On Tocqueville's Concept Of Public Spirit,

Alexis de Tocqueville was born in the noble family and he was regarded as an ideologist. At this time,the aristocratic society was transformed to the democratic society. Tocqueville described and analyzed the appearance and the development of the democratic society on the base of his keen observation and deep thinking. Public spirit was one part of his achievement.The essay tries to interpret the relevant Tocqueville thought on the theory of pubic spirit as the Point of view. The essay will follow the Tocqueville's idea of "alination-polymerization"to discuss the difficulty of public spirit in the democratic society and find the way to develop the public spirit in the democratic society.The equality, the display of the individual ration and the individualism are very popular in the democratic society.Meanwhile, every one pursuit of material comforts excessively and indulge in his or her private small world in the competitive and liquid social environment.There are many factors to make the person has the tendency of alienation and the public spirit is corrupted.The individual will face a new mechanism.Alexis de Tocqueville think that there should be a new political science in a brand new society. How to develop and master the public spirit,at the same time,to aggregate people together in the democratic society,will become an very important learning,especially face the alienation tendency among the person. The essay find out some Tocquevillei's ideas of "town autonomy,freedom of association,religion,civic education and the'correct understanding of the interests"'to develop and master the public spirit.Through these experiences and methods,people begin to interact and correlate with each other and understand the importance of community and public interest,instead of independence and no contact with each other.