The Ethical View of Civilization and the Future of Humanity

Heping Fan

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This lecture explores the relationship between the ethical view of civilization and the future of humanity through three questions.

First, human civilization today is undergoing a philosophical crisis in both concept and actuality. At the conceptual level, civilizational centrism has pushed the concept of civilization toward the limits of its usefulness. At the level of actuality, conflict now unfolds among civilizational tribes, between humanity and nature, and between humanity and itself. An apocalyptic civilizational mindset is therefore taking shape.

Second, where does the future of civilization lie? A philosophical crisis must be resolved philosophically, and civilizational conflict is fundamentally a conflict between different views of civilization. We must therefore seek the third idea beyond both civilizational conflict and dialogue among civilizations: the return and construction of the ethical view of civilization.

Third, what can Chinese ethics contribute? Chinese ethics and morality give rise to a distinctive tradition of virtue, shape an ethically oriented and ethical-rather-than-religious form of civilization marked by the continuity of family and state, and generate the Chinese ethical view of civilization. This view is articulated through six major formulations covering civilization’s foundational vision, driving force, ideals and historical models, principles of construction, view of the human world, and cosmic view.

The ethical view of civilization can make two major contributions to the future. The first is a civilizational driving force generated through the modern transformation of Self-discipline and Social Commitment and the dialectical interaction between the most powerful and the ethically best driving forces. The second is a future opened by the primacy of ethics, in which humanity learns to be governed by ethical reflection.

The ethical view of civilization is a view of civilization governed by ethical reflection. Its essential meaning is learning to live together—with “us” and with “them,” with ourselves, with nature, with the cosmos, and with the future.

Keywords: modern civilization; philosophical crisis; ethical view of civilization; governed by ethical reflection; Chinese ethics