CHAPTER XI

HUMAN QUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

ZHANG HUAJIN

            This chapter concerns the importance of the quality of human life for the promotion of social progress, and correlatively the role of social space and communication in the improvement of the quality of life.

IMPROVING THE STANDARD OF LIFE AS

            A SYNTHETIC MEASURE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

            1. In the last analysis, the quality of human life includes two aspects: its spiritual character and the ability to know and to act. The former consists of ideals: values, moral consciousness and crea-tivity. The latter consists in knowing ways and means of shaping nature (e.g. using tools), and the capacity to organize and administer socio-economic development. These are intrinsically interrelated. Spiritual qualities plays a normative role in guiding knowledge and action. For example, science and technology are fundamental to the abilities to know and act. It is imperative that science and technology be guided by even the most advanced science and technology may fail to do so achieve this. At the same time, given today’s advanced science and technology the spiritual quality of life depends upon the quality of one’s ability to know and act, without which any advanced ideal and creativity would be rendered useless. The human person is an organic unity of spiritual qualities with knowledge and action.

            The over-all human quality can be described and generalized from various perspectives. In accord with China’s socialist moderni-zation, the quality of the contemporary Chinese can be characterized mainly by the "Four Possessions", i.e. of ideals, morality, culture and discipline". Though seemingly abstract, but these are popular and have profound significance for modern Chinese life. They empha-size the spiritual quality of human life, especially its ideals, morality and discipline. In working for the modernization of China, which is less developed but has a population of over a billion people, it is not conceivable that there will be one common ideal, a sense of morality, and the necessary discipline.

            At the same time, culture, science and technology are highly emphasized. These are not only important for raising the standard of living, they are indispensable for improving the abilities to know and act. Therefore, generally speaking, the "four possessions" include the development of human reason and intelligence, the enhancement of knowledge and action based upon modern science, as well as the enhancement of morality and life ideals. Naturally, the "four posse-ssions" are the main factors in the quality of human life. They do not exclude such qualities as "breadth of thought", "open mind", "plan-ning", and "respect for others", as is claimed by some foreign scho-lars. The concrete content of the "four possessions" necessarily will be enriched and deepened as practice develops.

            2. The developmental level of the productive social force usually is taken as the measure of social progress. Certainly, this is correct, but, it is neither the sole criterion nor an integral scale of social progress.

            Society is a complex system and the scale of social progress is comprised of three main aspects. (a) The level of development of the productive forces. This is the main scale and is of fundamental significance because the social productive forces are the primary basis for social guarantee increasing plenty in the material life of the members of society, but it provides a firm material basis for their mental and physical development. (b) The extent to which people are emancipated in their social relations is reflected mainly in the different developmental stages of the socio-political structure, e.g. the degree of realization of democracy and freedom. (c) The spiri-tual outlook of a society depends upon the state of the development of politics, economy, science and culture in a society, but is relatively independent. It is an important aspect of spiritual civilization and plays an important role in promoting the development and progress of society. Especially where worship of power, money and fame exists, such lofty life ideals and such noble moral qualities as goodness and honesty are the mental forces required for resisting various forms of corruptions.

            3. Analyzing these three aspects of social progress, it is possible to use the improvement of the standard of living and all-round development as a synthetic criterion of social progress be-cause all three aspects are closely correlated with human develop-ment. The improvement of the quality or all-round development of human life is the complex manifestation of these three aspects, the bridge that connects them.

            Human quality is decisive for the social productive force. The role played by productive means frequently is overemphasized, and they depend upon persons as their makers and operators. Indeed, this is "seeing things, but not man." Obviously, if the members of a society have a low level of culture, science and technology, then the productive force also will be low. This is shown in the UNESCO statistics for 1985,1 where the level of illiteracy of a country or area is in inverse proportion with its gross national product.

                        Illiterate in                              GNP ($)

            Area    total population                      (mean per

                        (%)                                          person)

World  27.7                                         2557

Developed countries     2.1                                           8324

Developed countries     38.2                                         656

Africa   54                                            629

Asia     36.3                                         960

Latin America   17.3                                         1671

Less developed countries          67.6                                         195

            The extent to which people are emancipated from poverty is a necessary criterion for social progress or development. It cor-relates closely with the quality of human life. In comparison with feudalism, capitalism is a progressive form for society. The mem-bers of capitalist society have been emancipated from the yoke of feudal production and have won autonomy and the rights freedom and equality in both the economic and the political relations. "Eman-cipation" and " freedom" are equivalent concepts. According to Marx’s doctrine, in the future ideal society the emancipation of hu-mans will reach a very high degree so that "eventually man will become master of his own social integration, and hence of nature and of himself -- a man for freedom."2 However, the further eman-cipation from the economic, political and other relations of society depends entirely upon the quality of human life, i.e. upon one’s ability to know and act. To reform the productive and other social relations which have bound humans, it is essential that they consciously demand reform, and in doing this the ability to act is also important.

