Does the maintenance of social order mainly depend on morality or law?

(1) Definition of morality: The so-called morality refers to the sum of people's codes of conduct and norms of conduct, which are unique to human beings and regulate the relationship between people, people and society, and people and nature.

The "Tao" in China's ancient books refers to the laws or rules of things' movement and change, and the "virtue" refers to that people get it from the Tao and master it by themselves. This is in terms of the relationship between man and nature, and extending this relationship to the relationship between man and society is a more comprehensive moral relationship. In fact, the word morality has a very broad meaning. The Analects of Confucius said: "The wind of gentleman's virtue is the grass of villain's virtue, and the wind on the grass will be suppressed". The "virtue" mentioned here mainly refers to human morality; "Good for good" refers to human behavior; And "rule by virtue" refers to some kind of thought or ideological system, and also contains the meaning of code of conduct and norms. There is a saying in Xunzi that "a husband is the ultimate virtue", and the word "virtue" here refers to quality and morality; "Book of Rites" says: "The way of a university is to be well-known, be close to the people and stop at the best", "Morality, righteousness and indecent assault", emphasizing the evaluation of good and evil and the highest purpose; "On Salt and Iron" says: "The end of forgiving morality, the end of restraining profit, and the end of opening benevolence and righteousness", "Taking morality as the city, benevolence and righteousness as the country, … Wen Wang also takes morality as the sword, … Tang Wu also" The morality here contains not only the significance of moral norms and norms, but also the significance of moral enlightenment and moral education.

Marxist ethics holds that morality, as a social category, belongs to the field of superstructure, including ideological aspects, and is a concrete social phenomenon. Moral phenomenon is a social phenomenon determined by social and economic relations and evaluated by the standard of good and evil. Without groups, people cannot live in isolation. A person living in a society must consider the interests of others or his own group, otherwise it will cause disputes or conflicts. As early as the primitive society, in order to safeguard the interests of tribal members and coordinate their relations, people produced some established norms to regulate their behavior. Abiding by these principles is called goodness, which will be praised by public opinion or make individuals feel at ease; Otherwise, it will be called evil, condemned by everyone or make individuals feel guilty and try to correct it. The sum of these codes of conduct supported by the power of public opinion and people's "conscience" and their implementation is morality. Morality is one of the important signs that people can be different from animals and become real people. Human behavior has its own moral standards, and human behavior must abide by morality, otherwise it will be punished by law and condemned by morality.

It can be seen that the so-called morality is a special code of conduct that takes good and evil as the standard and relies on the power of social public opinion, traditional habits, education and human beliefs to adjust the relationship between people, individuals and society, and people and nature. Generally speaking, moral regulation takes good and evil as the standard to evaluate people and things; Its adjustment means is not mandatory; The direction of its adjustment is to safeguard the overall interests first.

(B) the role of morality:

1, the social role of morality

The subject morality of a society plays a great role in promoting the formation, consolidation and development of the economic foundation. The development of society is the result of the contradictory movement of basic social contradictions, namely, productive forces and relations of production, economic base and superstructure. Morality belongs to the superstructure. On the one hand, it is determined by the economic base; On the other hand, it plays a great role in promoting the formation, consolidation and development of the economic foundation. For example, based on the capitalist commodity economy, during and after the establishment of capitalist economic relations, moral concepts such as freedom, equality and fraternity are singing praises for the capitalist commodity economy, including free trade, equal exchange and free trade of labor; At the same time, it strongly criticized the privileged thought, hierarchical concept and feudal autocracy of feudal society, which played an important role in the formation, consolidation and development of capitalist economic base.

Advanced morality can promote the development of science and technology and social productive forces. The development of science and technology and social productive forces can not be separated from people's enthusiasm and creative activities, and the level of enthusiasm can not be separated from the level of moral standards. Scientific and technological workers with high moral standards will devote themselves to their work with great enthusiasm and strive for perfection in their business. Only in this way can there be new discoveries in science and new innovations in technology, thus creating endless wealth for society.

Morality is an important tool of class struggle in class society. Different classes have different morals, and the morals of each class serve the interests of this class. In class society, morality has become a tool for the struggle of opposing classes. For example, the rulers of feudal society preached the idea of loyalty to the monarch, such as "when the monarch and the minister die, the minister has to die"; "The world is not a king's land, and the guests of the territory are not princes" to ensure the sanctity of imperial power. Farmers advocate "equality between the rich and the poor"; "What kind of prince would you rather have?" The concept that "all men are brothers and all men are sons in the eyes of God".

