Introduction Of Consumer Philosophy

Consumption is an important aspect of society and economy and is of great significance not only to the existence and development of human being but also to the advancement and evolution of society. In real life, however, there are still some consumptive issues that need to be further studied. Further, there are some issues that are concerned with the nature of consumption and need to be investigated from the perspective of philosophy, that is, we need to study the philosophical problems of consumption, which is the purpose of this dissertation. For achieving that purpose, I make a philosophical study to consumption here under the guidance of Marxist philosophy and advocate a scientific view of consumption to facilitate"all-round free development of man"and social advancement and development.In the introduction, I explain the reasons for selecting this subject, review the history and present situation of the study on the philosophy of consumption, and describe the significance of this study and the methods of study applied in this dissertation.In the first chapter, I make a survey of the theories of consumption to make theoretical bedding for the analyses of the philosophy of consumption hereafter. I focus on Marx and Engels'theories on consumption and summarize their basic viewpoints related to it. Meanwhile, I introduce the thoughts of consumption in contemporary western society that have mostly influenced our country, and summarize the primary achievements of our study on the philosophy of consumption.In the second chapter, I analyze such content as the meaning, attributes, and elements of consumption. By an analysis of different definitions of consumption in different disciplines, I extract the philosophical meaning of consumption, that is, consumption is a process in a specific consumptive condition during which the subject of consumption, affected or dominated by some consumptive ideas, uses the object of consumption to meet its needs to survive and develop, which include objectification of subject, subjectivity of object, and assimilation of subject and object. By an analysis of the attributes of consumption, I describe the natural, social, spiritual, and cultural attributes of current consumption. I also analyze the elements of consumption: subject, object, and condition, and expatiate the relations between them.In the third chapter, I review the historical development of the thoughts of consumption. Firstly, I review the evolution of the thoughts of consumption in traditional Chinese culture, and analyze their characteristics and influences. Secondly, I review the evolution of the thoughts of consumption in western economics, and analyze the thoughts of consumption in pre-classic economics time, classic economics time, and modern and contemporary economics time respectively. Finally, I focus on consumerism. I analyze the backgrounds, primary characteristics, relation with alienation of consumption, adverse affection, and critique from theoretical circles of consumerism. I also present some countermeasures to control and eliminate consumerism by analysis of its expansion in our country.In the forth chapter, I elaborate on the scientific view of consumption. Firstly, I define the meaning of the scientific view of consumption. I hold that the scientific view of development is a series of systematic and fundamental viewpoints and theories concerned with consumption that are formed in the practice of consumption under the guidance of the scientific view of development. I also hold that the scientific view of consumption is the application and expansion of the scientific view of development in the field of consumption, is a"human oriented"view of consumption that is to facilitate all-round development of man and harmonious and sustainable development of society, and is a view of advocating reasonable consumption. Secondly, I discuss consumptive labor. I hold that consumptive labor realize and create value too. On basis of that, I further discuss evaluation of consumption. I put forward the standard of"three benefits", that is: whether to benefit the advancement of productivity, whether to benefit the facilitation of all-round free development of man, and whether to benefit the promotion of harmonious development between man and nature. Finally, on basis of the above, I classify consumption from the perspective of its essence, and discuss some issues that should be considered when evaluation of consumption is applied.In the fifth chapter, I discuss the relation between consumption and the development of the subject of consumption. Firstly, I analyze the significance of consumption to the subject of consumption. Secondly, I analyze the manifestations and influences of alienation of consumption. Finally, based on the introduction to Marxist theory on all-round free development of man, I analyze the effects of consumption on free development and all-round development of man respectively.In the sixth chapter, I discuss the relation between consumption and social development. Firstly, I review the theories concerned with consumer society. I analyze the definition and chief features of consumer society, review the critique to consumer society from scholars, and discuss the primary problems presented in current consumer society. Then, I discuss how to consume scientifically to promote social development. Based on the analysis of the significance of consumption to social development, I describe the general situation of consumption in the social transformation of our country, analyze the restrictions to the development of consumption in our country, and put forward some measures and proposals related to scientific consumption to promote social development.