            The spiritual outlook of society is an indispensable criterion of social progress. The ideal of life toward which humans strive is its spiritual support and the core of its spiritual force. Morality is the self-discipline of the human spirit; it is the interior law of one’s self-responsibility. The ideal of life and morality are generated from certain productive or economic relations in society and hence are determined by the material conditions of life, and vary as the eco-nomic and political relations of society are reformed. Different social systems and their developmental phases have their own life ideal and moral standards, some of which reflect not only the eco-nomic, political and cultural state of society, but also the develop-mental level of its quality of life.

            In the work of reform in China, it is increasingly realized that it is impossible to judge the development of socialist modernization based only on economic indices. Recently, for the guiding ideas and concrete measures we pay greater care to ordinary economic acti-vities but do not give sufficient attention to the all-round development of the quality of human life, its ideals and morality. Where the therefore has occupied great time, effort and interest. But there has been a failure in recent years to take account of the ideals and morality. Though non-economic, these factors could exert a tre-mendous influence upon economic development. Moreover, if one stresses the economy and slights the quality of human life, or stresses money and slights values and national consciousness and aspirations, it is difficult for the country to be economically suc-cessful. There is some progress in that now we stress more building the spiritual civilization of socialism ad strive to enhance the quality of human life. Therein lies the hope of socialist modernization.

ENHANCING THE QUALITY OF HUMAN LIFE

            AND DEVELOPING SOCIAL INTERACTION

            1. The present possibilities for development lie in social inter-action, namely, the mutual relations and exchanges in the economy, science and thought. In philosophical terms. social contact is the mutual subjective and objective exchange, through the medium of natural things of physical and mental products, between the indivi-dual (or person) and the community (such as state or area, group); also it is the basic pattern of individual actions which transform social activities.

            This interaction has great significance for social development, while at the same time guaranteeing that this retains all the elements of a human. Whether or not the productive forces especially inven-tion and creation are lost depend on the extent of these contacts in the process of development, There are cases in the Chinese past where a unique skill or secret medical care was lost because these were passed on only sons, not to daughters (Chuan zi bu chuan nu). Social contacts also could promote developments and the invention of scientific technology through the great vitality the inject. There are many instances of this, such as the four inventions of China gaining rapid development and application after spreading to Europe, and the transformation of the imperial examination system of ancient China into the civil service system in Western Europe.

            Through social contacts in economic cooperation, importing advanced scientific technology and exchanging talent have come distinct improvements in politics and the economy. After the second world war, the Japanese economy underwent rapid development due to economic and scientific exchanges. China has strengthened and extend such contacts both internationally and internally, and thereby developed is social economy and the spiritual outlook of the people. In other words, transforming a closed and stagnant econo-mic system into an open economic system has developed the pro-ductive forces. The country is now entering a new stage in which the economy will develop vigorously, the national power will be streng-thened rapidly and the well-being of the masses will improve re-markably.

            2. In order for social contacts to bring about great social pro-gress there is required an improvement of the quality of human life. First, social contacts change the aim and the scope of people’s pro-duction and activity; they broaden people’s outlook, raise their level of freedom and kindle their initiative and creative power. Secondly, social interchange enables ont to learn and absorb new cultural and scientific content; as a result the structure of people’s knowledge and the form of their thinking is changed and their ability to reflect and act is strengthened. For example, the ancient Greeks spent a good deal of time travelling within their country, to Egypt, etc. This shaped an open manner of thinking, and a tradition which could absorb other cultures and create a splendid ancient civilization. Third, social interchange impels a change in people’s values. un-doubtedly, by reason one can envisage an ideal of life, think through the overall situation, and form a vision of the whole. But, this under-standing depends upon broad contact and interchange the ideals of value which order objects of knowledge according as they are considered good or bad reflect also a people’s hopes and desires, which in turn, are bound to be reflected and judge in the process of social interaction.

            Since the transformation and the opening of China in 1978, people’s social contacts have become more widespread; the scope of their activity has been extended, their vision broadened, and their enterprise and initiative intensified especially, more close ideas of value and forms of thinking have been transformed and increasingly replaced by a new horizons oriented toward modernization, the world, and the future.

            3. Enhancing the quality of life depends upon social contacts and the implied social progress. Developments in the social economy provide a solid material foundation to enhance the quality of life by raising productive efficiency, this provides more "free-time", with opportunities to develop our cultural and scientific knowledge, and to engage in recreational activities. All this is good for health of mind and body, and enhances one’s capacities for thought and action. The more rapidly a country develops its economy, the higher its pro-ductive efficiency and the more time people have, beyond the pro-duction of material goods, eating and sleeping, for other activities which enhance their abilities of mind and action. "Free-time" has differed for ancient primitives, agricultural peoples (the era of a self-sufficient agricultural economy), and industrial workers (the era of socialized production). Throughout the development of the social economy and the increase of "free-time" has been the condition for enhancing the quality of human life.

            The life expectancy of primitive man: 18 years,

             the "free-time" of primitive man: 4 years.

            The life expectancy of agricultural man: 35 years,

             the "free-time" of primitive man: 11 years.

            The life expectancy of industrial man: 70 years,

             the "free-time" of industrial man: 36.33 years.

