Marriage Ethics from the Perspective of Hegel's Spiritual Philosophy and Its Modern Enlightenment

(This article index: Ethics 2065438+03; Original periodical: cssci source periodical Journal of Central South University Social Science Edition No.3, 20 13. )

First of all, marriage is "essentially an ethical relationship"

"This is ethical love in the legal sense."

From the perspective of Hegel's spiritual philosophy, the essence of marriage is not a natural sexual relationship between individual men and women, nor a willful contractual relationship between them, nor a subjective and abstract love relationship between them, but an ethical love with legal significance [1]( 177), and its essence is an ethical relationship. To grasp the relationship between ethics and ethics, Hegel insisted on "starting from the entity", that is, starting from the relationship between individuals and their entities, that is, starting from the spirit of "unity of single and universal things" Hegel pointed out: "When studying ethics, there are always only two viewpoints: either from the substantive point of view or from the atomic point of view, that is, gradually improving on the basis of a single person." The latter view has no spirit, because it can only be set and juxtaposed, but the spirit is not a single thing, but the unity of a single thing and a universal thing. [1]( 173) He affirmed the viewpoint of "proceeding from matter" and denied the viewpoint of "discussing from atom". The fundamental defect of "atomic discussion" is "no spirit" He made ethics lose its nature and ability of "unity of single and universal things" and can only establish a "single person". "What is an entity? Entity is * * * body, and public is the essence of * * *. Ethical entities are ethical bodies and public essence, and their basic forms are family and country. " [2] (Preface 5) The essence of entity is "the unity of single thing and universal thing", which is spirit, and the essence and phenomenon form of entity spirit is ethics. Ethics and ethical entities are not the relationship between individuals, but the relationship between individuals and their entities; Family ethics and family ethics entities, as the most typical and reasonable ethical entity forms, are not the relationship between individuals in the family, but the relationship between individuals and the whole family. Hegel pointed out: "Because ethics is a common thing in nature, the ethical relationship between family members is neither emotional nor love. Here, it seems that ethics must be set as the relationship between individual family members and the whole family as an entity, so that the actions and reality of individual family members can take the family as the purpose and content. " [3](9) Hegel believes that ethics is a universal thing in essence, and ethics should be examined from a substantive perspective, otherwise there will be no spirit. Family is the natural and direct expression of spirit, which is defined by emotion and love. However, the relationship between family members is not the relationship of mutual affection or love, but the relationship between a single family member and the whole family as an entity, which is essentially an ethical relationship. As the starting point and foundation of family construction, marriage is a substantive relationship with the natural combination of the two sexes as the direct form of existence, which is "essentially an ethical relationship". Hegel pointed out: "The subjective starting point of marriage may, to a great extent, be the special love of both parties who have concluded this relationship, or the parents' prior consideration and arrangement;" "The objective starting point of marriage is that both parties voluntarily agree to form a person and agree to give up their natural and single personality for that unity." "In this sense, this unity is self-restraint. In fact, this is their liberation, because they have gained their own substantive self-awareness in it. "[1]( 177) both subjectively and objectively excludes the interference of other external factors, such as property, family background, political purpose, etc., and whether it is love before marriage or love after marriage, marriage should be based on love and form a unity," agreeing to abandon one's natural and individual personality for that unity "and in it. Therefore, when investigating marriage ethics, we must also proceed from its essence and realize that the relationship of marriage ethics is not a simple relationship of individuality, arbitrary contract and abstract subjective love, but a "unity of single and universal things" between marriage individuals and marriage ethics entities. Both parties in marriage realize that marriage is an ethical entity, and the unity of their personality and each other is a substantive purpose, and they agree with and stick to the universality of the marital ethical entity in the spiritual level, instead of acting as individuals, taking the marital ethical entity as the purpose and destination, abandoning the willfulness, impulsiveness and contingency of individual "single thing" behavior, and realizing the ethical relationship of the unity of individual "single thing" and marital entity "universal thing". It takes ethical love as its essence and embodies an ethical emotion, which cannot be separated from the confirmation and restriction of law. It is "ethical love with legal significance" [1]( 177).

Hegel insisted on "proceeding from material" and opposed "atomic discussion" when investigating marriage ethics. He opposes the naturalness and civil contract between men and women as the basis of marriage, and disapproves of understanding marriage only as an abstract and subjective love relationship between men and women, but defines the essence of marriage as a spiritual ethical relationship. In Principles of Philosophy of Right, Hegel refuted three kinds of fallacies about marriage based on his understanding that "marriage is essentially an ethical relationship".

