Morality

Aa form of social consciousness or mode of activity that belongs to the sphere of superstructure. It refers to the general term for the criteria, principles and norms of public opinion, traditional customs and inner beliefs upon which a certain society rests to maintain and adjust the relationship of men with themselves, with each other, with society, and with nature in the manner of evaluation of good and evil, and also refers to those acts and activities that correspond to them.

In China, Dao and De were originally used separately. Dao refers to the laws of movement and change of things, and extends to the codes and rules for being a person; De means to acquire, to obtain, and refers to having acquired Dao, and extends to the virtue of a person. “Morality” (Daode) first appeared in Xunzi’s Encouraging Learning “Learning comes to ritual and then stops, for this is called the ultimate point in pursuit of morality.” The concept of morality encompasses moral norms as well as the cultivation of virtuous conduct of individuals. In the West, “morality” originated from the Latin word moralis, which means customs, habits, character, etc.

As a particular ideology, morality arose on a certain economic foundation. Morality is conditioned by a certain mode of production and men’s conditions of material life, i.e., economic relations, and undergoes changes along with revolutions in the economic relations of society. “All moral theories have been hitherto the product, in the last analysis, of the economic conditions of society obtaining at the time.” “Men, consciously or unconsciously, derive their ethical ideas in the last resort from the practical relations on which their class position is based—from the economic relations in which they carry on production and exchange”. Historical materialism, while affirming that the economic foundation of society plays a determining role in morality, acknowledges the relative independence of morality itself, and that morality, once it has arisen, either plays a dynamic part of actively consolidating and developing the economic relations and the social system that determine it or acts as a fetter and destroyer; after revolutions in the original economic relations of society, the original moral notions and habits of men do not change immediately and spontaneously, and it is necessary to go through the practical struggle of society and the process of ideological education in order to make the old moral consciousness and habits change, and a new morality, which corresponds to the needs of the new economic relations of society and social system, also matures and is perfected in the struggle with the old morality. “At similar or approximately similar stages of economic development moral theories must of necessity be more or less in agreement,” just as societies of private property have to have this moral injunction in common: Thou shalt not steal. Moreover, morality relies on the power of social opinion, custom and inner beliefs to regulate man’s acts and mode of life in the form of “what ought to be done”, serves a certain economic foundation, and has dynamic and strong practicality. Since people face many common problems of behavioral regulation in their existence, there are certain aspects in common or in agreement among different moral systems, which is the all-human nature of morality. Morality also has a distinctive national nature, and different nationalities have different economic and political conditions and different locality, mentality, customs and habits, leading to national differences in morality.

In class society, morality has a distinct class nature, is determined by the class interests of a certain society and group, and it serves certain class interests. Engels pointed out that every class, even every profession, has its own morality, and all the morality advocated by exploiting classes is an instrument for the maintenance and consolidation of their rule. Not only are the morals of different classes different from one social formation to another, but there are also morals of different classes within the same social formation. “And as society has hitherto moved in class antagonisms, morality has always been class morality; it has either justified the domination and the interests of the ruling class, or ever since the oppressed class became powerful enough.” Morality is on the whole progressive, but there is not yet a morality that transcends classes. A really human morality which stands above class antagonisms and above any recollection of them becomes possible only at a stage of society which has not only overcome class antagonisms but has even forgotten them in practical life.

Morality is a historical phenomenon, concrete and historical, with its own objective laws of generation, development and change. Morality develops with the development of human society and has a historical inheritance. In class society, the exploiting classes always inherit those elements of morality in previous societies that are favorable to the exploitation and domination of the people; the exploited and dominated people always inherit those elements of morality that are popular and democratic and favorable to the people in history. With the development of society, morality also keeps progressing, and it is a tendency of moral development that new morality replaces old morality. In the process of the development of human society, the content and form of morality are conditioned by certain conditions of the material life of society, forming different types of morality, with five different types of morality appearing in succession: morality of primitive society, morality of slave society, morality of feudal society, morality of capitalist society and morality of communist society. The working people are the creators of fine moral quality in human history. Communist morality is the greatest, most progressive and loftiest brand-new morality in the process of development of man.

Guided by the theory of scientific socialism, it has been enriched and developed through the long struggle of the proletarian political parties and the examples of advanced figures who have devoted their lives to the cause of communism, and through the critical inheritance of the excellent moral traditions of human history. It is a concentrated reflection of the fundamental interests and wants of the proletariat and the working people. Its essential features are: upholding collectivism, serving the people wholeheartedly and devoting oneself to the cause of the emancipation of man. It requires people to have a firm proletarian revolutionary will, to subordinate their personal interests to the interests of the cause of communism, and to work for the struggle for the emancipation of all mankind. It also requires people to put the common good before the private benefit, forget personal benefit for the common good, sacrifice oneself for others, love labor, unite and help each other, consider big picture, speak the truth, do honest things, be an honest person, be straightforward and upright, and think and act in one and the same way. Communist morality is a powerful intellectual force for establishing a new type of socialist relations of men with each other, developing the socialist cause, building a socialist spiritual civilization and achieving communist society, and is bound to become a moral norm to be jointly observed by people in the whole society. of men with each other, and with nature

As a kind of behavioral norm regulating men’s social relations, morality interacts with other forms of social consciousness, permeates all spheres of social life, plays a regulatory part in the relations of man and man and man and society, thus changes or maintains social order, pushes forward or fetters human happiness and social development. Morality includes the concepts of good and evil, honor and disgrace, justice and injustice, honesty and hypocrisy, etc. It evaluates and influences various acts of men through the power of public opinion of society, the inner beliefs, habits, traditions and education of men. Unlike law, morality is not coercive, and it regulates a wider range of social relationships than legal norms, involving people in many relations that cannot be regulated by law, such as friendship, love, and family life. But these two kinds of behavioral norms of different nature complement and supplement each other in social life. Generally speaking, the acts affirmed by law are always commended by morality; illegal and criminal acts are always denied by morality.