论社会进步的标准

社会进步主要基于公共生活演进的自然逻辑,而非应然的价值观和典章制度。如同"城池"是"社会文明"的最初门槛,社会的先进与落后主要反映在当今大都市的治理体系中。放弃而今流行的各种"两分"标准,着眼于国家在生存竞争中的兴衰,作者以两个前提下的三大标尺去解释和衡量社会形态的先进与落后。两个前提是:先进基础设施的密集程度和国防的强大程度。三大标尺是:维护公共财产及其使用秩序的程度,精算公权使用成本与收益的程度,以及劳动者再生产的社会化/均等化程度。可用三个要素证伪上述理论:能否粘合精英与平民,给较大规模的国家提供较强内聚力;能否对国外群体产生较强吸引力;能否为技术与知识的创造和普及提供较优越的环境。

On the Criteria of Social Progress

Rather than artificial norms and institutions,social progress lies in the evolutionary logic of public life. As"city"was the initial threshold for"social civilization"around five thousand years ago,we might explain and measure today’s social progress in the governance of metropolis. Rejecting the currently ideological"dichotomies",and emphasizing the rise and fall of nations in competition for survival,the author constructs three criteria under two preconditions to explain and measure social progress. The two preconditions:the density of advanced infrastructure and the strength of national defense. The three criteria:the degree of protecting public property and the order of its usage,the degree of precise cost/benefit calculation in using public power,and the degree of socializing/equalizing labor reproduction. We may use three indicators to falsify the above theory:the internal unity between elites and commons in a large country,the external appeal to other nations,and a better environment for improving the other two categories of"civilization,"namely,practical technology and abstract knowledge.