社会福利领域的利他主义和利己主义之争——基于历史角度的分析

The Debate on Altruism and Egoism in Social Welfare: A Historical Perspective

利己主义和利他主义构成福利领域行为动机考量的伦理基础。重视利他主义的福利制度设计多强调减少不平等,利己主义则倾向于个人的能力和追求自身福利的最大化。从社会福利的宗教伦理、经济学以及社会政策三个思想来源来看,其中的利己主义思想由于与资本主义自由经济的协同性而占据社会的主导意识。然而社会福利内在的利他主义和公平正义又成为社会经济体存续的重要因素,从而使得福利思想中的利他和利己主义的争论持续存在,主要集中表现于:福利是否需要奖惩机制,福利是否需要附加条件,福利采取普惠型和还是补缺型,福利在个体和群体之间分配的前提是基于原子式的还是伙伴关系。这些争议同样反映在我国现阶段社会福利实践中。对于福利制度急切要做的就是重新设计其目标,从制度层面来强化集体主义精神和利他行为的激励,以更好地维持整个社会系统的存续。

Altruism and egoism form the ethic foundation of motivation evaluation in the social welfare area. The welfare system design stressing altruism tends to reduce inequalities and that emphasizing egoism is in- clined to display individual ability and maximize private wellbeing. Seen from the three theoretical sources of social welfare, viz. religious ethics, economics and social policy, egoism has dominated the social ideology for its harmony with capitalist liberal economy, while altruism, together with equality and justice, which is inherent to social welfare, has become an important factor that sustains social economy. So there is a long- standing dispute between altruism and egoism in social welfare ideology; whether the social welfare needs a mechanism of reward and punishment, whether the social welfare should have additional conditions, whether the social welfare should benefit all residents or only those in need, and whether the precondition for distribution between individuals and groups should be an atomic relationship or that of fellowship. These controversies also exist in China's current social welfare field. For the improvement of the social welfare system, an urgent task is to redefine its objectives and strengthen the motivation of collectivism and altruism so as to sustain the operation of the entire social system.