            In addition, information staff member’s free-time in indus-trialized countries are four hours and 18 minutes to four hours and 24 minutes each day (men), and three hours to three hours and 30 minutes daily (women). This is connected with the development of human ability: the higher the degree of civilization in the social system, the greater the degree of freedom of political thought. How-ever, arousing one’s latent potentialities and creativity is the con-dition for enhancing the scientific and cultural quality of the members of society. Strengthening the legal system and good moral habits are bound to enable the member of society to develop law-abiding and the moral sentiments. As social conditions exert a strong uplifting influence on people, social development enhances the quality of life and human abilities.

THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE MODERNIZATION                                   OF CHINA

            An important task now faced all countries is to enhance the quality of life. Long experience practice has led to the conclusion that it is necessary to make great efforts to enhance this quality in order fully to achieve China’s socialist modernization.

            1. China is one of the oldest civilized countries in the world, the wisdom and diligence of the Chinese people has been well known everywhere. Its economy, politics and culture have developed greatly since the initiation of the new China. It is still a developing country, however, with the largest population in the world. Because of many complicated historical causes, its economic and cultural development lagged, and developed in an imbalanced manner. In general, then the standard of life is not accord with the requirements of socialist modernization. An idea of the progress that had to be made can be gathered from the 1990 Department of Population Census announcement 15.8 percent of the total population is illiterate and semi-illiterate; among these 10.8 percent of teen-agers from 12 to 15 years of age are illiterate. Persons between 15-19 age receive less than a middle school education. In the industrial sector, experts and technicians are 2.8 percent of the total workers. The physical quality of the population is an important problem. The di-vorce rate is presently 1.5 percent, but rises to 17 percent in some region. There are 50 million disabled persons, among which 10 mi-llion are mentally handicapped.3 This situation of the population illustrates the gap between the quality of human life and moderni-zation.

            The character of the people has strongly affected China’s modernization. Though sometimes overlooked, historically the pro-duction rate of the country remained low, and were general phe-nomena of high-consumption and low-efficiency, higher imports than production. China has had great achievements since 1949 and reform and open door policy of 1978; recent years this has been astounding. This effects the quality with respect of the politics, eco-nomics, thought, culture, ethics, etc. of the Chinese people.

            2. The general quality of life and Chinese socialist moderni-zation have been receiving ever greater consideration by politicians and scholars. Experience shows that modernization depends upon the quality.

The quality of life is a consequence of history which, in turn, it effects. Under socialist conditions, the quality of the whole people is improved by lightening the burden of social production developing new relationships among the people on the basis of public ownership, and deeply transforming the entire face of society. This is a requisite condition if the moder-nization of China is to be a success.4

In recent years, the government has done much to enhance the quality of life. Across the spectrums from the center to the localities great efforts continue to be made. This important goal of the country involves the following tasks.

            (a) To emphasize education regarding ideals and morality. Common ideals and ethics are the spiritual support of our people, the symbol of the cohesion of the Chinese people, and the effective basis for modernization.

            (b) To develop the scientific and cultural levels of the nation and to diffuse education in science and technology. In the process of modernization, the economy is, of course, the first factor; but cultural development has been disregarded, and both must supple-ment each other. Enhancing the quality of life depends upon education and has been increasingly emphasized. But the educa-tional investment is low in proportion of GNP. For instance, through out the world it was 5.7 percent in 1985, but only 3.2 percent in China in 1987. This was lower even than some developing countries in Africa. Recently, the various levels of government have paid more attention to this problem; some private people also have set up schools and spread education. It must be a matter of great and perduring efforts to encourage the various levels of society to esteem knowledge, to respect the intelligentsia, and to emphasize education in sciences and culture.

            (c) To pay more attention to the construction of the legal system, and to develop legal education. The "person" is the embodi-ment of law and morals. John Locke, the English philosopher, said in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding that "Man is a term of law". Our country is one ruled by law: "To know law", "To observe law", and "To protect law" are both obligations of the people and qualities they possess. The government has enacted many laws and regulations. The Central Committee of the CCP and the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and the State Council decided that it would five years to spread a basic knowledge of law throughout the entire people of China. Significant achievements have been made in constructing the body of law and disseminating legal education; this trend will continue.

            (d) To emphasize birth control and eugenics as necessary for enhancing the nation’s quality of life. Unchecked growth of the population has retarded not only economic growth but the develop-ment and disseminate of technology and education, seriously ham-pering quality of life of the nation. Birth control and eugenics will be a significant problem for a comprehensive enhancement of life and relates even to national survival.

            (e) Physical culture and training contributes to the natural quality of a human life and increases one’s ability to act. On the one hand, it cultivates habits of application, of "firm and indomitable" endurance and of enterprise. The government and various social groups have invested a great deal of energy in developing physical-culture, and have had real achievements. However, there is still great unevenness in this regard whereas in some developed countries 50 percent of the total population engage in some form of exercise only 30 percent do so in China. More must be done to extend and intensify the physical quality of life.

NOTES

            1. Journal of Chinese Education, January 20, 1990.

            2. Friedrich Engels, Socialism from Utopia to Scientific Discovery.

            3. Life, August 1, 1990.