First of all, the development of spiritual civilization and material civilization needs a harmonious relationship between them. Judging from the influence and restriction of material civilization on the development of spiritual civilization, material civilization is the material basis and means for the development of spiritual civilization. The more material production develops, the richer material products are, and the more spiritual production and spiritual life can develop. The development degree of material civilization determines and restricts the development scale and level of spiritual production. The process of spiritual production is not only the reflection of human brain's understanding of the objective world, but also the materialization of spiritual products, and the processing, transmission and storage of spiritual product information. Whether it is the process of cognitive reflection and materialization, or the process of information processing, transmission and storage, it depends on certain material conditions and means. The more developed material production and material civilization are, the more material tools can be provided for spiritual production to change the real object. Material materials materialize spiritual products, and material means convey spiritual products. The more people can effectively understand nature, society and thinking in depth and breadth, the more they can develop and enrich the forms and categories of spiritual production.
It can effectively engage in all kinds of spiritual production and "cast" rich and exquisite spiritual products. Material conditions and means play a very important role in scientific research. When people have no other material means to use and only rely on physical senses, the vision and field of scientific research are limited. It is precisely because of the development of various observation tools, telescopes, microscopes and accelerators that the horizons and fields of scientific research have been expanded and developed, and people can advance to the cosmology and microscopic fields and reveal the secrets of the material world. The creation and production of artistic works also depend on material conditions and means. Conceiving a novel and nurturing various artistic images is of course a mental activity in the minds of novelists and artists, but to record novels and express various artistic images, we must rely on various material means and materials. As for movies, TV and electronic music, they are more associated with electronic equipment. Education didn't seem to need much material conditions in ancient times, but modern education was closely combined with modern material conditions. Various audio-visual tools have greatly changed the way of knowledge dissemination, rapidly expanded the speed and scope of knowledge dissemination, and education has truly become a socialized cause. The influence and restriction of material civilization on spiritual civilization is more manifested in the improvement of production tools and the development of material civilization to promote the development of material production. Material production activities not only transform nature, but also transform the relationship between producers themselves and people. With the formation of new relations of production in history, new ideas and spirits are always formed in social consciousness. In class society, the process of social form change is often accompanied by the process that the spiritual civilization of the advanced class overcomes and replaces the thoughts and consciousness of the decadent class. As far as the influence and restriction of spiritual civilization on material civilization are concerned, spiritual civilization is the spiritual condition and means for the development of material civilization, and the construction of spiritual civilization provides talents, theory and social conditions for the construction of material civilization. Man is an important factor of productivity, so are ideological consciousness, moral sentiment, discipline concept, labor experience, production skills and scientific knowledge. It is the organic combination of these factors that constitutes a realistic worker. The function of spiritual civilization is not only to explain the world, but also to guide people to transform the world. In a certain sense, the production process of material civilization is the process of combining spiritual civilization with natural objects and the process of materializing spiritual civilization into material civilization. Social relations that embody spiritual civilization also have a great influence on material production. Therefore, spiritual civilization affects and restricts the development level of the production process of material civilization and determines the social purpose and nature of the production process of material civilization.
Secondly, the control, management and development of social systems also require their coordinated development. What does the social system depend on to regulate, manage and control? Rely on material production, material civilization, spiritual production and spiritual civilization. Material production realizes the exchange of material and energy between social and natural, and the achievements of material production constitute the material basis for the existence and development of social system. All superstructures and ideologies are based on certain productivity and production relations. Spiritual production realizes the information exchange between cognitive subject and object. As the result of spiritual production, spiritual civilization contains information between social and natural, various elements within society and people. Relying on this information, people can coordinate the relations in social and natural, various elements within the social system and interpersonal relations, enhance human's ability to resist and transform nature by developing productive forces, adapt to the requirements of the development of productive forces by adjusting or changing production relations, and adapt superstructure and ideology to the requirements of the economic base. Therefore, spiritual civilization not only has the function of reflection, but also has the function of control and adjustment. Therefore, material civilization and spiritual civilization are two indispensable aspects of social control and management. To manage and control a social system, social managers and controllers should not only rely on the material strength of reality, but also rely on the spiritual strength of thought.