Morality plays an important role in regulating interpersonal relationships and maintaining normal social order. Since the emergence of human society, there have been various social relations between people, as well as various contradictions and struggles, and morality can play a regulatory role on both sides of contradictions. Morality tells people the code of conduct and the standard of judgment. If people act according to unified norms, interpersonal relationships will be straightened out, contradictions will be reduced and society will be stable.

2. The role of morality on individuals.

The social function of morality is realized through its individual function. Morality plays an important role in understanding, regulating, evaluating and educating individuals. It is precisely because of these functions that morality can regulate people's behavior and adjust the relationship between people, thus maintaining the normal order of society and promoting social development.

(1) Morality has cognitive function. Morality is to make people realize the responsibility that individuals should bear in society, occupation and family, that is, to realize the moral requirements of society, occupation and family for individuals. People have natural attributes and social attributes, and natural attributes are innate, such as the desire to eat, survive and possess; Social attributes are acquired and gradually formed. People need both natural attributes and social attributes, because people can't exist without society. If people do not restrain and overcome their natural attributes, social attributes will not be formed and society will not exist. In order to make a person form a social attribute, it is very important to shape his morality. The first step of moral model is to realize the requirements of society. What do we need to do within the scope of morality? For example, "eight honors and eight disgraces" is the requirement of socialist morality and the reference of our moral cognition.

The cognitive function of morality is also reflected in the understanding of social moral norms. Society has corresponding systematic moral standards for various roles, such as entrepreneurs' moral standards and teachers' moral standards ... Anyone who enters society and becomes a member of society must abide by moral norms. "Patriotism and law-abiding, courtesy and honesty, unity and friendliness, diligence and self-improvement, dedication and dedication" are the social moral standards of China citizens put forward in the Implementation Outline of Civic Moral Construction, and "eight honors and eight disgraces" make this moral standard more concrete and vivid. Social ethics is clear, all social citizens can regulate their role behavior according to their own requirements, and they will be aware of their own requirements when making social behavior choices, so as to make moral choices and behavior choices according to social ethics.

(2) The regulating function of morality. A person's social interaction has formed a variety of communication relationships and a variety of interest relationships. How to communicate? What attitude do you use to communicate? What kind of responsibility do you use to communicate? Only through moral adjustment can we coordinate various relationships and make our behavior more in line with social moral norms. If the role of moral regulation disappears, people will choose according to instinct and solve problems according to human natural attributes, and society will become a mess. Therefore, people must communicate according to social attributes, and moral sense is social attributes. If there is no sense of morality, everything is based on instinct and it is easy to make mistakes.

(3) The role of public opinion is formed through moral evaluation. People's social attributes require everyone to pay attention not only to themselves, but also to society. An important aspect of paying attention to society is to evaluate the good and evil and morality of all kinds of things happening in society. When these moral evaluations accumulate and develop to a certain stage, they become moral public opinion. Now, a hidden danger in society is people's moral numbness-they don't speak or express their views on things that violate moral norms in society, and some people even have no moral feelings at all. This is a very dangerous trend. We should evaluate social behavior, distinguish between good and evil, and distinguish between right and wrong. If everyone participates in moral evaluation, they can form a powerful force of moral public opinion, improve social moral norms and give full play to the role of moral evaluation.

(4) Moral education. Morality is acquired, and human morality can be enlightened. Morality can educate bad people well, make immature people mature, improve people's spiritual realm, gradually reduce people's natural attributes, enlarge people's social attributes, and turn uncivilized and barbaric into civilization. It is precisely because of the moralization of morality that the Central Committee and the Civil Service Institute have issued a number of documents on strengthening and improving the moral construction of citizens and primary and secondary school students, with a view to forming a good social moral trend and cultivating socialist construction talents through moral education.

Why can morality regulate people's behavior and regulate the relationship between people? The core of moral function is interest. But this kind of interest is not only personal interest, material interest or economic interest, but also includes various interests and interests at all levels. For example, the interests of individuals, others, the whole, units and society; Immediate interests and long-term interests; Material and spiritual interests; Tangible and intangible benefits; Economic, political and social interests. Different people have different views on interests and different judgments and choices on the value of interests, thus distinguishing between general moral standards and noble moral sentiments. For those who first safeguard the interests of others, the whole and society at any time, it is a very noble moral behavior not to demand or even sacrifice personal interests; It is the most basic moral requirement for every citizen not to infringe upon the interests of others, the whole and society.

