphasized that morality should be linked with personal experience and the pursuit of happiness, and demonstrated the ethical theory of rational egoism happiness on the basis of his humanism.
/kloc-the evolutionary ethics represented by H. Spencer, which appeared in the middle of the 0/9th century, regards the competition for survival as a universal law, and holds that morality is the stage of behavior evolution of organisms for their own survival and continuation, and the standard of moral value lies in the preservation and continuation of life. The development of this kind of evolutionary ethics is marked by Schopenhauer's pessimism and Nietzsche's ethical values of power will, and it begins the turning point of bourgeois ethics from development to decline. In the transitional period from modern times to modern times, Marxist ethical thought emerged in the process of deepening the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, which clearly represented the interests of the proletariat and the working people. Observing social moral phenomena and their historical development with a scientific world outlook and historical outlook (see Marxist philosophy), it criticized and inherited the valuable achievements in previous human ethical thoughts, and established ethics on a real scientific basis for the first time, becoming a great critical force of western ethical thoughts and laying a foundation for the development of human ethical thoughts.
Since the middle of the19th century, especially since the 20th century, there have been many schools of western ethics with a short evolution period. Theoretically, it mainly inherits Socrates' tradition of analyzing moral concepts and modern humanitarianism. As a result, there are two basic ethical tendencies or thoughts: ① various meta-ethics focusing on the nature, meaning and usage of moral concepts, including intuitionism and emotionalism, language analysis (see new positivism ethics and other schools; ② The so-called existential ethics, which pays attention to human nature, value and destiny, and religious existentialism and situational ethics also belong to this trend of thought. (See Western Modern Ethics)