A brief analysis of the essence of education and human ethics-Hegel’s view

Abstract

Education and ethics were like two sides of a coin. This was stated by Hegel in the early modern period. However, these two concepts are viewed separately in the contemporary era. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze both education and ethics enabling the well-ordered society to understand the relationship between education and ethics. The methodology adopted for this study was descriptive based on the previous literature. Hegel pointed out that ethics is the essential requirement of human beings and the reasonable way of individual existence. Only when individuals become members of the state can they truly achieve freedom and liberation. Education should be ethical education, that is, education is the intermediary of the individual's free will to realize the ethical essence. Education should remove the individual's subjective capriciousness and individualism, make them integrate into the ethical entity constituted by the social system and historical tradition, and realize the individual's self-improvement in the ethical entity. Hegel's principle of the philosophy of law is a work of political philosophy, which contains abundant educational thoughts. By discussing the self-movement process of objective spirit, Hegel explains how to realize the reasonable existence of man, that is, the existence as ethics. Ethics is the essence of human determinacy, which refers to the unity of individual will and universal will. It is only as a member of the ethical entity that an individual can truly gain freedom and liberation. Hegel pointed out that the highest ethical entity is the state. The ethical nature of an individual is reflected in becoming a citizen of the state.