Although natural sexual relationship is an essential part of marriage, without it, marriage will be incomplete and imperfect. However, pure natural relationship, just like a foundation without a house, is still an extremely imperfect marriage, and it is an almost animal-like combination, an animal-like desire without love, not a real marriage [4](260). Hegel retorted: "In the past, especially most works on natural law only looked at marriage from the physical aspects and the natural attributes of marriage. Therefore, it is only regarded as a sexual relationship, and every other prescribed road to marriage is always blocked. " [1]( 177) This kind of marriage is only based on the natural attributes of human beings and other mammals. It thinks that marriage is only the natural physical relationship and sexual relationship between men and women, and reduces people to animals, and the sexual relationship between people in marriage to sexual impulses similar to animals, without understanding sexual relations and marriage from human social attributes. Hegel believes that although marriage is a combination of the two sexes, it is based on the relationship between the two sexes. In this natural combination of the two sexes, people deny themselves and become a unity, and agree to abandon their natural and single personality for that unity and give it the inherent love stipulation, so that the relationship between the two sexes transcends the natural impulse of animals and sublimates into ethical and spiritual human love.

Civil contract is an essential part of marriage as an entity. It confirms the marriage relationship in the form of law, makes it clear that both parties have certain independent will and give up ownership, and at the same time bear the corresponding marriage responsibilities and obligations, so that marriage becomes a reality. However, marriage can not only be understood as a civil contract without spirit. Hegel pointed out: "As for understanding marriage as just a civil contract, this concept can also be seen in Kant, and it is also rude, because according to this concept, both parties arbitrarily regard individuals as the object of the contract, and marriage becomes a form of mutual use according to the contract." [1]( 177) "As far as its physical basis is concerned, marriage is not a contractual relationship, because marriage is just such a thing, that is, it sublates this view from the perspective of contract and from the perspective that the parties are independent personalities in identity. Due to the identity of both parties, the family becomes one person, and its members become even and odd. " [1]( 179) As a substantive existence, marriage needs the intervention of contract, but Hegel believes that marriage cannot be reduced to a civil contract. Because the civil contract is based on the arbitrariness and economic rationality of a single party's "single thing", for their respective utilitarian considerations, they use each other, and if they are beneficial, they will be arbitrarily agreed, and if they are unfavorable, they will be arbitrarily terminated; Instead of starting from ethical relations, marriage and family obligations, without ethical content and the spiritual core of love, marriage becomes a collection and juxtaposition of "atom" and "spirit", and it is impossible to construct an ethical and substantive marriage. Therefore, the essence of marriage lies not in the external contract, but in the internal spirit and love.

The basis of marriage is love, and the essence of love is that you see yourself or your ideal in each other and are eager to be one with them. Hegel believes that the so-called "love", "generally speaking, is to realize the unity of me and another person, so that I am not isolated for myself; On the contrary, only by giving up my independent existence and knowing that I am another person and the unity of another person and myself can I gain my self-awareness. " Love is the soul's feeling of its own unity. [1] (175) The essence of "love" is the unity of self and another person, that is, "non-independence", that is, abandoning one's "single" independent personality, that is, gaining and confirming oneself in the unity of self and another person. Love sublates individuality and creates unity and materiality. But the unity established by "love" is realized through feelings and emotions, which is natural. Although love is the basis of creating ethics and ethical entities, it is limited and must be sublated and surpassed. [5](344-346) Hegel attached great importance to the special love of both parties in marriage, and opposed bringing external factors such as property, family status and political purpose into the perspective of marriage choice, and opposed making marriage a means to plot other purposes. However, Hegel's affirmation of subjective love is not absolute. He opposes building marriage only on the basis of love and pays attention to the reasonable limit of love. He retorted, "I think marriage is only based on love." Love is a feeling, so it allows contingency in all aspects, which is exactly the form that ethical things should not take. " [1]( 177) Therefore, "the love relationship between marriage parties is the core of marriage relationship. However, we can't just take love as the whole connotation of marriage, at least when people's cultural education and ethical standards are not enough to maintain this sexual relationship alone. Love itself is a kind of feeling with certain contingency and arbitrariness. " [6]( 106) If this arbitrary, accidental and purely subjective love cannot be unified, it should be combined with marriage and family obligations; Without its ethical provisions, the confirmation and restraint of rational law, and the legal significance, there would be no objectivity, no sublation of personality, and no ethical, substantive, spiritual and universal marriage construction.

