What does traditional ethics pay more attention to?

The essence of ethics is the science of moral problems and the systematization and theorization of moral concepts. In other words, ethics takes human moral problems as the research object.

There are many and complicated problems to be solved by ethics, but there is only one basic problem-the relationship between morality and interests, that is, the relationship between righteousness and interests.

This problem includes two aspects: on the one hand, the relationship between economic interests and morality, that is, who decides who and whether morality has a negative effect on the economy; On the other hand, it is the relationship between personal interests and the overall interests of society, that is, who is subordinate to whom.

Different answers to this basic question determine the principles and norms of various moral systems, as well as the guidelines and orientations of various moral activities.

Moral science. Also known as moralism and moral philosophy. In the west, the concept of ethics comes from the Greek εεs, which means "essence" and "personality", and is also related to the meanings of "custom" and "habit". Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, first endowed him with the meaning of ethics and virtue. The book Nicokal Ethics is the earliest ethics monograph in the West.

Later the Romans translated "ethics" with "moralis". Cicero, who introduced the word, said that it was a "rich Latin" word, which originated from the Latin word "mores" and originally meant "habit" or "custom". [2]

The word ethics was not used in ancient China, and it was widely used after19th century. However, in hundred schools of thought's works in the pre-Qin period, there are a lot of contents about life ethics, especially filial piety. In fact, in the same period of ancient Greece, China's ethics had already risen.

Ethics takes moral phenomena as the research object, including not only moral consciousness (such as personal moral feelings), but also moral activities (such as moral behavior) and moral norms. Ethics separates moral phenomena from the actual activities of human beings, and discusses the essence, origin and development of morality, the relationship between moral level and material living standard, the highest principle and standard of moral evaluation, the system of moral norms, moral education and cultivation, the meaning of life, people's values, attitude towards life and so on.

Among them, the most important thing is the relationship between morality and economic interests, material life, personal interests and overall interests. Different answers to these questions have formed different or even opposing ethical schools.

Marxist ethics studies morality as a social and historical phenomenon, pays attention to the universal and fundamental problems in moral phenomena and reveals the law of moral development. Marxist ethics is based on historical materialism, emphasizing the class nature of morality in class society and the significance of moral practice in ethical theory. Marxist ethics is an important part of Marxist theoretical system, which is formed with the formation of Marxism. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, with the development of capitalist economy, the economic and political struggles of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie became increasingly acute.

The proletariat urgently needs a new moral theory to eliminate the corrosion of the old morality of the exploiting class and various non-proletarian ideas on the working class's moral concept and cultivate a large number of new proletarian people. Marx and Engels adapted to this need and founded Marxist ethics from the basic theories of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. (See Marxist Ethics)

Marxist ethics is formed and developed on the basis of criticizing various non-proletarian moral theories. /kloc-in the mid-9th century, bourgeois thinkers such as B. Powell and M. Steiner publicized many wrong moral views, which had a very bad influence on the workers' movement. At the same time, opportunists in the workers' movement, such as H. Krieger (1820 ~ 1850) and E. Turin, also desperately advocate the bourgeois theory of human nature, advocate abstract equality and deny the class nature of morality.

For this reason, Marx and Engels clearly expounded a series of important issues of Marxist ethical thought in their works such as Holy Family, German Ideology, 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Moral Criticism and Critical Morality, Notice against Krieger and Anti-Turin Theory. Since then, Marxist ethics has developed with the development of proletarian revolutionary practice and Marxist theory. Lenin, Mao Zedong and others further enriched and perfected Marxist ethics theory from different aspects. (See Lenin's Ethical Thought and Mao Zedong's Ethical Thought)

meaning

The emergence of Marxist ethics has produced unprecedented revolutionary changes in the field of ethics. This is mainly manifested in:

Different from all the old ethics in the past, Marxist ethics is not based on God, rationality and abstract humanity, but on historical materialism. Marx clearly pointed out in the Outline of Feuerbach that human nature is not an abstract thing inherent in a single person. In its reality, it is the sum of all social relations. "

From the perspective of historical materialism, morality is no longer something above the whole society, but a part of the superstructure and ideology determined by the economic base. In the final analysis, the development and replacement of all kinds of morality in history are based on the change of economic base, so morality itself is also a regular social phenomenon. Since then, ethics with morality as the object has finally been liberated from the shackles of historical idealism and become a real science.

(2) Marxist ethics overcomes the limitations of all previous ethical thoughts and emphasizes the class nature of morality in class society. The old ethics has a common feature, that is, it publicizes the super-class nature and humanity of morality by various methods or means. Therefore, their moral theory will eventually become an illusory theory divorced from reality.

Marxist ethics emphasizes that any morality is not abstract and beyond the times, but historical and concrete, and all class morality serves certain class interests. In class society, of course, there are some moral factors similar to human beings, such as the general rules of social life, but in general, they are inevitably branded with class. Only in the capitalist society, that is, after the class is completely eliminated, can the morality of all mankind be produced.

③ Marxist ethics especially emphasizes the significance of moral practice of human life in ethical theory.

Ethical thinkers before Marxism often deny the importance of moral practice, or only understand moral practice as personal moral activities. They don't understand that all moral theories can't suddenly pop out of people's minds. They can only be summarized from people's moral practice and the realistic relationship between people. At the same time, they must pass the test of practice and develop with the development of human social practice.

Therefore, Marxist ethics emphasizes the significance of the transformation of moral principles and norms to people's quality, and emphasizes that ethics not only imparts moral knowledge, but also enables people to practice moral knowledge.