Second, knowing the law.

(1) Law is the product of the country, which refers to the basic laws and ordinary laws promulgated by the ruling class (the ruling group is a political party, including kings and monarchs) through certain legislative procedures in order to achieve the purpose of governing and managing the country. Law is the embodiment of the will of the ruling class and the ruling tool of the country.

Law is the most powerful weapon to maintain national stability and the vigorous development of various undertakings. It is also a tool to defend people's rights and interests and a means for rulers to rule the ruled. Law is a series of rules, which usually need to be implemented through a set of systems. But in different places, the legal system will explain people's legal rights and obligations in different ways. One way to distinguish it is to divide it into two types: European legal system and Anglo-American legal system. Some countries base their laws on religious laws.

(B) the role of the law

1, the normative role of law

The normative function of law is divided into five aspects:

Guiding function. This refers to the guiding role of law in personal behavior, including deterministic guidance and selective guidance. Deterministic guidance is generally the role of norms that stipulate obligations, while selective guidance is generally the role of norms that stipulate rights.

Evaluation function. This is the role of law as a measure and standard in the behavior of others.

Predict the effect. This is the role of the behavior between the parties.

Compulsory action. This is the influence on the criminal's behavior.

Educational function. This is the role of ordinary people's behavior, including positive education and negative education.

2. The social function of law.

The social function of law refers to the maintenance of social relations and social order of specific groups.

Generally includes two aspects:

(1) plays a role in maintaining class rule. It is mainly manifested in adjusting the relationship between the ruling class and the ruled class, the relationship between the ruling class and its allies, and the relationship within the ruling class.

(2) the role of safeguarding public interests and performing public affairs.

Third, the relationship between law and morality.

Although both law and morality regulate and restrain people's behavior, their functions are obviously different. These differences reflect the particularity of moral function.

First of all, law is a unique phenomenon in class society, and moral norms exist in a historical stage of the development of human society.

Secondly, the law is formulated or recognized by the ruling class through the state, and is guaranteed to be implemented by the state's coercive force. Therefore, any country can only have one legal system. In a class society, because the material living conditions of each class are different and their moral standards are different, there are as many moral systems as there are classes. Law is closely related to the morality of the ruling class. Law is the reflection of the will of the ruling class and the embodiment of the moral standards of the ruling class. Law and the morality of the ruling class have the same class essence and purpose.

Third, the scope of moral regulation is wider than that of legal regulation. The coercive force of law cannot eliminate all negative phenomena in social life. Some universally recognized immoral words and deeds, or bad things that violate traditional habits and public opinion, cannot be completely solved by laws and regulations. The scope of laws, regulations and rules is limited, but where the law cannot control it, moral power can control it. In this sense, the role of morality is very extensive, it is almost ubiquitous and has a long-term impact. For example, if a moral person does immoral things behind others' backs, he will feel guilty from his conscience and the shadow of morality will always follow him. This is an irreplaceable role of moral norms.

Fourth, the standards of law and ethics are different. Legal standards are basic, moral standards are multi-level, but in general, more emphasis is placed on nobility. Therefore, the law stipulates the bottom line of human behavior and is the lowest standard of human behavior; Moral standard is higher than law, and noble moral standard is a spiritual realm pursued by human beings.

Fifth, the latitude and level of law and morality are different. Law is enforced by the state with coercive force, and its normative restriction on human behavior mainly comes from social restriction (although individuals will also restrain themselves in order to avoid crime); Morality plays a restrictive and normative role through public opinion, customs, personal conscience, introspection and education. In other words, moral constraints are two-dimensional, including social constraints and personal self-constraints. Conscience and introspection are a kind of self-discipline. People with a certain moral cultivation can not only control themselves, but also strengthen their self-control under social constraints, and their moral level and moral pursuit will continue to improve. This is a spiritual force. It can be seen that moral restriction has a powerful spiritual function. From this point of view alone, the function of morality can be extended to a higher level of restriction.

Fourth, in a harmonious society, the maintenance of order depends on the dual role of morality and law.

The role of morality is more reflected in self-discipline and convention, which can make up for the deficiency of law in public life. This restraint can run through personal and even social life from beginning to end; However, when the moral system collapses and individuals or social collectives ignore the binding role of morality, they can play the mandatory role of law.

Therefore, morality and law should complement each other. The construction of a harmonious society depends on both morality and law.