Some people think that human nature is selfish, and human selfishness is absolute, eternal and universal. This wrong view once had a great influence on people, and now it still has a certain market in society. To correctly understand human nature and treat life correctly, we must thoroughly recognize its mistakes. First, the view that "human nature is selfish" regards human nature as human nature and confuses the difference between human nature and human nature. As early as the18th century, German materialists, such as Park Yung-soo and helvetius in Latin America, did not recognize the sociality of human beings and did not understand the essential differences between human beings and animals. Ramatri believes that people and animals are both machines, and people just have a few more "gears" and "springs" than animals. He regards man as a simple biological individual and thinks that all human psychology comes from the sensibility of the body. Helvetius concluded that based on this physical feeling, people will instinctively seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, seek happiness and avoid pain, so as to "save themselves" and draw the conclusion that human nature is selfish. It can be seen that human nature is selfish. To say that human nature is an animal instinct like an animal is a serious distortion of human nature and confuses the essential difference between human beings and animals. For Latin Americans Park Yung-soo, helvetius and others in the18th century, it is not surprising that they are limited by historical, class and scientific conditions and come to the conclusion that human nature is selfish. However, in today's scientific understanding of human nature, it is obviously wrong to remove moldy junk from the bourgeois ideological arsenal, deny and satirize selfless advanced figures, and show self-interest. Second, the view of "selfishness of human nature" denies the historicity of human nature. The essence of human beings changes and develops with the development of society. In every historical era, human nature is different. People's selfish ideas are not always there, but the product of the development of human society to a certain stage. As early as the primitive society, people had no selfish thoughts and human nature was not selfish. According to the survey of China historians, the Li people in Hainan Island lived in the deep mountains and forests before liberation, but they still lived a primitive clan life after liberation. They distributed the grain they received equally to each household, and whoever went out to catch a wild deer also consciously distributed it to each household. There, there is no private idea, no consciousness and vocabulary of "stealing". People's selfish ideas have never existed and will not exist forever. With the development of material civilization and spiritual civilization, selfishness will lose its market more and more, and will surely disappear with the realization of capitalist society. Saying that human nature is selfish does not conform to the historical facts of the development of human society. Third, the view of "selfishness of human nature" obliterates the class nature of human nature. In a class society, human nature is class-oriented, and people of different classes have different natures. Selfishness is the essence of all exploiting classes, not of all mankind. The view that "human nature is selfish" refers to the selfishness of the bourgeoisie and other exploiting classes as the nature of all people in society, which is completely wrong. In socialist society, private ownership still exists to a certain extent, the concept of private ownership has not been completely eliminated, and some people's selfish thoughts are still very serious. However, we must not just see the selfishness of some people and conclude that all people are selfish in nature. Bourgeois thinkers spread the view that "human nature is selfish", which reflects the selfish nature of the bourgeoisie and serves the maintenance of capitalist private ownership. We must recognize the essence of this view, abandon this erroneous view, correctly understand the essence of human beings, and lay a correct ideological foundation for establishing a scientific outlook on life. In the second (revised edition), many people say that human nature is selfish, but I don't think there can be an absolute answer to this question, that is, selfish or not. On the contrary, I think human beings only exist in relative selfishness or relative selflessness. For a simple example, when you see a drowning person who can't swim, you may just pay attention and have no real action, but if the drowning person is your girlfriend, even if you have never swam, you may go into the water to save him. Whether you turn a blind eye to other people's pain or try your best to help depends on the position of this "other person" in your heart. Compared with strangers and girlfriends, girlfriends are undoubtedly supreme in your heart. If you compare your girlfriend with your mother, your mother may be taller than your girlfriend. It is not difficult to see that compared with the same "them" and the same incident, you are selfish to strangers; You are selfless to your girlfriend or mother. So I say whether people are selfish or not is only a relative concept. As long as human nature exists, it can't be absolute.

Selfishness, that is, "only for yourself, only for personal interests"; Selflessness means "not only looking after your own interests" (Advanced Chinese Dictionary). Conceptually, "selflessness: not just taking care of your own interests", obviously, "selflessness" is also a relative explanation. The so-called "not only take care of your own interests", that is to say, while taking care of the interests of others, you should also consider your own interests; Or, on the basis of ensuring your own interests, think about the interests of others. Simply put, selflessness is based on a relatively small degree of selfishness.

Selfishness and selflessness belong to the category of morality. There are two typical theories about the origin of morality: one is the theory of "the will of God"; The second is the theory of human nature. "Theory of human nature" can be divided into two kinds. One is that morality is innate sympathy, moral sense or preset rationality that can distinguish good from evil; The other holds that morality originates from people's feelings and desires. But no matter which view, it doesn't reveal the true essence of morality. The history of scientific materialism tells us that morality is produced in a certain mode of production or economic relationship in human society, restricted by people's material life, and changes with the changes of social and economic relations.

