Social-Democratic Philosophy of Human Nature

Any kind of economic, political and social movement has certain philosophical and cultural connotations. This is true of the liberal movement, the communist movement, and the social-democratic movement.

The social democratic philosophy of human nature recognizes the hypothesis of human nature that all human beings are good and evil, biological and creative, individual and collective.

1. Good and evil

We call the natural, potential, needs and inclinations that all people have, such as autonomy, independence, truth-seeking, pragmatism, mutual assistance, cooperation, industriousness, moderation, creativity, transcendence, benevolence, generosity, tolerance, compassion, and love of beauty, as human beings. The good nature; the dependence, servitude, cowardice, ignorance, vanity, hatred, attack, arrogance, jealousy, greed, fear, laziness, indulgence, cruelty, ugliness, etc. nature, potential, needs and inclinations that everyone has, Call it the viciousness of man.

Historically, good-naturedists have only seen the former aspect of human nature, and evil-naturedists have seen only the latter aspect of human nature. But in fact, everyone has two aspects at the same time, but in some people, the goodness overwhelms the evil, and they are called sages, heroes, and good people in turn; for some people, the evil overwhelms the good. , they are called wicked, heroic, bad people in turn; in more people, goodness and evil are in an undeveloped state of chaos, and they are called mediocre people with mixed good and bad .

If we admit that human history is a process of progress and development from low level to high level, from barbarism to civilization, it means that the changes in human nature generally have the trend of continuous strengthening of goodness and fading of evil, which means that more and more The more mediocre people will grow into sages, heroes, and good people, and they will unite to form a relative or even overwhelming advantage over the wicked, the heroes, and the bad.

However, this is by no means an automatic and inevitable linear evolution process. In fact, there have been many periods of great degeneration of human nature in history, and we have even witnessed and experienced tragic human catastrophe. In every social collapse and change of dynasty in Chinese history, tens of millions of people (sometimes as high as 2/3 of the total population) died, and the phenomenon of cannibalism by humans and beasts occurred repeatedly; Tens of millions of people died from the tyranny and aggression of black fascism, and hundreds of millions died from the tyranny and aggression of red communism. Every time we think about this, we not only deeply doubt the evolution of human beings, but even feel despairing about the future of human beings. Today, nuclear weapons capable of destroying human beings and the earth dozens of times, as the concentrated expression and materialization of human evil, hang above the heads of human beings like the sword of Damocles; today, only half of the countries and The population has achieved constitutional democracy, and the other half of the country and the population are still under various types of totalitarian despotism and authoritarian dictatorship. In the countries and populations left and right, the evil of human nature is still overpowering or controlling the good of human nature. Human beings have actually come to a real crossroads. Whether human beings can suppress evil and promote good, abandon evil and pursue good, there are still many uncertainties, and it is still unknown; there is no inevitability and objective law that can guarantee human beings reach the state of perfection. The struggle between good and evil is actually a struggle between human beings themselves and themselves, and the final result depends on human beings themselves.

2. Biology and creativity

Humans come from nature, the result of biological evolution, and a link in the natural causal chain. Humans are first and foremost beings of nature, therefore, all the instincts and natures possessed by plants and animals are also possessed by human beings. Humans also have the instinct of self-preservation and reproduction, or the needs of survival and security that all living things have. We call it the biological nature of human beings. Because of its characteristics of adapting to the environment and maintaining the status quo, we also call it human beings. Conservativeness, that is, the dimension that tends to be conservative in human nature.

However, although survival is the premise and foundation of human evolution and development, it is not the driving force of evolution and development. The internal driving force of human evolution and development is a new instinct and nature formed in the process of human and ape separation, which is human creativity, transcendence and self-realization, which is unique to human beings to break the status quo, transform nature, and challenge the environment. , to explore the unknown needs, potentials and impulses. It is this instinct that is initially weak and then stronger that human beings have transformed themselves from a weak species into the most powerful on earth, not only ruling the earth but also growing towards Species expanding from outer space.

For a long time in history, biological nature occupies an absolutely dominant position in the structure of human nature. All human activities, including economic, political, military, legal, social interaction, and cultural creation activities, revolve around the satisfaction of material needs and biological needs. The new nature and instinct of creativity, developed as a focus and axis, is preserved and developed not so much as an end but as a tool and a means. Taking the lead in obtaining the characteristics of self-purpose and self-satisfaction in a small number of outstanding people has become the first purpose of their life and the first need of their human nature. The development of human creativity, especially the highly creative development of outstanding figures, has greatly promoted the improvement of productivity, the reform of economic, political, legal and social systems, and the prosperity of spiritual culture.

