The Fusion Of Economic Man And Moral Man

Human nature is an eternal topic. Philosophers and thinkers past and present all over the world put forward different hypothesis: human nature is good or evil, or not good and not evil, or good and evil, etc. In a word, they are endlessly controversial and can not attain the consistent opinion. "Economic man" (human nature is evil) and "moral man" (human nature is good) are representative standpoints among these controversies.Incontestably, "economic man" is a sort of very important hypothesis of human nature, and "moral man" is a sort of great hypothesis of human nature. The traditional society in China figured unilaterally people for the ideal image of moral man, so people attained the monstrous development. Nevertheless modern western nations figured the ideal development mode of the human for "economic man" and belittled the religious morals personality by traditional Christianity's advocating, which caused the widespread alienation of human and deviated from the essence of the development of human nature. The socialism Utopian mode in the past tried to figure the ideal moral man through disavowing the economic man of the traditional market economy, thus resulted in the mistake of cognition for the socialism essence and in fettering the person's independence. The development of the socialism market economy inspires the vitality of "economic man", who is the market subject, but, viewing on moral and value of market subject, it results in the loss and quandary in many aspects.This thesis analyzes the eternal topic of human nature by demonstrating "economic man" and "moral man" and their relation, and considers that not only economic man or moral man but also the fusion of both work in society activity. This fusion always dominates human's economic activitv, moral activity, political activityand culture activity and so on, concretely incarnating in human behavior. But at different epoch because of different purposes thinkers either catch hold of economic man or emphasize on moral man, and also some thinkers consider economic man and moral man as two different aspects of human nature. Adam Smiths, an English classical economist, was the most famous representative. At the same time his two great works (The wealth of the Nations and The Theory on Moral Sentiment) also constituted the basis of this thesis. After his analysis and demonstration the author pays attention to the basis of human nature under socialism market economy, and tries to reconstruct a new hypothesis, that is to say, the fusion of "economic man" and "moral man". In the dissertation not only the possibility and necessity of this fusion are demonstrated but also its realistic and elicitation significance is stated.