Ethical Civilization and the Cultivation of Citizens in the Perspective of Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit (Ethical Education Research; No.2, 2019)

The process of education is to make children grow from natural individuals to national citizens. Education constantly improves individual upbring through the removal of children’s nature and the transformation of their individuality, and ultimately makes the inner change of children’s spirit. Ethical entities are the environment for children to be nurtured, and families, schools and states are the realistic forms. Family is the natural ethical entity of education, which takes love as the basic spiritual rule. In family, children gradually transform the family’s ethical spirit into the habitual intention of self. But the selfish nature of the family cannot create a modern citizen with a public spirit. The school, as an educational community, is an ethical combination which consists of children from different families. “Emancipation”，which is the spiritual rule of school education, creates educated individuals. But school cannot shape the real citizens, which can only be formed in the ethical entity of the country. The state, as a concept, embodies the common will of the public. The purpose of the state is to complete the shaping of the national citizens through the promotion of children' upbring.