In the past few hundred years, the material wealth created by the industrial revolution and the scientific and technological revolution has far exceeded the sum of the material wealth created by the hundreds of thousands of years of human history. It should be said that in developed countries, a fairly prosperous life has been achieved , the satisfaction of material and biological needs such as food, clothing, housing, transportation, etc. is no longer a problem. As long as the distribution of material materials can be completely solved like the production of material materials, then the entire economic problem, the primary problem that has been plaguing mankind, will also be will be completely resolved. A very obvious manifestation is that the labor time used by the vast majority of people in developed countries to make a living has decreased sharply, and the non-labor time and free time have been greatly increased accordingly. So an important question that humanity has never faced becomes very real and urgent: what should and can people do with a lot of free time?

If higher natures and needs such as human creativity cannot generally become the dominant natures and needs, it means that a great deal of free time will be wasted on the satisfaction of lower natures and needs such as biology, and in luxury When the sensuality and gluttony of heaven and earth are on the rise, human civilization will lose the power mechanism for further development. Developed countries have come to a historical juncture, that is, the transformation and upgrading of the human nature dominated by biology to the one dominated by creativity must be universally realized.

Of course, this problem has only become a reality in developed countries. There are only 20 or 30 countries in these countries, and their population only accounts for about 15% of the world's total population. Other countries and the remaining 85% of the population are still underdeveloped. or developing state, for the people of these countries, the problem of meeting material needs, making a living, production and distribution of material materials, and economic problems are still the most important problems. , multiplied and labored, and even had to engage in a brutal jungle competition for the necessities of life.

3. Individuality and groupness

Any person, first of all, an individual, has the individuality, particularity, independence that individual existence must have, and has the nature, needs and potential of selfishness, self-interest, autonomy, self-reliance, self-esteem, self-improvement, self-development, self-realization and so on. At the same time, any individual is also a part of a certain human group, with the commonality, universality, and sociality that the existence of the group must have, with selflessness, altruism, mutual assistance, cooperation, unity, unity, benevolence, fraternity, etc Nature, Needs, and Potentials.

These two aspects form a structural tension relationship that is interdependent, complementary but mutually exclusive and conflicting. It is inconceivable that there is only individuality without groupness or only groupness without individuality. The only difference is that for some people, individuality prevails, and for others, groupness prevails; for some people, individuality and groupness are in great conflict, and for some people, individuality and groupness can achieve a good fusion. Individualism and individualism emphasize individuality while relatively ignoring group nature. Groupism and socialism emphasize group nature while relatively ignoring individuality. Extreme individualism and individualism and extreme groupism and socialism simply deny the opposite. The presence.

The above general statement is of course correct, but it is also abstract. It is only a logical premise for a deep and concrete understanding of the structural relationship and historical process of individuality and group, rather than this understanding itself. What needs to be explained in depth and concretely is what roles do individuality and groupness play in the evolution of human nature, and under what circumstances are they necessarily conflicting, and under what circumstances are they necessary and can be combined?

It must be admitted that individuality and individuality have an Ontology (ontology or ontology) priority relative to commonality and group nature. This is not like individualism and individualism, in the genetic sense, that the individual exists before the group and the individual exists before the society, just like groupism and socialism genetically identify the group before the individual and the society before the individual And to exist, both of these claims are as false as assertions that the chicken precedes the egg or the egg precedes the chicken. Rather, the two emerged and evolved at the same time. The ontological or ontological priority of the individual to the group mentioned here is in terms of the dynamic mechanism of development, that is to say, from the perspective of development, the action of the individual and the initiative of the individual are the whole community. and the driving force and engine of all historical development. Generally speaking, individuals are relatively active, active, active, and active, while groups are relatively passive, passive, passive, and stable. This ontological or ontological judgment is probably not a problem.

If we arbitrarily intercept a certain time node, it can be said that any individual is the product of the given environment and previous historical conditions, but if we say that the individual is only the product of the environment and the times, then history will stay at this time node. . The reason why human history has the nature of "development" and "progress" is that there are always some individuals who take the lead in changing the environment, challenging authority and conventions, breaking through the limitations of the community, and creating new civilization factors. They may fail, Perhaps they were devastated and destroyed by the community as a heresy. However, under their inspiration and demonstration, more individuals stood up. They fought bravely one after another, and finally changed the environment and reconstructed the social community. In this sense, the community does not create anything, does not provide historical increments, but only preserves the results of individual activities, and only accommodates the stock of history; those who create history and provide historical increments are always just living Individuals, it is they who take the lead in discovering, inventing, breaking through, and creating, that promotes the disintegration of the old community and the formation of a new community.