Third, the overall task we are facing now and the production target we will achieve in the future also require the coordinated development of spiritual civilization and material civilization. Comrade Hu Yaobang pointed out in the report of the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the general task of the Party in the new historical period is to unite the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country, work hard through self-reliance, gradually realize the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defense and science and technology, and build China into a highly civilized and democratic socialist country. In order to achieve this general task, we need to coordinate the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and material civilization. Only material civilization construction or spiritual civilization construction can not accomplish this general task, nor can it guarantee the future development of our society.
▲ What is the coordinated development of two civilizations?
The coordinated development of spiritual civilization and material civilization means that the development of spiritual civilization should meet the requirements of the development of material civilization, and the development of material civilization should also meet the needs of the development of spiritual civilization. Therefore, coordinated development requires not only one party, but only one party to coordinate with the other, but both parties. If the development of one side does not adapt to the development of the other side, it will be unbalanced. As far as spiritual civilization is concerned, the development of material civilization will put forward requirements for the development of spiritual civilization The development of material civilization needs all kinds of talents, not only workers with certain ideological consciousness and production skills, but also experts and engineers with certain ideological consciousness and various professional knowledge. It also requires people to establish and develop social relations that meet the requirements of material production, and requires a stable and United political situation and social environment. The realization of these requirements depends on the construction of spiritual civilization. One of the purposes of building spiritual civilization is also to promote the development of material production. Therefore, no matter from the requirements of material production or the purpose of spiritual civilization construction, we are required to consider the development requirements of material civilization when building spiritual civilization, so as to adapt and coordinate it with the development of material civilization. As far as material civilization is concerned, the development of spiritual civilization will also put forward requirements for the development of material civilization. The development of material civilization should provide material conditions and means for the construction of spiritual civilization.
The most fundamental purpose of our material civilization construction is to meet the people's growing needs, which are both material and spiritual. This requires us to consider the requirements of spiritual civilization construction and development while developing material civilization, so as to adapt and coordinate it with the requirements of spiritual civilization development. In a word, the mutual adaptation and satisfaction of spiritual civilization and material civilization is a coordinated development.
The coordinated development of spiritual civilization and material civilization is both qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative coordination. That is, two civilizations should adapt to each other's requirements in nature or quality. The construction of material civilization we are engaged in today is carried out under socialist conditions, with the aim of building a highly civilized and democratic socialist country. This requires that our spiritual civilization is socialist in nature and centered on the ideology of * * * productism. Ideologically, it requires the working class's Marxist world outlook and scientific theory, the ideal, belief and morality of productism, the idea of ownership and collectivism adapted to socialist public ownership, and the concept of rights and obligations and organizational discipline adapted to socialist political system. It needs the dedication to serve the people and the working attitude of capitalism, socialist patriotism and internationalism, the most important of which are revolutionary ideals, morality and discipline. In terms of culture, it is required to develop various cultural construction undertakings, not only to improve people's knowledge and health level, but also to improve people's ideological consciousness and moral level. Mass entertainment activities should also let the people enjoy the noble spiritual taste. While material civilization meets the requirements of the development of spiritual civilization, there is also a quality problem.
The so-called coordination in quantity means that the construction of two civilizations should also adapt to each other's development requirements in quantity and scale. Education, science, literature and art, press and publication, radio and television, health and sports, libraries, museums and other cultural undertakings and mass entertainment activities all have a problem of quantity and scale. The quantity is small and the scale is small, which can not meet the development requirements of material civilization. Excessive quantity and scale can not be supported by our existing material and financial resources, and will also affect the improvement of people's material life. Obviously, shortage and surplus are not conducive to the development of material civilization. Therefore, when considering the quantity and scale of the development of cultural undertakings, we should have a scientific strategic vision, not only to see the recent requirements of the development of material civilization, but also to see the requirements of the development of material civilization after ten or twenty years. There is also a problem of quantity and scale in ideological construction, that is, the scope and degree of an idea spreading in society. Comrade Hu Yaobang said in the report of the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "Of course, we can't ask every member of society to be a capitalist, but we must ask party member, League members and all advanced elements to educate and influence the broad masses through them." There is a problem of quantity here. First of all, party member, League members and all the advanced elements produced by * * * have a quantitative problem, and they occupy a certain number and proportion among all members of society. Secondly, the word "vast" in front of the masses also has quantitative significance. If we don't ask every youth league member and all advanced elements from * * * party member, or youth league members and advanced elements from * * * party member not to educate and influence the masses by the ideology of * * *, then the spread scope and degree of * * * ideology obviously can't meet the needs of developing material civilization and socialist construction, or even the needs of socialist spiritual civilization construction itself. It can be seen that the quantity and scale of ideological construction should also be coordinated with the requirements of the development of material civilization.