Under Hegel's philosophy of law, marriage, as a direct and substantive ethical relationship, not only refers to the relationship between the natural attributes of the two sexes, but also refers to the willful and naked civil contractual relationship. It is not only an abstract and subjective love, but also an "ethical love with legal significance". "In this way, all fleeting, capricious and naked subjective factors in love can be eliminated." [1] (177) This is a comprehensive regulation that summarizes the one-sidedness of marriage in history.

Second, the confirmation of marriage ethics and the display of sacredness.

Marriage ethics should be confirmed and manifested through solemn and sacred wedding ceremonies. Wedding ceremony is the basis of marriage ethics and an important link for both men and women to complete their marriage. Only after this solemn and sacred moment, they clearly realize and publicly promise to get rid of the willfulness, contingency and individuality of love, gain the general recognition of relatives, friends and related groups, and confirm that the combination of husband and wife is an ethical thing, can they constitute the reality of formal marriage and marriage entity. Hegel said: "Only when this ceremony is held can the combination of husband and wife be established ethically, because the symbols used in the ceremony, that is, language, are the most spiritual things, so that substantive things can be completed." [1]( 180) "The conclusion of marriage itself, that is, the wedding, expresses and confirms that the essence of this combination is an ethical thing, which is above the accidental things such as feelings and special tendencies." [1]( 18 1) Through the wedding, both men and women "* * * establish a new ethical entity, and two independent individuals merge into one, neither independent nor isolated, and become a' complete individual'. With the help of the wedding, both parties to the marriage are accepted and recognized by the social ethical order, and they are blessed and recognized by relatives and friends. " "With the help of the wedding, the two parties to the marriage complete the transformation of social ethical roles and ethical relations, giving the two parties to the marriage new ethical responsibilities; With the help of the wedding, we can strengthen the rules of marriage ethics, highlight the order of marriage ethics, imprint a profound ethical imprint on the hearts of both parties, enhance the sense of entity, respect and awe marriage ethics, accept the constraints of marriage ethics, and sublimate individual behavior into ethical behavior. Individuals become family members and build a harmonious marriage ethics entity. " [7] Therefore, although the wedding ceremony itself is only a social and cultural symbol, it gives the marriage a sense of sacredness and solemnity and carries important contents. And "they often have profound ethical value: they are not only a way to get secular legalization, but also a serious, solemn and grand way to show the establishment of an ethical relationship and its corresponding responsibilities, and show the solemn commitment of the parties." [8](4 1 1)

3. The absolute principle of marriage ethics is monogamy.

Marriage is based on love, and the essence of love is the unity of self and another person, that is, "non-independence", that is, the sublation of one's single independent personality, that is, the acquisition and confirmation of oneself in the unity of self and another person. In this unity, "personality is exclusive. You think of each other as yourself and see yourself in each other. You can only see yourself in one person, but not in several people at the same time. This is exclusive. " [9] (217) Therefore, marriage cannot be committed to another opposite sex for some consideration other than mutual affection. We should strictly abide by the moral requirements of mutual love and equality of personality between the two parties in marriage, and make a commitment to each other wholeheartedly and exclusively. "Abandon one's natural and single personality", join the marriage unity of "I am not me", enjoy one's rights, fulfill one's obligations, and absolutely exclude the participation of other opposite sex, so that marriage is exclusive, single and sacred. Moreover, the exclusiveness, singleness and sacredness of marriage ethics are manifested through solemn and sacred wedding ceremonies. Hegel pointed out that "everyone should pay attention to the need to wait for the opportunity, and everyone can only use his love for a specific person." [1] (178) "Marriage is essentially monogamy, because what participates in and devotes itself to this relationship is personality, which is a direct and exclusive unity. Therefore, only from this personality's wholehearted mutual commitment can the truth and sincerity of marriage relationship be produced. " [1]( 183) Concubine storage is different from marriage. It mainly meets men's unilateral sexual needs, which violates the principle of sexual equality of both parties in marriage, and also violates the moral requirements of equality of personality of both parties, and cannot produce the "truth and sincerity" of marriage relationship. Hegel emphasized: "Marriage is different from concubinage. Keeping concubines is mainly to satisfy natural impulses, but it is secondary in marriage. Therefore, mentioning sexual events in marriage will not cause shame, but it will cause shyness in non-marital relationships. " [1]( 179) Therefore, "the real meaning of marriage is not the satisfaction of natural impulses, but the recognition and return to the ethical spirit of marriage. Monogamy marriage is an ideal paradigm of marriage ethics and provides institutional guarantee for the realization of marriage ethics. " [7](55-59)