Morality will change with the change of social and economic relations, and the standards of selfishness and selflessness have never been determined. The criteria for judging selfishness and selflessness will change with the different objective environment. In the same example, the evaluation of that person changes because of his behavior change; Because the environment has changed, so has his behavior. More broadly, the same behavior of the same person may be judged differently because of different environments. You spit the finished chewing gum into the trash can. In a society where everyone litters, you are selfless. In a society where everyone consciously abides by public morality, someone will ask you: Why don't you wrap the gum in paper and throw it away? Then you are selfish. This also shows that it is impossible to say that human nature is absolutely selfish or absolutely selfless.

Selfishness comes from inner desires, which can also be said to be a manifestation of individualism. Individualism is the opposite of collectivism. Understanding individualism in a broad sense means grasping the historical process of individualism development from the historical chain of the whole western culture, and understanding individualism in a narrow sense is the French political commentator Charles? 6? 1 Aleksi? 6? 1 Germany? 6? 1 tocqueville used the word individualism for the first time in his book On Democracy in America to summarize the political, economic, cultural and moral phenomena he saw in America. It was inspired by Tocqueville that later generations accepted the term individualism and extended it to summarize the whole ideology of the western bourgeoisie.

But we should understand individualism from two aspects: general individualism and extreme individualism. The so-called general individualism is the individualism expounded by Locke, Smith, Tocqueville and others. This individualism is a kind of "moderate" egoism from the perspective of human nature and ethics. It emphasizes individual standard, individual center and individual supremacy. Of course, it also emphasizes that people are selfish, but relatively speaking, it has the characteristics of "reasonable" egoism, that is, "subjectively for themselves and objectively for society"; The so-called extreme individualism not only emphasizes and highlights the individual, but also completely denies the value of society and others, and understands the freedom, equality, value, interests and rights of individuals as absolute, even at the expense of others to pursue their own value goals.

In real life, we can only advocate collectivism and guard against individualism. The proliferation of individualism will bring a lot of harm to society: it will lead to the corruption of social moral conditions; Leading to the deterioration of social interpersonal relationships; Lead to social disorder; Leading to the breeding and development of negative corruption; Leading to the spread of negative emotions and the disintegration of social cohesion; Leading to indifference of human nature; Leading to the lack of care in society and so on.

In addition, because people are relatively selfish, selfishness will naturally be associated with "evil human nature". Humanity is really an old topic, and it is also a topic with many answers. Confucius said that human nature is similar and acknowledged, but did not say what human nature is; Mencius said that human nature is good, Xunzi said that human nature is evil, Zhuangzi said that there is no distinction between good and evil, and so on. Most of the sages in China expounded human nature from the perspective of social ethics. After the Renaissance, the European bourgeoisie regarded human nature as perceptual desire, rationality, freedom, equality, fraternity and so on. Most of them explain human nature from the perspective of human's essential existence and natural rights, because they oppose the bondage of feudal system to personality. As for "evil" and "good", there is no conclusion so far.

Furthermore, regarding selfish desires, the Buddha emphasized that there is no emptiness; Tao said that "nothing" gives birth to "being" and "doing nothing without doing anything", which is consistent with the Buddhist view. However, despite the thirst of Buddhism and Taoism, all beings in the world are unwilling to give up their pursuit of selfish desires. Buddhists pay attention to merit and become Buddhists, while Taoists want to become immortals and live a long life. In fact, this in itself is a manifestation of desire.

The sages respected by the world can't answer the "evil" or "good" of human nature, so how can we conclude that selfishness is the expression of "inherent evil"? It is difficult for Buddhists and Taoists who are worshipped to be selfless. How can we ask all beings in the world to be selfless?

What is the standard of morality? It's hard to measure. A society has a social moral standard, which requires as many people as possible to approach. What are the moral standards of modern people? The carrier of morality is the consciousness of most people, which requires most people in this society to have a sound independent personality. Marx pointed out in the Outline of Feuerbach: "The essence of man is not an abstract thing inherent in a single person. In reality, it is the sum of all social relations. Human nature is realistic and concrete; Humanity or humanity is shaped by social relations; The content of life consists of complex and diverse social relations and social activities; Human nature will change with the development of social relations.

It can end like this. Selfishness is neither good nor evil. Selfishness is also the product of society. Morality is the defining standard of social good and evil based on "human nature". We should seek a suitable sample of the definitions of "selfishness" and "selflessness" and gradually push this boundary to "selflessness".