从欲望的不知餍足到财富增殖的无止境——休谟经济哲学思想探析

From Unlimited Desire to Endless Proliferation of Fortune ——An Exploration of Hume's Philosophy of Economics

欲望竟然是财富增殖的幕后推手。18世纪思想家休谟的这一观点可谓惊世骇俗,影响着经济学的研究主题和发展进程。在哲学向度上,他把欲望界定为痛苦或快乐的情感体验,自私或慷慨的情感动机,并通过祛魅揭开了欲望的不知餍足的本性;在经济学向度上,他把欲望看成经济活动的根源:欲望是劳动的唯一动机,单个人的劳动产品无法满足欲望的多重性导致了交换,欲望无限与财富稀缺的对立,造成了私有制的分配方式,等等。然而,休谟彰显的欲望是自然性的欲望,从自然欲望的膨胀到社会财富的增殖之间存在断层。这种遗缺历史、物质维度的欲望致使休谟不能从根本上揭示欲望和财富之间的内在关联。但他从理论上对问题开启性的探讨,为斯密、马克思等后世思想家的理论创新预设了逻辑前提。

Desire is an actual force of the proliferation of fortune behind the scenes. This view of Eighteenth Century thinker Hume shocked the common customs, and affected the economic research topic and development process. In the dimension of philosophy, desire is defined as painful or pleasant emotional experience, selfish or generous emotional motivation. Hume discloses the insatiable nature of desire by disenchantment. In the dimension of economics, he regards desire as the basic reason of economic activity： desire is the only motivation of labor; exchange generates from the dissatisfaction between individual labor and multiple desire; the opposition between the infinite desire and scarce wealth, causes the private ownership of distribution. However, the desire of Hume＇s research is a natural desire. There is a break between natural desire and the proliferation of social wealth. Because of the break, Hume cannot find the inner connection between desire and fortune fundamentally.