The Theory Of Practical Norms

The Theory of Practical Norms makes a careful study of the norms about human being's practice. Its key problem is"the rational construction and effective realization of practical norms", inclusive of such concrete problems as how to build up rational practical norms and then to effectively carry them out, and etc. Its motif is to further the development of rationalization of practical norms, standardization of practical activities and self-controlling of practical subjects.This dissertation holds that practice is the most basic existing mode of human being and the fundamentally expressive form of social life. The character of being normative is essential in practice. Practical norms lie in the current practices performed by practical subjects. The practical subject, practice and practical norm, they form an organic whole. In this"trinity", practice shows the essence of the practical subject and it needs to be standardized by practical norms while conversely giving birth to them; the practical subject realizes practical norms in practice and advance their reasonable development; rational practical norms will promote the standardization, rationalization and profitably maximization of human being's activities, and make them perform according to certain system, procedure and scientific method.Introduction: attaching great importance to the research on the theory of norms concerning practical problems. In this chapter, the author defines the concept of"practical norm"at first. He thinks that practical norms are the ideologies, ideas, tenets of value, rules on action, and methods about activity which affect, restrict and lead those realistic practices performed by practical subjects, including contents touching upon many aspects such as politics,law,custom,habit,ethics,discipline,art,religion,philosophy and so on as well as their concrete forms of norms. There are both relations and differences among practical norms,norms and social norms. In order to turn social norms into practical ones, it is the core to take part in realistic practices, penetrate the subjects'practical ideas and become the idealistic elements guiding subjects'practices. From this point on, the dissertation determines its central problem and essential task, i.e."the theory of practical norms"mainly studies issues like how to build up rational practical norms and then to effectively carry them out. At the same time, it points out that making a deep and systematic research into practical norms is an urgent need from the realities of current China and the world, an inner demand for the self-development of research on the Marxist theory of practices and norms, and also a deep call for the mutual affecting and promoting between theory and practice.Chapter 1: a review of the ideological history about practical norms. In this chapter, based on Marxian discourses about basic characteristics of philosophic patterns, it makes a brief expatiation about the inner coherent relationship between morphological ontology and the theory of norms in philosophy, and discovers primarily the representative thoughts of ontology and their meanings from the respect of theory of norms in western philosophic history. Moreover, it considers that prior to the birth of practical materialism, due to differences among promises of ontology, there are two main expressive forms of ideas about the theory of norms:"the theory of norms concerning natural yardstick"and"the theory of norms concerning spiritual yardstick". Our research can draw on certain experience from discussion about nomos from the aspects of action or society by the school of wisdom. The theory of norms under practical materialism is in fact"a theory of norms concerning practical yardstick". The establishment of practical materialism not only provides premises for the research into the ontology of the theory of norms as well as theoretical bases for the thoughts about this theory, but also offers theoretical bases and methodological guidance for our research into the theory of practical norms.Chapter 2: practice and its norms. In this chapter, it analyzes, above all, the practice which is the most basic existing mode of human being, and endows it with a new definition─practice is the realistic, perceptual and concrete activities performed self-consciously and dynamically by human beings under the restriction and guidance of certain norms. This definition lays a conceptual foundation for revealing the inherent oneness of practical subjects,practices and practical norms. On this basis, it further indicates that man's practical function presupposes the fact that man possesses of consciousness which is the senior spiritual form. Consciousness, particularly owned by man, can self-consciously, independently and actively reflect objective realities and help to grasp man's inner world. For human beings and even their society, consciousness performs as a deep foundation for their self-designation, self-inquiry, self-molding, self-perfection and self-identification; it is the spiritual elements that create man's practical function and his nature of social practice together with practical norms.Hereon, it also sets forth the social responsibility of practice in understanding,explaining,standardizing and changing the world. Meanwhile, it holds that human being's social practices are carried through in following the demands of a series of practical norms. The standardization characteristic is the most essential one in practice. It means that man's practices are self-conscious activities under the guidance of certain practical ideas, self-controlling activities abided by practical norms created by man as well as free ones for seeking their own ideals and achieving their own goals. With regard to those practices, they are even considered as independent ones promoting man's practical self-knowledge,adjusting their practical aims,perfecting their practical norms and realizing their practical ideals, self-determinate ones identifying and realizing selves, self-organizing ones continuously transcending,criticizing and negating selves, and likewise the creative ones ceaselessly purchasing ideals,perfecting and molding selves.Chapter 3: the formation and evolution of practical norms. In this chapter, it makes an analysis about the determinate function of practically inner elements in the formation of practical norms from the following four aspects: practical subjects and their self-standardization,practical objects and their relativity in time and space,practical instruments and their anagenesis of two dimensions,practical goals and their guiding