4. Marriage should not be divorced, and it should be made difficult to achieve.

Marriage takes monogamy as the absolute principle and love as the stipulation. In essence, it is exclusive, unitary, sacred and inseparable. However, because marriage is based on love, and love is a thing of feeling and emotion, which is accidental, marriage contains the possibility of divorce. However, the sacred marriage confirmed and emphasized by the sacred wedding ceremony, with obligation, responsibility and rationality as spiritual ties, carries important ethical content and has profound ethical value. Therefore, divorce should not be allowed, it should be difficult to achieve, that is to say, divorce should not be allowed because of the possibility of divorce, but willfulness should be allowed. Marriage divorce can only be decided by ethical authority, and legislators should be cautious about divorce. Hegel pointed out: "Marriage itself should be regarded as inseparable, because the purpose of marriage is ethical, and it is so lofty that everything else is powerless and dominated by it." [1] (179-180) "Because marriage depends only on subjective and accidental feelings, you can divorce. ..... and because marriage is an ethical matter, divorce cannot be decided by willfulness, but only by ethical authority, whether it is the church or the court. " [ 1]( 190)

Verb (abbreviation of verb) The Contemporary Enlightenment of Hegel's Marriage Ethics

A happy marriage is the first criterion for a successful family. A happy marriage is not only the great happiness of both parties, but also directly affects the harmony and stability of the family, the healthy growth of children, the quality of life of parents, and indirectly affects the construction of a harmonious society. With the acceleration of the pace of life in modern society, the renewal of ideas and the diversification of behaviors, some new phenomena have appeared in the field of marriage, and the marriage problem has become an increasingly prominent social problem. Although there are some negative and backward factors in Hegel's marriage ethics thought, such as belittling women's status to a certain extent, absolutely affirming the rationality of parents' marriage arrangements for their children, and treating marriage as the embodiment of pure spiritual ethics that completely excludes the economic base, it is an inevitable embodiment of his objective idealistic world view of marriage ethics and a whitewash of the marriage relationship in the exploiting class society. These negative and backward factors in marriage ethics have certain time and class limitations, but the reasonable core of Hegel's marriage ethics still has positive enlightenment for establishing a correct concept of marriage ethics, solving various problems in the current marriage field and building a harmonious marriage and family.

( 1)? It has positive enlightenment to solve the current problem of separation of marriage and love.

At present, the imperfect market economy and the incomplete development of modernization have inevitably invaded the sacred territory of marriage and love, causing changes in people's marriage behavior and concept. In some people's minds, love without marriage, marriage without love, do not violate marriage ethics. They think that love does not necessarily point to marriage, but takes marriage as the destination; Love is no longer the natural basis of marriage, and love and marriage can be separated. Many people regard material enjoyment and secular utility as the primary consideration of marriage. Material instead of spirit, utility instead of ethics. They take the so-called "white, rich, beautiful" or "Gao Fushuai" as the fashion. This practical, utilitarian, shallow marriage concept and behavior, building the marriage building on a soft beach, not only violates marriage ethics, but also is extremely unreliable and dangerous, and it is impossible to get real happiness. There is nothing wrong with some people's life creed of "seeking only what they once had, but not for eternity". Love does not take marriage as its purpose and destination, but some people take this opportunity to engage in "extramarital affairs" and deserve moral condemnation and even legal investigation. Hegel regards the special love of both parties in marriage as particularly important, and opposes bringing external factors such as property, family background and political purpose into the perspective of marriage choice, and opposing using marriage as a means to plot other purposes; Love is unified and subordinate to the whole and entity of marriage and family, and the unity of love and marriage is realized with the whole and entity of marriage and family as its purpose. This has positive enlightenment for us to think about the relationship between love and marriage and solve the problem of separation between love and marriage.

(2) It is of positive significance to solve the current problem of separation between sex and love.

