On The Self-respect And Freedom

In this dissertation, the author tries to clarify the basic content of self-respect and its significance to the existence of human being, and also probes into the internalizing mechanism and externalizing mechanism of its becoming. Meanwhile, the author deeply discusses the internal connections between self-respect and freedom, self-respect and free personality, and gives a primary review on the current situations and future development of self-respect in the period of social transformation of contemporary China.As a kind of consciousness of being human, self-respects is the result of self-evaluation of the single individual of which the criterion is the species-essence of man, that is to say, free and conscious activity. As a rule, self-respect is usually connected to affirmative conclusions of self-evaluation. It will certainly become the basic norm when we deal with the relations between us and things and other human beings as long as we obtain self-respect. Self-respect has become the necessary condition of one becoming human being. The absence of self-respect results in self-abasement and self-obsession.Self-respect is always affected by some kind of social-cultural background. It depends on the subject ability and self-consciousness and is formed in the real social relations. Its formation is founded on the basis of activity mechanism of self-evaluation through and in which the subject interiorize the affirmative results of self-evaluation according to the species-essence of man. The multiplicity of self-evaluation and multi-hierarchical self-consciousness determine the complexity of the process of formation. Self-respect cannot exist without our respecting others. Therefore, the two aspects serve as mutual prerequisites. The meaning of one's self-respect is expressed through its externalization of which the two main real paths are social practice and communication activity. We regulate our social practice through self-respect and achieve the realization of harmony between man and nature; we regulate our communication activity to achieve the unity of self-respect and respecting others and realize the social harmony. Alienation, as opposed to man, makes us lose our essence and actuality. As a result, we may lose our self-respect. We must transcend alienation and develop our subjective initiative to regain our human essence.We regulate ourselves through self-respect and realize the freedom in the process of self-conscious and voluntary activity. Therefore, we show the beauty of our self-respect. We who have self-respect express our whole configuration in our activity and form our free personality which is the unity of truth, kindness, and beauty. Only when the free personality has its popularity in the public are we able to own it and achieve the real harmonious society. The beauty of self-respect is unity good and true. Who embodied the beauty of human and material self-esteem, and social harmony with others, which focus on showing in the free personality.With the development of contemporary China in its transformation period, we have many necessary social conditions for our build-up of self-respect and free personality. In the same time, we still have many negative respects in our development of self-respect and free personality. Therefore, we should construct social conditions and give full play to our subjectivity to build up and develop our self-respect and freedom.