Coordinated development does not mean equal development of machinery, nor does it mean equal use of power in the construction of two civilizations. The development of material civilization and spiritual civilization is a contradiction. Like any other contradiction, in the process of coordinated development of two civilizations, the two sides will not be absolutely balanced. When the development of one side has a significant and decisive influence on the coordinated development of two civilizations, it should be allowed to take the development of one side as the main problem to realize the coordinated development of both sides. Of course, when the other side becomes the main aspect to realize the coordinated development of the two civilizations, it should also lose no time to transfer to the other side. In this way, from a local point of view, different stages of the coordinated development of the two civilizations can have different emphases, while from the overall and process point of view, a long chain of coordinated development has been formed.
▲ How to realize the coordinated development of two civilizations?
As the product of human activities, as material wealth and spiritual wealth, it is impossible for the two civilizations to interact directly. Their interaction is only based on human activities, labor and practice as a bridge and intermediary. Material products and material wealth have certain use value for people, but this use value can only be "activated" if it re-enters the process of human activities, shows its significance to the process of spiritual civilization creation and plays a practical role in the process of spiritual civilization creation. Similarly, the significance and value of spiritual products and spiritual wealth to people lies in guiding people's actions. Only when people engage in material activities can they be shown and play a role as a factor in the creation of material civilization. Therefore, in order to realize the coordinated development of two civilizations, we must understand the relationship between human activities and two civilizations, and understand the interactive mechanism of two civilizations through activities.
There is a relationship between human activities and civilization, which is mutual premise and mutual restriction. As far as civilization is the product of human activities, the structure of human activities restricts the structure of civilization, the structure of material civilization and spiritual civilization, and the mechanism and way of their interaction through activities. Human activities can be divided into material activities and spiritual activities, human products can also be divided into material products and spiritual products accordingly, and human knowledge can also be divided into material forms and spiritual forms accordingly. The object of human activities is nature and society, so the material achievements of human transformation of nature are called material civilization, while the achievements of social transformation are the establishment and development of new production relations and new social and political systems, while the achievements of human spiritual activities are spiritual civilization, which can be divided into spiritual achievements of understanding nature and spiritual achievements of understanding society. Human activities can be divided into production activities and life activities. Production activities are the process of producing the material and spiritual materials needed by human beings, so production can be divided into material production and spiritual production. Life activity is a process in which human beings consume all kinds of material and spiritual materials, so life can be divided into material life and spiritual life. Therefore, the interaction between the two civilizations is embodied in four ways and channels, namely, material production, spiritual production, material life and spiritual life. Because these four activities are interrelated and mutually restricted, the interaction between the two civilizations has become very complicated. As far as civilization is the condition of human activities, the development degree of civilization determines the way and structure of human activities, the level and scale of human activities, and the internal differentiation and combination of human activities. This mutual influence and restriction between human activities and civilization makes the structure of activities, the structure of civilization and the relationship between the two civilizations have the nature and characteristics of the times and history. The requirement of the coordinated development of the two civilizations not only arises from the historical process of people's activities, but also is realized in the historical process of people's activities. In other words, apart from the historical process of human activities, there is no relationship between the two civilizations, and there is no problem of adaptation and coordination. Only by analyzing the structure of human activities and the relationship between human activities and people's demand for spiritual civilization and material civilization can we clarify the relationship between the two civilizations and realize their coordinated development.
Some comrades believe that material civilization is the material condition and foundation of spiritual civilization creation activities, but it does not exist as the object and object of spiritual civilization cognition and reflection. In fact, material civilization is not only the material condition and foundation, but also the object and object of human practice and cognition. Although material civilization is used as a material condition and foundation in the creation of spiritual civilization, the process of using material civilization is also a process of understanding the used material civilization. On the one hand, the cycle of practice, cognition, re-practice and re-cognition is realized through the continuous transformation of material civilization as material conditions and cognitive objects. The development process of material civilization is not only the transformation from natural objects to material civilization, but also the transformation from the previous generation of material civilization to the next generation of material civilization, which is the combination of these two processes. Therefore, the relationship between material civilization and spiritual civilization is also manifested in human practice and cognitive activities. Of course, we can't simply equate the relationship between spiritual civilization and material civilization with the relationship between spirit and material, but when we see the difference between these two relationships, we should also see the connection between them.