Now some people satisfy their instinctive sexual desire in order to seek sensory stimulation; Or in order to get ill-gotten gains from it, advocate sexual freedom and sexual liberation, leading to the separation of sex and love. They are not conditioned by two of a kind and sex, but only to satisfy their sexual and material desires, engage in prostitution and engage in so-called "one-night stands"; Or in the primary stage of love, I tasted the taste of sex in advance, which caused the animalization of human sexual relations. Although sex is the natural and physiological basis of marriage, some people regard marriage as a natural sexual relationship, and sex and love are separated. Hegel opposes that marriage is only based on the natural attributes of human beings and other mammals. Marriage is only a purely natural physical relationship and sexual relationship, which reduces people to animals and sexual relationship in marriage to animal-like sexual impulses, without understanding the marriage concept of sexual relationship and marriage from human social attributes. This marriage concept is very shallow and will inevitably lead to accidental, arbitrary and unstable marriages. Hegel believes that although marriage is a combination of the two sexes, it is based on the relationship between the two sexes. In this natural combination of the two sexes, people deny themselves and become a unity, and agree to abandon their natural and single personality for that unity and give it the inherent love stipulation, so that the relationship between the two sexes transcends the natural impulse of animals and sublimates into ethical and spiritual human love. This view of the unity of sex and love has positive enlightenment significance for correcting the concept of separation of sex and love and eliminating the phenomenon and problems of separation of sex and love.

(3) It has positive enlightenment to solve the loss of the sanctity of marriage at present.

Marriage is sacred, and its sacredness is embodied in the prudence of concluding marriage and the solemnity of wedding ceremony; Reflected in the responsibility of maintaining marriage and the prudence of divorce. However, nowadays many people regard "flash marriage", "online marriage" and "trial marriage" as fashion, but in essence they regard marriage as a child's play. On the surface, perhaps "trial marriage" is just a cautious attitude towards marriage. If the experimental results are not good, you can not get married. However, "trial marriage" contains the elements of the game and is not bound and protected by law. In the process of "trial marriage", it is easy for both parties to have disputes due to unclear rights and responsibilities, which will cause harm to one or both parties. Marriage is sacred, once it is concluded, it should be carefully cared for, and there is no room for betrayal and third party intervention. It is exclusive and exclusive. Being fickle, fickle, loving the new and hating the old, and changing one's mind are blasphemies against love and marriage. However, some people arbitrarily transfer their love partners and engage in "extramarital affairs" on the grounds of personality disharmony, loss of love feelings, lack of passion and romance, brazenly boasting that "the red flag at home is not falling, but the red flag is fluttering outside" and adopting a reckless, dissolute and irresponsible attitude towards marriage. Others, with the change of status and the expansion of desire for fame and fortune, take the freedom of marriage and the right to pursue high-quality marriage as an excuse, regardless of the feelings of the other party, children, family responsibilities and marriage ethics, and rashly divorce, leading to the breakdown of marriage and family. Although the contradiction between husband and wife is irreconcilable, the relationship has indeed broken down, but we should not agree to maintain a low-quality and purely patched marriage simply for the sake of children, but we should also try our best to reduce the harm of divorce, especially to minor children, and divorce rationally and responsibly. Hegel emphasized the sanctity of marriage and believed that the sanctity of marriage ethics should be confirmed and expressed through solemn and sacred wedding ceremonies. Only through the solemn and sacred moment of the wedding, can we clearly realize and publicly promise to get rid of the willfulness, contingency and individuality of love, gain the general recognition of relatives, friends and related groups, and admit that the combination of husband and wife is ethical, so as to constitute the reality of formal marriage and marriage entity. Because the marriage confirmed and highlighted through the wedding ceremony is sacred, both sides need to do their best and take good care of it. In addition, I think that divorce should not be allowed because it is possible. This concept of emphasizing the sanctity of marriage is of great significance and positive enlightenment for maintaining the sanctity and stability of marriage and building a harmonious marriage and family relationship.

(d) It is of positive significance to solve the moral deficiency in the current marriage relationship.

"The reason why modern marriage is unstable and the divorce rate is on the rise is an important reason in moral philosophy: modern people often only regard marriage as an atomic relationship between two individual sexual beings of men and women, or as an' emotional or love relationship' between two lists, rather than as the relationship between the individual sexual existence in marriage and the family entity formed by marriage. Therefore, divorce becomes a private matter between the two lists, and either list can exercise veto power over marriage, and even ignore the interests and fate of the third party such as children in the marriage relationship in the process, so that the marriage relationship gradually loses its ethics. The loss of substantive consciousness in the concept of marriage ethics is the moral philosophy root of the increasingly fragile modern family relationship. " [10] Hegel's viewpoint that marriage and family are ethical entities and marriage relationship is ethical relationship is undoubtedly of certain reference value and positive enlightenment significance for strengthening the sense of responsibility and obligation of marriage and family, for people to find their lost ethical spiritual home and build a harmonious marriage and family relationship.