经济与人本:关于科学发展观的两个基础理论分析

Economy and Humanity: Fundamental Theoretical Analyses of the Scientific View of Development

以人为本的经济发展涉及“人”与“经济”两个意义相异又相互依存的世界 ,而其本质则是作为主体的人在经济社会全面发展中的价值与地位问题。经济发展的终极目的与终极价值 ,不是物质 ,也不是偏好满足的效用 ,而是人的快乐 ;经济发展的终极约束不是自然资源 ,不是货币资本 ,而是作为主体的人力资本自身。这是人与经济的本质关系。终极而言 ,经济发展中的成本与收益是归结于人类自身的。人不仅是经济发展的终极目的 ,而且还是实现自身目的的根本手段。这一将目的与手段皆抽象为人类自身的生命现象来解释经济发展的观点 ,是人本经济学的根本出发点 。

The scientific view of development (SVD) put forward by Chinese economists refers to a theory of planned and coordinated socio-economic development with the fundamental value-the needs of both rural and urban populations - as its prerequisite. The SVD features humanistic ideas and harmonious development.Involving humanity and economy, which are different yet interrelated, the SVD in nature addresses the value and status of humans, the subject of economic and social development. Based on this theme, this article demonstrates the fundamental theoretical value contained in the humanity-oriented economic theories, through an analysis of the philosophical contents of humanistic thoughts and historical context that gave birth to the said economic theories. A comprehensive understanding of the SVD will lead one to take humans not only as the ultimate objective of, but as the basic instrument of, economic development. Following this, the article focuses on the theoretical elucidation on the two core propositions regarding the ultimate objective and the ultimate instrument. The first proposition concerns the value criterion that the ultimate objective of economic development is rather the happiness of human beings than material satisfaction or a preference for its effectiveness. The article comes to revealing that happiness is the one and the only rational ultimate objective of economic development, thereby justifying the scientific value of the SVD by expounding the theoretical mechanism of the proposed criterion, analyzing human behavior under the influence of materialism, and complementing the modern theories of utilitarianism.The second proposition concerns viewpoints from what is known as the TOC (theory of constraints) that the ultimate fetters of economic development lie in neither natural resources nor money capital, but in human capital itself. Through an in-depth analysis of the scarcity theory of economics, the article argues that the scarcity of economic resources is fundamentally caused by the scarcity of human resources, thereby establishing the theory of relative scarcity and the scarcity of human capital. The views abstracted from the said objective and instrument of economic activities which are used to explain the development with life phenomenon of human beings provide two basic theoretical frames for the full establishment of the SVD.Finally, by relating theses theoretical analyses to the realistic development, the article holds that the importance of theoretical debates lie ultimately in the provision of guidance for the SVD.