Material life and spiritual life are two indispensable aspects in people's lives. Material life is the material basis of spiritual life, which stipulates and restricts the social purpose and significance of material life. People with different world outlook and outlook on life will adopt different purposes and attitudes towards material life. People with revolutionary ideals will regard material life as a condition for realizing revolutionary ideals and strive for * * * productism. People who lack revolutionary ideals will regard material life as their only purpose in life. The latter kind of person, the more affluent the material life, the more vulgar the spiritual life will become. It can be seen that the improvement of material living standards will not spontaneously bring about the improvement of people's ideological consciousness. With the existing social conditions, we can enrich people's spiritual life with spiritual products, change people's spiritual outlook with spiritual strength, improve people's spiritual realm with spiritual means, and reveal people's spiritual value with spiritual civilization. Therefore, while constantly improving and improving the material life of the masses, we should use socialist spiritual civilization with ideology as the core to improve the ideological consciousness of the masses and enrich their spiritual life.
On the surface, the relationship between natural science and social science is only the relationship between different departments within spiritual production. However, natural science, as the spiritual achievement of people's understanding of natural laws, is a potential productive force, which is directly transformed into material civilization through production activities, and material civilization is only the materialized form of natural science theory. Therefore, although the development of natural science also provides conditions for the enrichment and development of people's spiritual world, its more direct role is to promote the creation and development of material civilization. Social science is the spiritual achievement of people's understanding of society, and it is a theory about various relationships between people. Therefore, social sciences directly provide people with ideological spiritual civilization (of course, some social sciences are directly related to the creation and development of material civilization). In this way, the relationship between natural science and social science also reflects and shows the relationship between material civilization and spiritual civilization. If we only develop natural science or social science, it will also lead to the disharmony between material civilization and spiritual civilization. The importance of natural science to the development of material civilization is easy to see and understand, but the significance of social science to the creation and development of spiritual civilization and material civilization needs further understanding and attention. Only by correctly handling the relationship between natural science and social science in development can they adapt to the needs of the construction of two civilizations, thus promoting the coordinated development of two civilizations.
▲ Social system plays an extremely important role in the coordinated development of material civilization and spiritual civilization. Every exploitation system in history has caused the coordinated development of spiritual civilization and material civilization in its progress, but it is a spontaneous process. In socialist society, the influence of social system on the coordinated development of two civilizations is not only the inevitable force and requirement of objective existence, but also provides favorable conditions for people to understand and master the coordinated development of two civilizations.
Of course, from the perspective of realizing conscious coordination, social system is only a necessary condition. To truly realize conscious coordination, we must also master the objective law of the relationship between the two civilizations. This is a problem that we should always pay attention to and study. The practical experience of China and other socialist countries in building socialism also illustrates this point. Since the founding of New China, when we pay more attention to the relationship between thought and construction, production and life, the two civilizations have achieved coordinated development. When we do not pay attention to studying and respecting the objective relationship between the two civilizations, we will only pay attention to the construction of material civilization or spiritual civilization, resulting in a partial imbalance in the development of the two civilizations. The theory and policy of the construction of two civilizations put forward by our party is a scientific summary of the positive and negative experiences of the international production movement, especially our country in the past 30 years, a further understanding and grasp of the objective relationship between the construction of two civilizations in the socialist period, and the establishment and development of our party's scientific production theory.
To understand and master the objective law of the relationship between two civilizations, we have experienced the repeated process of practice and understanding in the past, and we will also experience this process in the future. This is not only because the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and material civilization is a new subject, but also because the relationship between the two civilizations itself is developing and changing. It is unrealistic to think that it can be done once and for all, which will inevitably lead to the separation of subjective and objective. Only by constantly and deeply studying the development and relationship between the two civilizations can we make our guidelines conform to reality and consciously realize the coordinated development of the two civilizations.
(Originally published in Philosophical StudiesNo. 1982No. 12)