Since we are a country where the people are the masters of the country, there is no universal value; It is up to the people to choose whether to recognize, respect or abandon and criticize universal values!
1. Is there any universal value?
We can ask ourselves: Do people have conscience and reason? Does a truly conscientious and rational person sincerely recognize and respect every individual in society, including individual equality, freedom and dignity? We can also try to ask this question: does a mentally sound person want others to respect his freedom and dignity? Do you want others (no matter how powerful, rich and beautiful this' other' is) to be equal to yourself in personality? If your heart asks you to answer "yes", then the answer is ready! Wikipedia better describes universal values as: "Generally, it refers to those values and ideas that transcend religions, countries and nations regardless of fields, as long as conscience and reason are recognized by all or almost all people."
Now some people advocate global ethics, and the expression is: "Everyone should be treated humanely". What is universal value? Condensed into a simple principle, everyone should be treated humanely. In other words, it is the universal value to treat people as human beings and treat others in a human way. The basic principle of universal value in modern civilized society is to respect every individual in society, and its content specifically includes recognizing and protecting individual equality, freedom and dignity. Other concepts such as democracy, constitutionalism and human rights are also included.
I majored in foreign history in college, and I was often shocked by two great creations of westerners in political civilization: First, how to adjust the relationship between individuals and society as a whole? All countries and civilizations face this problem. All civilizations and nations in ancient times tended to be whole. We must restrain our personal instincts and desires. Only in this way can an orderly and civilized life be possible. However, western civilization has found its own way in its historical evolution. Due to various accidental factors, westerners finally found or formed a new cultural mechanism, that is, on the basis of recognizing, respecting, liberating and developing individuals, they can still achieve social order and achieve social harmony and order. In this way, social order, social structure and social relations are all based on individuals. For other civilizations, if individuals are liberated, it means releasing a scourge, which means that people have to cross the river, and an orderly and civilized social life becomes impossible. People are like wolves. However, western civilization has found such a cultural mechanism: under the premise of recognizing and liberating individuals, a harmonious and orderly social order can still be established. Such a civilization appeared in the17th and 8th centuries after the Western Renaissance. Second, how to adjust the relationship between a vast country and local governments? How to adhere to the democratic system in the vast territory? In ancient Rome, from harmony to monarchy, from Frankish kingdom to Charlemagne empire, all abandoned autocracy with the expansion of territory. From the principle of political science, with the expansion of territory, the contradiction between public power and private rights is bound to show as follows: the weak government power will inevitably lead to fragmentation; Too strong public power will inevitably infringe on private rights. The United States provides politicians with an example of using federalism to solve this problem! I believe that honest politicians in China will not turn a blind eye to this!
2. Are universal values from the West suitable for China?
The west respects individual values, liberates individuals, brings social vitality and shows great energy. Everyone in this society is respected and fully developed, individual rights are guaranteed, individuals participate in public affairs extensively, everyone's personality is very full, and society is full of vitality. Just like the human body, if every cell is full of vitality, the whole human body will be full of vitality. In this way, western society shows great energy, enabling it to conquer other civilizations, and at the same time being envied and imitated by other civilizations. This is the first point.
Second, because this kind of culture and value of liberating and respecting individuals conforms to human nature, it has a seductive effect on other civilizations. In fact, we all need this thing by nature, but thousands of years of civilization have been suppressed for the needs of social life. Now that western civilization has come, I didn't know that this kind of thing that has been suppressed could be legalized before, but now I know. Then the inner "devil" and the outer temptation will be combined to produce the "temptation effect".
When western civilization meets other civilizations, first, other civilizations will inevitably fail in the competition, the civilization that suppresses individuals will inevitably fail, and the civilization that liberates individuals will inevitably win. Therefore, western civilization shows a strong culture, releasing destructive energy, and other civilizations have no defense at all. Second, it has produced the effect of "removing dams" and "releasing demons". Other civilizations put people's instincts and desires in bottles and sealed them. Western civilization came, it opened the bottle cap and shouted to you: "Don't be embarrassed, show yourself aboveboard. Your request is normal and should be met. I have a way to satisfy you, and society will not be chaotic. " This call and temptation of western civilization combined with everyone's inner devil, dismantled the dam that blocked the individual and released the flood. This has the effect of what we often call "one shun and one reverse". Blocking is a kind of "opposition", demolition is a kind of "smoothness", and ten people are not as good as one person. Following the trend, that is, following human nature, western civilization shows its energy. As a result, western civilization infiltrated, disintegrated and reshaped all other civilizations.
The infiltration of western civilization into other civilizations is mainly manifested in its disintegration of the ties of traditional society and the release of individuals, thus making society more and more individualized. I see that there are some sociological studies in China, and people often do this topic: individualization of society. Social individualization is the real change of our society, the real change in the past hundred years and the real change in the past thirty years. Don't look at superficial things, but look at whether this society is becoming more and more personalized. At first, the bottle cap was opened by westerners, and the dam was dismantled by westerners. But once you come into contact with western civilization, once the individual is released, there is an inertia. Even if the influence of western culture no longer occurs, society itself will still go in this direction. Because people are liberated, there is a kind of inertia, self-development, self-improvement and pursuit of a higher realm. For a long time, we have been criticizing the influence of the west and resisting the pollution from the west. In fact, some of them were influenced by the west, but at first, they developed under the influence of their own inertia.
3. Why can't Marx's principle of contradiction between universality and particularity explain the universal values and China characteristics?
Some people who oppose universal values believe that there are only concrete human rights, humanity, democracy and freedom, only those of the proletariat or the bourgeoisie, and there is no abstract, universal and universal human rights, humanity, democracy, freedom and equality, so there is no so-called universal value. In fact, anyone with a little philosophical knowledge knows that universality always exists in the special, and through the special existence, it does not leave the special universality. A civilization achievement is always invented and created by a specific subject, but this civilization achievement itself belongs to all mankind at the same time. The achievement of material civilization is so, so is the achievement of spiritual civilization; This is true in the field of natural science, and it is also true in the field of humanities. If you deny this, there is no "human" civilization.
The values of freedom, humanity, democracy and equality first appeared in western Europe, which was the value requirement put forward by the emerging bourgeoisie in western Europe in the struggle against feudal patriarchal autocracy. However, the values such as freedom, humanity, democracy and equality, as well as the practice and value orientation of fighting against patriarchal clan system and inhuman personal attachment, represent the basic differences between modern society and pre-modern society. Although these values first appeared in the west, they are not the patent or special wealth of the bourgeoisie, but the spiritual wealth of all mankind. This is just like Confucius. Although Confucius was born in the East, his thoughts belong to the spiritual wealth of all mankind.
Leibniz certainly said: There are no two identical leaves in the world. But remember: what can be compared here is "leaves". Differences are based on the same premise. For better or worse; Men and women, the premise of the argument is that people, people have human nature. If the other person is not even human, then am I not casting pearls before swine?