On Social Belief

The theory of social belief is the basic theories for the formation, the development, the conflicts, the crisis and the construction of social belief. It strictly follows the unity of logic and history in dialectical thinking, trying to expound the general processes of social belief. It analyzed on the general course of Chinese and Western traditional social beliefs respectively and on the basic forms of modern social beliefs, then discussed the crisis and the construction of social belief, and lastly it established the fundamental principles of current social belief.Specifically speaking, the theory of social belief mainly concluded the following contents: the general theory of social belief, the developed course of Western traditional belief, the developed course of Chinese traditional belief, the basic forms of modern social beliefs, conflicts among the social beliefs, social belief crisis, and social belief construction, etc.(1) The general theory of social belief. The part of this thesis analyzed basic connotation, character and essence of belief and social belief respectively, and then discussed the interrelation of belief, social belief and individual belief. The thesis hold that belief is one of the spiritual phenomenon in mankind which is not only the overall understandings of the people to the world and their living but also is the total of fundamental value principles that are used to restrict and direct people's behaviors. Belief includes individual belief and social belief, the former is the belief owned by the individual subject while the latter is the ones owned by the social subjects. Differed from individual belief, social belief is a kind of public belief in a cultural community which resulted from the interactions of individual beliefs, and it in essence is the cultural community's pursuit, understandings and practice to the truth.(2) The developed course of Western traditional belief. At the course, the interrelation of the God and rationality is the key question and it can be divided into three stages which are social belief in ancient Greek and Roman times, Christian social belief in medieval times and Christian social belief in recent times. It highly regarded rationality in social belief in ancient Greek and Roman times, and the most remarkable representative this time Aristotle insisted that the God was only the first cause of the world and it followed rationality. Loving God was regarded as the core factor in Christian social belief in medieval times, and at that times Augustine considered that belief to God is to understand it, and Thomas Aquinas insisted that rationality is consistent with God, and Duns Scotus believed that rationality is dependent on belief in God. Since recent times science and rationality has got the tremendous development and finally Hegel showed clearly that the essence of God is rationality and Feuerbach has proved that the secrets of God is in the mankind itself, so belief in God goes to the end inevitably, that is named as "God died".(3) The developed course of Chinese traditional belief. Chinese traditional belief is a special contradictory unity comprised mainly of Confucian school, Taoist school and Buddhist school, in which the interrelation of Tao and De (morality) institutes the basic relation. Tao is the highest ontology in Chinese traditional belief, so the heaven, the earth, the ghosts and the gods, and all the other things were obeyed the Tao. Confucian school insisted on pursuing for "the highest Tao" by the way of Ren(benevolence), and Taoist school hold that "inaction" would be the only way to realize Tao, and Buddhist school believed that Tao or Dharma only is the void of world. De is benevolence, which is applied of Tao. From the remote antiquity to the Spring and Autumn period, worship for Sky God was displayed gradually as "worshiping God to win His trust by virtue". From the Sponge and Autumn period to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Confucian school, Taoist school and Buddhist school were continually formed, developed respectively at the same time they struggled against each other and mixed together. Until the Northern Song Dynasty, they were turned into a new Confucian belief, which is the belief of idealist Confucianism. Chinese traditional belief had a glorious aspiration with open-hearted and a wide field of vision, etc. and its disadvantages mainly displayed in overemphasizing individuals' ethics, ignoring improve to the surroundings and lacking of restriction to the power of autocracy.(4) The basic forms of modern social beliefs. Compared with the traditional social belief, the modern social belief was a new kind of social belief which centered on "God is dead" on the base of full development of modern industry, science, rationality, and individuals' freedom in Western society. It was mainly comprised of the belief of Communism, the belief of scientism and the belief of humanism. The eminent representatives who insisted on the belief of Communism were Marx and Engels, etc., and the representatives who insisted on the belief of scientism were Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, Antony Flew and others as same as the representatives of the belief of humanism were Nietzsche, Frued, Sartre and others.(5)Conflicts among the social beliefs. This refers to conflicting among different social beliefs. In this part, it discussed the concept, the type and the general causes of "conflicts among the social beliefs", and then analyzed the main conflicts among the traditional social beliefs such as Christianity, Islam, Confucianism and others, and finally analyzed the main conflicts in the modern social beliefs - conflicts between the Communist belief and the belief of liberalism.(6) Social belief crisis. In this section, it discussed the concept, the type and the general causes of "social belief crisis", and then analyzed the truth crisis of traditional social beliefs - God's existence, as well as the crisis of modern social beliefs. In traditional beliefs, it was unsatisfactory even though contemporary Christian scholar Alvin Plantinga, Swinburne and others provided some new arguments for the existence of God, for their arguments can not save fundamentally the traditional social beliefs from the truth crisis. In addition, the crisis which modern social beliefs are facing to may be more serious, such as: overemphasized on science and technology, while ignored the ethical rationality and aesthetic rationality; overemphasized people's subjectivity in truth, and thus abolished the value of man's understandings, and it bore the deadly attacks from post-modernist who belongs to modernism in essence, so that the modern social belief is deep in confusion, contradiction and even absurd.Finally, it proposed the fundamental principles of reconstruction of social belief in the present age in the thesis. First of all, Marx's belief should be used to lead the spirit of the times, for Marx's belief is the relatively comprehensive unity of humanitarianism and naturalism, which not only requires to realize the freedom, equality, fraternity of people in the social political level, but also to achieve the freedom, equality and full development of people in the social economic level. Secondly, it should be pay adequate attention to the value of the traditional beliefs in the present days. The traditional beliefs continue to exert a positive influence nowadays, so we should try my best to reform traditional social beliefs and adapt it to the modern scientific knowledge. Thirdly, the multi-beliefs should be coexisted so as to promote the development of social beliefs. The spiritual freedom is a necessary condition for developing truth, and we could develop fully the truth only through dialogues, communications and even conflicts of various social beliefs, so we should try our best to prevent some wrong political, economic and other specific measures from the development of spiritual freedom.