Speech on Integrity and Moral Beliefs

"Qing Bailei Chao·Jingxin Lei" records such a story: A man named Cai Lao borrowed one thousand taels of gold from a friend without writing an IOU. Not many years later, his friend passed away, so he called his friend's son home and returned him a thousand taels of gold. But the friend's son was shocked and refused to accept it. He smiled and said: "There is no such thing. My father did not leave me an IOU, nor did he tell me verbally about it." Cai Lao said: "The IOU is in my heart, not on the paper." "Integrity in my heart is the foundation. Your father knows that I am a man of integrity, so he didn't tell you. How can I break my promise if he trusts me so much?" In the end, he returned the gold. What is thought-provoking about this story is what Cai Zhang said. Although external legal constraints such as IOUs, contracts, and contracts are important, the integrity in people's hearts is even more important. If a person does not have integrity and moral self-discipline, he may take advantage of external and legal loopholes, or even disregard legal obligations for his own selfish interests.

People’s respect for moral norms, integrity, moral personality and human dignity in people’s minds are people’s moral beliefs. Morality is a kind of practical reason that solves the question "What should I do?" "What should I do?" includes two aspects: First, how should I do things? Second, how should I behave? The two are inseparable. The latter is more fundamental than the former and must be expressed through the former. Moral belief involves both aspects, but at its core is the second aspect. Moral beliefs are the confirmation and belief in moral ideal goals, the setting of how to behave, and the setting of ideal personality. Moral beliefs use personality to prove or show the sanctity and dignity of human nature and show the value of human beings. The establishment of a moral belief represents the formation of a moral value system and the integration of people's moral cognition, moral emotions, moral will, moral personality, moral concepts, and moral motivations, thereby integrating people's various moral concerns. The scattered beliefs and values ??are unified to form a high-order and orderly system of moral values, which becomes the basic framework for regulating all life activities and behavioral choices of a person. Once the integration is completed, as a value system as a whole, moral beliefs play an important role in all aspects of moral life.

In traditional Chinese culture, "sincerity" is very close to moral beliefs. Mencius said: "Sincerity is the way of heaven, and sincerity is the way of man. If you are sincere and do not move, you will not be able to do it. If you are not sincere, you will not be able to move." The "sincerity" mentioned by Mencius means truth and no deception. meaning. Heaven is true and without deception, and people should also pursue truth and without deception. If you achieve sincerity, you can move people; if you don't achieve sincerity, you won't be able to move people. Xunzi also attaches great importance to "sincerity" and believes that "sincerity" is the basis of all virtues. He said: "A gentleman can only cultivate his heart by being sincere. If he becomes sincere, there will be nothing else." Those who regard "sincerity" as the most important moral concept are "Moderate". "The Doctrine of the Mean" says: "Sincerity is the way of heaven; sincerity is the way of man. The sincerity is the way to achieve the goal without forcing it, and it is achieved without thinking. The person who is sincere is the way of the middle. The person who is sincere is the one who chooses the good. A stubborn person." It can be seen that sincerity is a lofty state of knowing nature and achieving the unity of nature and man. This is a moral belief with Chinese characteristics. It does not rely on religion or theology, but relies on the unity of human nature and nature, the way of humanity and the way of heaven. It achieves the ideal of the unity of nature and man by believing in the goodness of human nature and through understanding the nature of nature. realm of life.

It is regrettable that in real life, some people cannot withstand the temptation of interests and do many harmful things. Although there are many reasons for this phenomenon, lack of moral belief is the most common reason. At present, in conscientiously implementing the "Implementation Outline for Civic Morality Construction" and strengthening integrity education, we should attach great importance to the importance of moral beliefs.