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Maoist ethics
[edit]Overview
[edit]The main concepts discussed in Mao Zedong's ethics are: rights, moral education, and virtue. Close links exist between Maoist and Marxist ethics. Points of comparison exist between Maoist ethics and Confucionism. Mao Zedong focused on practical applications of his thought to a greater extent than on theoretical details, hence influence of Maoist ethics can be traced in the structure of the Chinese society from the times of Mao's leadership till the present days.
Development of Maoist ethical thought
[edit]According to Hsiung, Mao should not be understood as a creative thinker. Mao only successfully applied Marxism to the Chinese reality. Throughout his political career, Mao was more concerned with practice. He would often give some concrete instructions on how to behave and what to do to Party members, rather than think about abstract concepts, such as human nature. Mao did not seek a unifying theory, hence his ethical system is not a united whole.[1] It is scattered across different texts, his actions as the leader of CCP, notes on other texts.
Important stage in institutionalization of Maoist thoughts is attributed by historians to the period in Yanan. Reading about Marxism, Mao insisted that other party members also deepen into Marxism. Mao assumed that only then would it be possible for the Party to achieve the goal of the communist revolution. Mao himself concentrated on the materialist aspects of Marxism since he saw that it was a useful material to apply to the political practice. Committee, called YNPA, was created to translate Mao's interest in Marxism into an institutional form. With time, Mao's thoughts became the guiding theory of CCP. Throughout the late 30-s and 40-s in Yanan a pattern was created, such that Party members were meeting and discussing philosophy with each other. The study of philosophy was regularized.[2] This is the historical context in which Maoist ethics emerged.
Overview of Maoist ethics
[edit]Rights
[edit]Maoist philosophical thought is flexible: practical necessity has higher priority than theoretical consistency and unchangeability. [3] Maoist view on human rights is in line with the overall characteristic of his philosophy. Rights are not natural or innate. Rights are rather attributed on the basis of one's class position and political views. A particular political situation determines whether rights should be given to a particular group of people. For example, during the Sino-Japanese conflict, Mao reasoned that the rights had to be given to the landlords provided that the landlords would support the Communists in resisting the Japanese.[4] The same happened during the War of Resistance, when the CCP was combating the GMD. [5] This flexibility in defining rights served an important practical role in achieving the overall Communist goal.
Virtue
[edit]Maoist ethics has a well-defined notion of virtue. Mao was greatly interested in Marxism and was building communism in society through his politics; thus, virtues in Maoist ethics are socialist virtues. Those are patriotism, class consciousness, and self-criticism.[6] Patriotism is one's commitment to the country and its socialist goal. Class consciousness is the ability to identify oneself with the collective, and give higher priority to the collective rather than to oneself. There are some clearly defined behavioral traits associated with the virtue of class consciousness. Those are: honesty, selflessness, industriousness, responsibility.[6] Virtue of self-criticism has its roots in aspects of Mao's thought concerned with knowledge acquirement. According to Mao (this view is presented in Mao's essay "On Practice"), to know something, one must first come through the perceptual stage. Only then will the inner contradictions be revealed, and one would be capable of realizing the inner structure of substance one is attempting to understand. [7] Hence, making mistakes is unavoidable in Mao's ethics. A virtuous person, according to Mao, is the one who can truly realize the essence of a mistake, and use this realization to move forward. Hence, self-criticism, necessary for learning from mistakes, is a virtue in Maoist ethics. [1] Wakeman also emphasizes this virtue of self-criticism by extensively describing the analogy with disease. In Maoist ethics making mistakes is compared to being ill, and realizing the mistakes is compared to being cured. Punishment of those who do not realize their mistakes is necessary for saving others from the disease. [3]
According to Wakeman, there also exists an image of a virtuous Chinese official. It is considered unethical for politicians to form any separate political groups, as this is "divisive to the harmony of just rule". As the society is considered to be as a united whole, no political individualism is tolerated. [3]
Moral education
[edit]Another aspect of Maoist ethics is moral education. According to Mao, theory cannot be separated from practice.[1] Hence, every philosophical idea should be integrated into the life of a society. In line with this, Maoist understanding of ethics was integrated into the life of society through moral education. In 1949, education system in China was reformed. There were the following requirements to educational system:
- it had to serve the revolution;
- it had to be about nation, science, and people's culture;
- it had to cultivate people capable of building a nation, who would resist feudalism; [1]
- it had to cultivate good qualities of citizens: cheerfulness and industriousness;
- cultivate identification with the proletarian interests.[6]
Moral education used formal and informal methods. Formal were various school subjects, informal - the selection of readings by teachers that were meant to deepen student's devotion to the sense of justice, class consciousness, individual liberty. In China formal methods were widely practised. It is possible to distinguish between the three kinds of techniques:
- Technique by exhortation: students could see quotes of their leaders in classrooms, and be inspired to learn. Posters, different messages by the leaders were widely spread across the country.
