Modernization: Civilization Crisis of Capitalist Modernization and Its Criticism
Meng Xianli, Professor of the School of Marxism at Zhejiang Gongshang University
Li Zhenguo, Special Researcher of the Zhejiang Provincial Research Center for the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics at Ningbo University
Journal of World Social Sciences, Issue 1 , 2024
There is no end to modernization. Capitalist modernization is dominated by the industrial revolution and the democratic revolution, with the establishment of capitalist private ownership, free markets and decentralized or centralized political systems as its basic characteristics, covering all aspects of the economy, politics and culture. The modernization process is a process of civilization transformation. Fukuzawa Yukichi believed that “everything in society is aimed at civilization.” The capitalist civilization created by capitalist modernization encompasses all the civilizational achievements produced by human beings’ transformation of nature, society and human beings themselves in a capitalist way. However, the civilization paradox and crisis of capitalist modernization are becoming more and more serious in instrumental rationality and exploitative accumulation.
Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb pointed out in their works: “Our current capitalist civilization (which, like the civilization of the past, will die) is collapsing before our eyes.”
The collapse of capitalist civilization is taking place in the unstoppable changes of the times. The path to modernization is pluralistic rather than monistic. Xi Jinping emphasized: “There is no fixed model for the road to modernization. The best model is the one that suits you, and you cannot force your feet to fit the shoes.” We must base ourselves on China’s specific reality, unswervingly follow the Chinese path of modernization, and create a new form of human civilization.
Chapter 1. The civilizational core and essence of capitalist modernization
Instrumental rationality is the civilizational core of capitalist modernization, and to a certain extent determines the essential characteristics of capitalist modernization, namely, exploitative accumulation. The deeper the degree of instrumental rationality and the more universal the exploitative accumulation, the more prominent becomes the civilizational paradox and crisis of capitalist modernization.
1. Instrumental rationality is the civilizational core of capitalist modernization
Since modern times, instrumental rationality, as the civilization core of capitalist modernization, has gradually become the internal driving force of capitalist modernization. Max Weber pointed out that “it seems to be best understood to regard the development of the ‘capitalist spirit’ as a partial phenomenon of the overall development of rationalism.”
Werner Sombart even proposed that “capitalist spirit and rationality are the same thing.”
In their view, rationality is equivalent to the capitalist spirit to a certain extent, which determines the fundamental direction of capitalist modernization. Modern countries, modern cities, and capitalism are even more generated in this rational movement. Rationality includes instrumental rationality, value rationality, and scientific rationality. Weber argued that instrumental rationality is “the purpose is rational”, which requires people to consider all possible means and the consequences of possible means in order to achieve the selected purpose, and then choose the most effective means to achieve the purpose. In the process of capitalist modernization, instrumental rationality shows the spiritual characteristics and behavior of instrumental rationality through people. People with instrumental rationality often regard others or things as tools or obstacles to their own realization. People’s market rationality under the conditions of capitalist market economy is a typical representative of instrumental rationality. Since modern times, instrumental rationality has gradually swallowed up value rationality, absorbed scientific rationality, and become the civilizational core of capitalist modernization.
The greedy desire of capitalists must not be regarded as the remnant or interference of traditional culture. It is precisely the spiritual characteristics of capitalism with a strong rational color brought about by the dominant position of instrumental rationality in capitalist modernization.
The instrumental rationality and greedy desire displayed by capitalists have a dialectical unity: the rationality of capitalists is the rationality of greed, and the greed of capitalists is also rational greed. The greed of capitalist rationality does not depend on the personal will of capitalists, but is generated by the free competition of the market and the inherent laws of capitalist production, or it can be said that the greed of capitalist rationality depends on the capital production mode.
Marx pointed out in “Capital”: “Capital far exceeds all previous production systems based on direct forced labor in terms of energy, greed and efficiency.”
Capital is the key to capitalist modernization, the process of capital accumulation is the process of capitalist greed, and the rational greed of capitalists is also an important factor in the continuous advancement of capitalist modernization. Engels pointed out that the development speed of old developed capitalist countries has slowed down after the early barbaric development, while in young industrial countries, “capital is dominated by its unstoppable greedy nature” and “it is this unstoppable momentum that drives the unlimited resources of these young countries to be developed.”
The rational greed of capitalists has promoted capitalist modernization. It is precisely because various natural and social resources are constantly being developed and plundered that capitalist modernization can be further promoted through exploitative accumulation.
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