On Jaspers’ Theory Of The Masses

Based on the reality of modern western societyjaspers proposed a series of concepts such as "the masses"," mass society","mass man","mass effect",and then set up his theory of the masses.In the discourse system of Jaspers,"the masses"refer to the modern westerners in "the Technology Age".Then a variety of different "the masses"got together forming the mass societywhile people living in such a society were called mass man by him.Jaspers thought,"the masses"were the person who lost independent consciousness,freedom and spirit.Their behaviors had to subject to the will of the group,the "mass effect"dominated their all actions.And the individuals existing as mass men had always followed the action principle "the minority is subordinate to the majority".Under this social mode,individuals had no personality,being the "average people’Un addition,"the masses"put the pursuit of pleasure as the purpose of their life.In fact,they had got into the spiritual crisis.Therefore,Jaspers established his own existence philosophy,which was regarded as the only way to help the modern westerners get out of the spiritual crisis. It was clearly wrong for Jaspers to attribute it to the modern technology.However,he emphasized the transcendence of spirit and human survival significance,which was positive views.The research on Jaspers’ theory of the masses not only helps us to learn about the modern western society and the living conditions of modern westerners,but also provides us with certain enlightenment about how to correctly understand and deal with the relationship between people and materials,people and technology.