Study Of Harmonious Social Man Under The Perspective Of The "Adam Smith Problem"

Thanks for its reform and opening up policy, China has made impressiveeconomic progress in the past 30 years, but social problems accompanying theprogress, including moral decline, have also cast some shadow on people's life.In-depth exploration of morality and humanity has been triggered by issues concerningpeople's well-being, such as the worrisome food security nowadays, along with thoseconcerning values, such as repeatedly reported troubles caused by the officiallings aswell as the second-generation rich. On the one hand, the rapid economic developmenthelps to solve our country's basic contradiction, and meanwhile contributes to thegrowth of cultural as well as political production relations. On the other hand, as aresult of the restructuring of economy, human beings serving as the social practicesubject, also undergoes some transformation. Market-oriented economy whichemphasizes individualism makes it possible for human nature to be set free, and in turn,subject consciousness is becoming increasingly visible. Blind pursuit of profit, in thecase that the majority of ordinary people are in lack of conviction, leads personalvalues distorted even before they are shaped. Excessive release of self-serving side inhuman nature goes beyond people's bearing capacity and moral baseline. The socialgeneral system makes instant response to the alarming signal --- the unbearable.Market-oriented economy in socialist society, focusing more on proletarianness ofmarket players, and thereby ignoring the self-serving nature inherent market economy,creates the origin of egoism in human nature. On the premise of affirming egoism inhuman nature dealt with in"The Wealth of Nations,","The Theory of MoralSentiments"introduces merchant class into moral construction realm and renders it thequalification of moral subject. Thus, egoism in human nature is combined organically with economic development, promoting and complementing each other, and boostingthe coordinated advance of the social system. Problems originated in the"Adam SmithProblem"concerning the relations between"egoism"and"altruism"in human nature,between"economic man"and"moral person", and even between economy andmorality, remain in suspension for a long time.In China, human beings act as the subject in economic construction, economicdevelopment, and moral construction. In addition, human beings play the mostdecisive role in solving contradiction between economy and morality. Interpretation ofhuman nature under the framework of the"Adam Smith Problem"conforms to thereality in China. As an initial as well as historic achievement made during course ofstudying Adam Smith's thought, the"Adam Smith Problem"is hopefully to lead to amore profound comprehension, and hence helps to capture the nature and connotationof the problem. Time has changed the manifestations of the"Adam Smith Problem",but time cannot change its position as the major theme in exploration of human nature.Through a chronological analysis of egotistical empiricism, utilitarianism, rationalismto unique selfishness and self-love in humanism from both philosophical and ethicalperspectives, the connotation, denotation, together with their application scope ofconcepts including self-interest, egoism, rational egoism and individualism are defined.A conclusion that humanity should also be estimated under a cross-over point has beenreached. Deficiency of traditional hypothesis about"economic man"is pointed out,and the evolving process from traditional hypothesis about"economic man"to the newhypothesis is analyzed. With natural selection theory, kin selection theory as well asreciprocal theory involved, both philosophically and biologically, analysis of altruismis conducted, three major categories of altruism being discussed including purealtruism, kin altruism and reciprocal altruism. Application and distribution of eightderivatives of altruism falling into subjective, objective, conditional, unconditional,obligatory, systemic, dominant, and recessive types are also introduced. Two factorsthat have the ability to influence altruism are produced, and they are pro-socialattributes and empathy. Borders of altruism are extended, and its influence in the part of moral person is magnified.Due to holistic comprehension of egoism and altruism, three shared attributesimplicit in the two have been made out, namely motive, behavior and outcome.Normative analysis contributes to the presence of distribution patterns of egoism andaltruism in human nature. The shared attributes embodied by both egoism and altruismmake human nature addable in social practice like materials production, based onwhich, function regularity, mechanism and path of egoism and altruism are examinedfrom the perspective of micro individuals and legal persons, as well as macro socialsubject. The equilibrium law of the "Adam Smith Problem" is detected. Empiricalanalysis of historical events is conducted to verify this law. It is found that imbalancesin real society related to the"Adam Smith Problem"can be corrected. Pareto methodsare suggested to obtain improvement from individual and systemic angles respectively.At last, the paper put forward proposals about constructing harmonious society withconsideration of our nation's reality.