Free Value Theory

Freedom,the core of political philosophy, can be studied from not only epistemological perspectives but also value perspective. To look at freedom from the perspective of axiology is to understand freedom from the relations between man and freedom,to regard freedom as normative value and the ideal way of life and the value to pursue. When freedom is studied, it is inevitable to study equality,because both have very close relation. As we know,there is certain value conflict between freedom and equality. Justice is the way of temporary solution.From the perspective of epistemology, we can not do without the study of value, so this paper will discuss the different values of freedom from the perspective of epistemology. In this paper, the author distinguishes the values of freedom from the freedom values of western liberalism, Marx’s freedom values and the freedom values of socialism with Chinese characteristics.In the western political philosophy, the understanding of the value of freedom is contained in the discourse of liberalism. Benjamin Constant distinguishes the freedom of ancient and modern people’s freedom, that freedom of ancient people focuses on community and modern people’s freedom pays attention to the individual. Isaiah Berlin inherited and developed the idea of Benjamin Constant and distinguished between negative and positive freedom and the distinction has great influence for latter study.Classical liberalism pays special attention to the value of the negative liberty, and Neo liberalism advocate the value of positive freedom on the basis of classical liberalism. That means Neo liberalism also pay attention to the affirmation of equality and justice at the same time. In fact, no matter how the freedom values of western liberalism changes, the essence of which is an ideology of capitalist private ownership.Marx’s freedom values were founded on the basis of the criticism of the capitalist private ownership. According to Marx’s view, the bourgeois freedom values were very progressive and great meaningful against the feudal autocracy and hierarchy. However,after bourgeois class acquire the regime, the bourgeois rights obscures the class inequality.In fact, freedom has become propertied people’ freedom. Based on the social reality, through the critique of capitalism, Marx proposed new values of freedom, to eliminate private ownership and class society and establish a communist society, so as to achieve real universal freedom instead of being based on freedom of a few people.Marx’s freedom values is established on some premise, which is highly developed productivity and the great wealth. Its form is “the united body of the free people”. Thus, Marx’s freedom values is post capitalism, post political. However, in reality, the socialist society is based on that the capitalism has not been fully developed. Therefore, socialist freedom values is still political in nature.The freedom values of socialism with Chinese characteristics has formed gradually from the first leader Mao Zedong, by Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao with lessons from the Soviet model. The Communist Party of China has affirmed the value of freedom for socialism, and regard the freedom as the core values of socialism to carry forward. This paper argues that the laying freedom as the social level is not conducive to the manifestation of the value of freedom, should lay freedom as the goal of the national level to consider, the Chinese dream is not only the revival of the Chinese nation dream, but also the dream of freedom to all the people of China. The Chinese people under the socialist system should and can enjoy more freedom, this is embodiment socialistic advantage.From the perspective of modernity, it is found that the realization of freedom is confronted with a double challenge in contemporary China. Due to lack of bourgeois democratic revolution, democracy is not complete. Also due to the rapid development of market economy, market failure and the logic of capital is more obvious. Therefore, it is not only faced with the obstacles of the power alienation, but also the influence of the alienation of capital logic. The contemporary China has to overcome the dual challenges at the same time, also suffered the impact of globalization, the impact of the post modernity. This determines the complexity and difficulty of the realization of the value of freedom in contemporary China.Therefore, to realize the value of freedom in the socialism with Chinese characteristics, we must emphasize social justice, through the establishment of a justice system to ensure that all the people can share the fruits of development, so as to enhance the ability of all the people to realize the freedom. Under the socialist system,to realize freedom, the unification of positive freedom and negative freedom, the unification the unification of the individual freedom and the community freedom, the unification of instrumental freedom and purpose freedom, the unification of form freedom and substantive freedom,the unification of understanding freedom and practicing freedom should be uphold.Realization of freedom of socialism with Chinese characteristics depends on sublating capital logic with the public power and using market economy rationally, so as to provide a solid material foundation for the Chinese people, but also promote the construction of democracy and rule of law, and put the power in the cage of systems and overcome the alienation of power and to solve the problem of corruption.