The 9th Member Conference of the Shanghai Ethics Society and the 2025 Academic Annual Meeting were held recently. More than 230 experts and scholars from Shanghai universities and academic institutions attended the meeting to discuss the transformation and reconstruction of the ethics paradigm in the intelligent era. A new leadership team of the research society was also elected at the meeting. Professor Fu Changzhen from the Department of Philosophy of East China Normal University was appointed as the new president of the Shanghai Ethics Society.

The 2025 Academic Annual Meeting will have two sessions: "Celebrity Speeches" and "Round Table Forum". Wan Jun, senior professor of liberal arts at Tsinghua University, and Fan Heping, senior professor at Southeast University, gave keynote reports on "Ethical Responses in the Era of Great Change" and "'Extraordinary Ethics' and Human Destiny" respectively. In the roundtable forum, participating scholars discussed issues such as the ethical issues caused by AI technology, the paradigm changes and development directions of ethics disciplines, and the scientific research attitudes that ethicists should have.

"We need to change the 'fire brigade'-style ethical response model - go to save wherever there is a fire. Because today's problems are dense, encrypted, and accelerated, they often rise when the gourd is pressed." Professor Wan Junren believes that in the era of "great changes", technology not only penetrates into the economic, political, and cultural systems, but also affects people's daily lives, widening the intergenerational gap. Current ethics must not only build a knowledge structure from three aspects: technology alignment, value alignment, and management alignment, but also abandon passive response thinking and develop a "gerund" ethical philosophy that can transform real-life experience into a teachable knowledge form while taking positive actions.

From the intensifying great power competition, to climate anomalies and ecological crises, to the rapid development of genetic technology, artificial intelligence and other technologies, which has brought about the "master-slave inversion" between human beings and their own creations... Professor Fan Heping argued that mankind is in an "extraordinary" era and may usher in an "extraordinary" civilization, and there is an urgent need to build an "extraordinary ethics" that matches the circumstances of the times. He conducted a phenomenological reduction of "extraordinary ethics" and believed that the "extraordinary" ethical world faces unusual ethical issues. The "extraordinary" moral world requires moral subjects to have different virtues and wisdom, and then reach the "extraordinary" state, that is, they must learn to be dominated by ethical thinking, so as to actively rebuild an ethical civilization.

Professor Gao Guoxi of Fudan University emphasized that when "human-machine symbiosis" becomes a realistic context, technology not only provides the possibility to achieve personalized development, but also lurks the risk of dissolving human subjectivity. Ethical scholars must actively respond to the various development patterns formed by human digital existence in the intelligent era, and use theoretical innovation to help realize the ultimate ethical vision of "the free and comprehensive development of human beings." Vice President of the Society and Professor Wu Xinwen from the China Institute of Fudan University believes that in the face of the impact of smart technology, ethics should adhere to the stability of "normal principles", avoid being indifferent to change, be wary of over-exaggerating crises, and use practical wisdom to balance "change" and "immutability."

In the AI ​​era, how to promote the modern interpretation and creative transformation of traditional Chinese ethical thoughts has also become a concern for scholars. Professor Zhang Zihui of Shanghai Normal University believes that the paradigm shift in ethics should maintain a prudent attitude of "ending to civilization" to explore the boundaries of science and technology, and use the traditional wisdom of "neutralization" to respond to ethical challenges in the intelligent age. Professor Liu Ke of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology pointed out that ethics in the intelligent era faces the dual challenges of ontological changes and the imbalance of global discourse power. It should accelerate the construction of China's independent ethics knowledge system, demonstrate the responsibility of a great power in global AI governance, and pay attention to vulnerable groups and fairness and justice.

Since the establishment of the Shanghai Ethics Society, under the guidance and leadership of successive presidents such as Mr. Zhou Yuanbing and Mr. Zhu Yiting, the Shanghai Ethics Society has formed a fine tradition of “academic-based and serving society”. Professor Fu Changzhen, the ninth president, said that we should continue to learn the fine traditions, set the trend of the times, serve and respond to social concerns with academic research; take root in China, deeply cultivate basic theories, consolidate the traditional foundation, innovate practical paradigms, and explore a new framework for building China's independent ethics knowledge system; develop "warm" ethics and write a new chapter of the Shanghai Ethics Society.