Every positive individual is a special entity that cannot be limited by existing productive forces, cannot be exhausted by existing social relations, cannot be suffocated by existing culture, and contains all kinds of inner passions and possibilities. To transform the environment with restraint, to create new productive forces, new social relations and new cultures. The uniqueness, irreducibility and transcendence of creation of the individual endow him with the priority of the historical ontology, that is, the ontology of social existence.

So how to explain the retrogression and catastrophic corruption of certain communities at certain historical periods? The key is that those big villains, heroes and bad guys who have concentrated their vicious forces have actively launched attacks and destruction. They have coerced and kidnapped many timid and cowardly people, and have swept and destroyed the achievements of human civilization that have been accumulated with great difficulty. At the same time, those sages, heroes, and good people who have concentrated the power of goodness have not had time to effectively gather and organize, and lead the people to fight against and prevent the great retrogression of history. Here, individual choices remain the decisive force. If individuals in the positive sense have promoted the progress of history, then it can also be said that individuals in the negative sense have driven the regression of history. It is those evils that are more evil than good, more destructive than creative, more demanding than contributing, and more consuming than producing. Individuals are not satisfied that the social structure remains in a static state. They lead many mediocre and conservative passive individuals and push the social structure back to the historical stage of the past. This is just the opposite, inversely proving the principle that individuality takes precedence over groupness.

Countless such time nodes constitute the main line of human history that twists and turns forward. In fact, in primitive humans, both individuals and groups are in an undeveloped, chaotic and ambiguous state. Although the individual is extremely poor and weak, the group is also extremely narrow and closed. Primitives don't even have the self-identity and self-awareness of "humans". They are distributed in all corners of the vast land, barely surviving within the scope of a small blood relationship, and they regard the people around them as hunting objects like other animals. , war, robbery and killing almost become their basic mode of production and way of life. Contrary to the idyllic imagination of many romantics about the primitive society, the primitive blood group is the support for the existence of weak individuals, but in fact it is also an iron cage in which individuals are imprisoned. It is the positive actions of countless individuals who have gradually accumulated strength to pursue freedom and development one after another, breaking through the boundaries of blood, region, class, class, nation, country, and the corresponding taboos of belief, law, morality, and habits. , exchange and integration in countless directions and lines, forming wider economic, political, social and cultural ties and forming a larger social community. Marked by Columbus and Magellan's voyage around the world and the great geographical discoveries, a complete concept of human beings and real human consciousness finally appeared on the earth, realizing the transformation from the unconscious and free human world to the conscious and self-made human world. transformation.

Through vertical and horizontal comparisons, we will find a statistical law with a high probability: it is the pursuit of individuality and personal freedom that leads to the emergence of extensive and profound social connections. Wherever individuals are highly independent, there will be The prosperity of the group and the strength of the country; on the contrary, with the shrinking of individuality and the lack of individual freedom, it is the narrowness and isolation of the group, and in those places that place the order and stability of the group above the freedom and development of the individual, it appears instead. The decline, stagnation, weakness and backwardness of the group. This can verify the ontological and ontological truth that individuality, individuality, and individual freedom are relatively prior to commonality, group nature, and social connection.

Of course, it is impossible to draw the conclusion that commonality, group nature, community, and social connection are dispensable. They are only relatively passive rather than absolute passive, and they also have positive, important and indispensable meanings. This is not only manifested in the fact that the formation of individuals must accept historical cultural heritage and real social resources, but also not only in the fact that once a better community is formed, it will in turn promote, support, encourage, and protect individuals, and allow more and more Ordinary individuals grow into excellent individuals, and more importantly, in the process of those excellent individuals attacking the old community and building a new community, they must also organize themselves into a community of action, a reform or revolution team. In China, commonality and group nature are not so much a completely different nature from individuality and individuality, but rather the extension, enlargement and expansion of individuality and individuality, and the fusion, cohesion and sublimation of individuality and individuality. Although there is still room for individual freedom and individual initiative in a reformed or revolutionary team, common interests, common goals, common ideals, and common rules, in this special historical period, are not just negative restrictions on individuality, It is also a positive guidance and extension of personality.

Wang Jiangsong's Collected Works (1-4) Sales Link

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