Abstract:

The undulated Chinese ethical trend of thoughts in the 1980' s might be generalized as "overturning and questioning". From the "Pan Xiao Discussion" and the "Zhang Hua Discussion" to the "Shekou Trouble", all these three heated discussions around the issue of life value, though different themes and ideological colors, resulted in young people' s spontaneous doubting, questioning and thinking. One the one hand they were imbued with striking ideal colors, and one the other they expressed some strong intellectual perplexities and initial rational consciousness. Through these three discussions, the idea was generally accepted that moral evaluation should be further measured from an angle of objective results, and the idea struck root in the hearts of the people that people should heighten their own values of existence as possible as they can. Both the 1986' s discussion about moral subjectivity and the discussion on utilitarianism from 1988 onwards tried to answered those questions of the time on the basis of ancient and present, and Chinese and foreign intellectual heritages. Their historical contribution chiefly lay in a continuous and rational questioning of time issues.

Key words: life value, absolutist morality, moral subjectivity, utilitarianism