Honesty And Keeping Promise--The Soul Of Morality In Socialist Market Economy

Study on the philosophic problem in China should be based on the current social practice of China, and should be spread out under the present backgrounds, the focus of which is to pay close attention to building the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. With the gradual completion of the socialist market economy in our country, one of the philosophic tasks of present China is to analyze and survey the new problems occurring in the social economy when our economic system has transferred from the planned economy to the market economy, in order to provide some theoretical suggestions and practical instruction.In today's world, one of the prominent problems is in short of honesty and keeping promise, as it follows: firstly, the crisis of credit, the cognitive vagueness of credit and the increase in discreditable conducts. Secondly, the crisis of trust for which people hold dubious attitude, lose security sense and confidence. Lack of honesty and keeping promise has already seriously hindered the process of the establishment of the socialist market economy in china. Therefore, to check anew the value of honesty and keeping promise, especially in the context of socialist market economy, is the main concern of this paper.The paper is divided into three sections.Section One: It explores the implications and the nature of honesty and keeping promise. Firstly, it makes a historical survey and theoretical summary on the ideology of honesty and keeping promise, and points out that it is both as a kind of individual morals for a person and a general moral spirit for a whole society. Finally, by comparing honesty and keeping promise with honesty, contract and credit, theconclusion can be explained that the nature of honesty and keeping promise is a kind of behavioral performance from internal honesty and external keeping promise, which is mainly morals and a combination of honest quality and honesty and behavior of keeping promise.Section Two: It makes a study on the relation between honesty and keeping promise and economic activities. Above of all, economic relation determines honesty and keeping promise. Firstly, honesty and keeping promise is objective demands of economic development. In the view of history, the demands for honesty and keeping promise and the needs for the commodity exchanges began almost at the same time. Secondly, honesty and keeping promise is the reflections on the economic relationship. All the relationship of the exchanges, the property rights, the distributions and the mutual benefits can be included in the rule of honesty and keeping promise. Thirdly, at different period of history, the contents and the function of honesty and keeping promise vary, especially on the economic development. This paper explains that it has become an essential part in the present market economic society through the evolution: on the four stages-the primitive society, natural economic society, commodity economic society and modern market economic society. In a word, no honesty and keeping promise, no establishment of the market economy. Furthermore, honesty and keeping promise plays a reverse effect on the economic activities because it makes the activities operating successfully on schedule. It succeeds in improving the efficiency of the economic activities, in the respect of the choice of the exchange objects, the decrease in cost, realization of the commodity values, the launch of credit consumption and social investments, etc. At last, the paper draws a conclusion that honesty and keeping promise not only has the moral values but also has the economic values. And it is the dialectical unity of them.Section Three: The practical significance of study on honesty and keepingpromise. Honesty and keeping promise is the moral soul of the socialist market economy. Firstly, it analyzes the source of being short of honesty and keeping promise through the three aspects of traditional cultures, systems, and the moral constructions. Then, it can be divided into the three forms, hones...