characteristics in concept. Especially in the part of"practical subjects and their self-standardization", it demonstrates the natural property of practical subjects, which brings practical norms the basic tropism of affirmation and maintenance toward man's natively existing value. Furthermore, Marxian opinion that man is the summation of all kinds of social relations, determines practical norms'main contents and essential tropism in serving the realization of practical subject's social values. This realization illuminates that inside the social unity there contains a basic tropism, i.e. an inevitable developing direction towards the fulfillment of"the unity of free men". Besides, in the part of"the practical motif of the times and historical evolution of practical norms", it furthers that practical norm in essence is an organic part of the existing and developing system of human society. Basic spirits and concrete contents of practical norms are directly influenced by such conditions as the degree of social existence and development,practical motif of the times,man's intellectual level and ideology and so on.Chapter 4: elements,forms and characteristics of practical norms. In this chapter, it analyzes the structure of practical norms. Then, it considers that with regard to the component elements, an integrated system of practical norms should include form,content,goal,instrument and etc.. In nature, the realization of freedom is practical subject's inner essence and highest pursuit; practical activities are the historical ladders for fulfilling free ideals and achieving a state of freedom; practical norms are the intermediaries and guarantees in realizing freedom. Hence, practical norms are an integrated and ideological system in which practical subject is the hard core, serving practice is its tenet, satisfying direct demands is its goal and the pursuit of freedom is the highest petition. As to practical forms, their concrete expressions involve many fields like moral,technology,politics,law,science,religion,art,philosophy and so on. The targets of practical norms, i.e. their contents, are all practical activities and their component elements, but in the final analysis they converge at practical goals─social needs,modes of thinking,directions of value,practical instruments and practical targets. Practical goals mainly comprise the rationalization of practical norms,standardization of practices,self-controlling of practical subjects and so on, while practical instruments chiefly include two aspects:"achieving self-consciousness by following rules"and"shouldering responsibilities when violating rules". For practical norms, they have multiple forms of expression; they are intermediate and creative; they can be easily manipulated and lead practices among different subjects.Chapter 5: the rationality and its degree about practical norms. In this chapter, it furthers to study and explain the inner spiritual quality of practical norms, namely rationality. The values of practical norms are specifically reflected by seeking truth,interest,goodness,beauty and sanctity. Rational practical norms should accord with the"truth"from all things,objects and practical subjects, which unites not only the law and intention with criterion, but also truth with value. They should be the unity of"being"and"should be", while erect a bridge for the transformation from"being"to"should be"as well. Meanwhile, the bridge erected by rational practical norms provides ideaistic guarantee for fulfilling the values pursued by practical subjects and also their social needs.It then particularly discusses what rational channels should be used to implement scientific and practical norms. Whether the practical manner,channel and instrument are reasonable or not, it will directly affect the realization of the rationality, its limits and degrees concerning practical norms. Here, the rational degree refers to that the rationality has certain range,limit and degree in itself. Within a definite range, the rationality of practical norms is absolutely reasonable; yet this rationality has the possibilities to become irrational and even deleterious, if running out of the specific range of truth and value or inappropriately exceeding the limitations of time and space and being used arbitrarily. These"practical ideas"exceeding the rational degree are mainly showed in numerous aspects like that"science and technology being omnipotent","partially emphasizing human-central materialism","worshipping the practice"and so forth. Losing in grasping the proper degrees has caused such bad phenomena as practices not abiding by criterion, norms themselves not conforming to criterion, and the like. Furthermore, reasons for above phenomena involve the absence of effective supply of established social norms, especially those reasonable practical norms, which also makes it clear to all that it is necessary and possible to construct a new and rational set of practical norms. The construction of new norms is actually the change of paradigms of practical norms. As a whole, this change embodies that man's practical norms have developed to a certain phase and they have displayed their advancement.Chapter 6: social functions of practical norms. In this chapter, it figures out that practical norms possess many social functions, such as directing practice from the conceptual and idealistic perspectives, standardizing modes of behaviors, implementing, disciplining as a warning, reassuring and pacifying, tidying and consolidating spirit, criticizing practice, and so on. We can take up the realization of their social functions from the horizontal and vertical lays respectively. On the one hand, they can be achieved through following certain modes of practice; on the other hand, they can be achieved through a process of planning,implementing,adjusting,controlling and evaluating and etc. In this course, a series of conditions must be met well. When examining this course, we can find their valuable characteristics, for instance, their goals agreeing with each other, practical subjects accepting them, their mutually going by, their creating needs, their being restricted by the society, and so forth.Conclusion: globalization and the standardization of human being's behaviors. In this part, it draws a brief conclusion about the motif of writing this dissertation, and illustrates that in the new era of globalization, human being's practices objectively needs to be promoted to a scientific, rational and normative stage. This promotion is both the gist and the final setting point of the research into the theory of practical norms.