重新理解贡献:共同富裕的一个伦理前提

The Notion of Contribution Reconsidered: One of the Ethical Preconditions for Common Prosperity

经历了从身份到契约的转变之后,以市场价值来衡量的生产性贡献被视为资源分配的一个决定性标准,这为社会公平和共同富裕的理想设置了观念障碍。但基于市场价值对生产性贡献的评价从技术上讲是不可靠的,其伦理价值也十分薄弱。无论是对贡献的合理评估,还是平等主义的分配,都需要一个前置性的社会想象作为参照,而经济和市场应当嵌入在这种社会框架之中。在这种超越市场模式的社会想象中,有一些不可还原为个人生产性贡献的共同资产,它们构成了共同富裕的物质与伦理基础,也扩展了我们理解贡献的价值光谱。在历时性社会再生产的过程中,人们能够以诸多非生产性的形式作出贡献,并配享社会的承认和尊严。

Productive contribution measured in terms of market value has been considered as the decisive criterion for resource distribution due to the transition from status to contract.But this hinders us intellectually from imaging social fairness and the ideal of common prosperity.The evaluation of productive contributions by referencing market value is technically unreliable,and it is of little ethical significance.A prior social imaginary as a reference frame in which economy and market are embedded is necessary for both rational evaluation of contributions and the pursuit of egalitarian distribution.In this social imaginary beyond the market model,a common asset irreducible to individual productive contributions constitutes the material and ethical foundation of common prosperity,and it widens the spectrum of values within which we think about the notion of contribution.People can contribute in non-productive forms during the diachronic social reproduction,and thus earn social recognition and dignity.