- Teaching by example: young members of Chinese society were told inspiring stories of various heroes who did something significant for the collective and the Communist goal.
- Teaching by experience: students of different ages were given opportunities to work in order to cultivate dedication to work through practice.[6]
The results of Cultural Revolution, according to historians, were negative. Mao's reconstruction damaged education that existed before: students were disrupting the system for the sake of revolution, teachers were persecuted, classes were led by older students. [2]
Comparison of Maoist ethics with Marxist ethical view
[edit]Rights
[edit]One point of comparison between Maoist ethics and Marxist ethics is interpretation of the concept of rights. Marx was ambiguous about the notion of rights in the pre-communist societies. According to Marx, rights contribute to the development of atomized self-centered bourgeoisie society. Marx thought that humans are “species beings”, and flourish in the society from their relations with each other. Rights discourse in the US, for example, protects individuals and individual behaviors, reducing the desire or possibility of people to engage with each other. Nevertheless, there was a right that Marx recognized: a fundamental right to receive according to one's labor.[5]
The similarity with Maoist understanding of rights is that for a consistent Marxist it is possible to advocate for “revolutionary human rights” (opposed to “human rights”), namely, rights granted to people who are committed to the revolutionary mission.[5] Another similarity is that Marxists did not consider rights as innate. The third similarity is that Marxists would not advocate for the rights of all. Rather rights are defined only in relation to a proper class.[5] Similarly, Maoist ethics is selective in granting rights to people.
Virtues
[edit]Marxist virtues are the same as described in subsection on Maoist virtues. [6]
Comparison of Maoist ethics to Confucianism
[edit]Virtues
[edit]One of the key aspects of Confucianist thought is the possibility of moral cultivation. "Everyone can become a Sage" is an important point in the Confucianist moral system. Similarly, moral improvement of individual and society are possible according to Mao. Just as everyone can become a Sage, "everyone can become a good Communist”. Possibility of moral improvement is also manifested in the tolerance of errors by Maoist ethics.
A significant difference between Maoist notion of good and Confucian notion of good would be the following. Confucians emphasize harmony and peace, when for Maoists good is whatever brings the Communist end. Hence, revolution and struggle would definitely constitute part of morality, if they are necessary for achieving communism. [8]
Moral education
[edit]Confucian education is primarily moral education just as Maoist moral education. Values have always been at the center of Confucianism.[3] As Maoist, Confucianist education attempts to develop virtues in an individual. The difference would be in the virtues cultivated: Maoist and Confucianist understandings of a virtuous person are different.
See also
[edit]References
[edit][4] https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1366&context=senproj_s2016
- ^ a b c Hsiung, James Chieh (1974). The Logic Of "Maoism". Praeger Publishers. pp. 1–36.
- ^ Knight, Nick, 1947- author. Marxist philosophy in China : from Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong, 1923-1945. ISBN 9789048169702. OCLC 908103933.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Wakeman, Frederic E. (1975, ©1973). History and will : philosophical perspectives of Mao Tse-tung's thought. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520029071. OCLC 6577088.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Kraus, Richard; Angle, Stephen C.; Svensson, Marina (2002). "The Chinese Human Rights Reader: Documents and Commentary, 1900-2000". Pacific Affairs. 75 (4): 593. doi:10.2307/4127353. ISSN 0030-851X.
- ^ a b c d Angle, Stephen C. (2002). Human Rights and Chinese Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780511499227.
- ^ a b c d e Connell, William F. (1975). "Moral Education: Aims and Methods in China, the USSR, the U.S., and England". The Phi Delta Kappan. 56 (10): 702–706. ISSN 0031-7217.
- ^ Tse-Tung, Mao (1965), "ON PRACTICE", Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, Elsevier, pp. 295–309, doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-022980-5.50024-6., ISBN 9780080229805, retrieved 2019-04-15
{{citation}}: Check|doi=value (help) - ^ Koller, John M. (1974). "Philosophical Aspects of Maoist Thought". Studies in Soviet Thought. 14 (1/2): 47–59. ISSN 0039-3797.