Return To Value Governance:Research On Weber's Theory Of Technical Governance

With the rapid development of science and technology,the rationalization process of society has created a society for modern people to rely on technology to govern.Technological governance has brought human material civilization to an unprecedented height,but at the same time it has laid the trap of “modernity” for a society that relies heavily on industry and capital.Although the society under technical governance is efficient,people are only one “Part” in it;people build a bureaucratic system and a formal legal system through rationality,but the technicalized social system has gradually moved toward cold and substantial injustice;people have realized the objective world with the help of science and knowledge,and realized “The era of sorcerer and enchantment”,but the era of multiple values makes people seem to be at a loss when confronted with conflicts in the value field.Weber is pessimistic about the future of modern society,but he also pointed out the way to adhere to his own value beliefs in the “divine gods” of value diversity.Adhering to the responsibility ethic,adhering to its own value beliefs and realizing its own value governance in the society of technological governance is a feasible path to return to “meaningful life”.The first chapter of the article reflects on the challenges and even the crisis that the modern society under the technological governance has encountered in the process of social governance and social system construction since the industrial revolution,and puts forward the question of “how can technical governance be in trouble?” This kind of problem is not only a challenge that must be solved in the current social development,but also a structural problem that cannot be avoided in the future development for the late-developing countries that want to develop rapidly.The second chapter traces Weber's “rationalization” theory,discusses Weber's two important classifications of instrumental rationality and value rationality,formal rationality and substantive rationality,and studies Weber's proposed rule-type social domination(technical governance society).Instrumental rationality and formal rationality,value rationality and substantive rationality are interconnected to a certain extent,providing a theoretical basis for explaining that modern society is both a social governance society and a formal society.The modern rule of law society is the legal system dominated by Weber's language,which is the inevitable result of technological governance.The third chapter reviews the status and role of Protestant ethics in the development of modern capitalism in Weber's text,and observes Weber's judgment that modern society will move toward “iron cage”.Protestant ethics opened the door for capitalism in modern development,but instrumental rationality soon replaced the Protestant ethics as a value ethic and became the core concept of leading capitalist development.Instrumental rationality has brought a strong impetus to the development of capitalism,but it has also caused modern society to fall into the “iron cage” dilemma.The fourth chapter analyzes the value problems that people will face after the rationalization of value pluralism,and tries to point out the path of realizing their own value governance and returning to meaningful life through Weber's theory of responsibility ethics.Modern society should undoubtedly be a technology governance society,but technological governance does not exclude the substantive rationalization of value ethics.Returning to value governance is an important way to achieve social substantive rationality.