A Rationalist Logical Critique Of Progressive Coercion

In the broadest sense of progress,the pursuit of rationalist logic helps people to realize the manifestation of their own essential power,consolidate their anthropocentric subjectivity,and promote the long-term progress of human society.However,the real world,which is completely dominated by rationalist logic,has given rise to various concepts of progressive coercion that dominate human beings themselves.Progressive coercion and the values of absolute rationality it advocates have demonstrated the full extent of human intelligence and ability,but have also brought about dangers and dilemmas that can destroy us.These dangers and dilemmas reveal the one-sidedness and limitations of the rationalist logic in the process of human historical progress,and force mankind to re-examine the rationalist logic of progressive coercion.The rationalist logic of progressive coercion has its origins in modern Western philosophy.In the single category of rationality,a complete system was already established from ancient Greece to the Middle Ages.But reason gained a dominant position in modern times.Rationality became not only a measure of the level of development of human intelligence,but also an important criterion for testing the progress of human society.At the same time,it became an intrinsic law of the process of human historical development,an infinite driving force for the advancement of history,and bred the emergence of progressive coercion.The progressive coercion is a coercion that is characterized by the moving forward of things in comparison with other coercions,namely,a general objective social force that forces things to move forward without stopping,and it is the inevitable result of the development of the rationalist logic.The mechanism of the inner dynamics of the rationalist logic of progressive coercion is the interaction of the logic of technology and the logic of capital,which together drive the development of the rationalist logic of progressive coercion.In turn,the combined effect of production coercion and demand coercion drives the operation of the rationalist logic of progressive coercion.With the development of the rationalist logic of progressive coercion,the logic of technology and the logic of capital caused the alienation of technology and the alienation of capital,respectively.However,the most dangerous thing about the rationalist logic of progressive coercion is not the real dilemma that the logic of technology and the logic of capital bring to human beings,but the crisis of human nature brought about by human beings who are in it without being conscious of it.Understanding and grasping the criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion is a very complex issue.In explaining the principles and contents of the criticism of technological logic,the criticism of capital logic,and the criticism of human nature,Western scholars have more or less dealt with the criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion from different perspectives,which is a positive contribution to the study of the theory of tthe criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion.Among them,Marx’s theory of alienation and Weber’s instrumental rationality are the two pillars of the logic criticism of progressive coercion rationalist;Husserl’s theory of crisis and Heidegger’s concept of "Ge-stell" enable the theory of the criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion to be formed.The Frankfurt School continued to deepen the study of the rationalist logic critique,which made the theoretical development of the criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion to its peak.The postmodernist thinkers further profoundly analyzed the theory of the criticism of rationalism on the basis of their predecessors.These present the theoretical critical lineage of the criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion from germination,formation,to expansion,and lay a solid theoretical foundation for the study of the logic criticism of progressive coercion of rationalism.The criticism on the rationalist logic of progressive coercion is developed from three aspects: man and nature,man and society,and man and himself.At the level of the relationship between man and nature,techno-logic,as the power source of progressive coercion,both drives the progress and development of the relationship between man and nature and forces division,antagonism,alienation,and confrontation between man and the natural world.As technology advances,the domination and coercion of technological logic over nature and human beings deepens,constantly causing gradually magnified ecological crises,deepening human dilemmas,and the mastery of technological ideologies,making us reflect on the dilemmas of the times under technological logic,and on the roots,characteristics and limitations of the domination of technological logic.On this basis,through the reflection on the status of human subjects,technological optimism,and the harmonious development of human beings and nature,we search for possible paths to escape from the domination of human beings by technological logic and transcend the domination of technological logic in the reality in which technological logic rules.At the level of the relationship between man and society,the analysis of the logic of capital allows for an examination of the deeper roots of the forced emergence of progress.The expansionist nature of capital continues to incorporate,like a snowball,an ever-widening range of things into the system of capital’s creation of new profit multiplication,driving new surplus value into greater capital for more profit.Although this expansionist nature of capital has played a positive role in promoting the progress of human history--in just a few centuries,the capitalist countries have generated more than a hundred times of the total social wealth than all the assets of the previous history combined.However,the powerful economic rationality has transformed the relationship between human beings and things in society into the relationship of a single value-added object,and money,as the embodiment of desire,has become the only criterion for measuring all existence.The continuous strengthening of this standard also breeds various crises and dilemmas between human beings and society,which are mainly manifested in the deepening of the materialistic logic,the degradation of the spiritual world,and the loss of social existence.At the same time,since the composition and operation of society are complex,the logic of capital,which controls and dominates society,is determined to be thoroughly implemented and unfolded by breaking through all the barriers and boundaries that prevent capital from adding value.Specifically,the expansiveness of the logic of capital manifests itself in the political sphere as the logic of power of capital,in the social sphere as the logic of consumption of capital,and in the cultural sphere as the cultural logic of capital.On this basis,we have to reflect on the transcendence of capital logic itself by reflecting negatively on the various illusions of the ideology of capital logic,in order to make it possible to turn the upside-down world of reality upside down again.At the level of the relationship between human beings and themselves,with the completion of the industrial revolution and the rapid progress of technology,people have not solved the problem of the lack of human meaning and value despite the establishment of the modern civilized society.People find that in the process of pursuing things and expanding uncontrollably to the outside world,they gradually lose themselves and lose their meaning and value as human beings.The root cause of this crisis lies in the replacement of value rationality by instrumental rationality and the withdrawal of humanism.With the rise of the dominance of instrumental reason,the decreasing importance of value reason and the withdrawal of humanism,it is inevitable to bring about the dilemma and crisis of human development as a whole,which mainly manifests itself in the disappearance of ultimate value concern and the disorder of value order,the loss of negative thinking of human subjectivity,and the rupture of the possibility of modern and traditional culture.In this context,it is important to reflect on the true meaning of human beings and the transcendence of humanistic spirit,and to make philosophy a spiritual home for human beings,in order to regain the value and meaning of human beings and realize their "free individuality".Although the abandonment of the rationalist logic of progressive coercion may be a long process,as long as the possibility of overcoming this logic is still maintained,we have to keep searching for possible paths and keep consciously overcoming the coercion and slavery of the progressive coercion rationalist on human beings in practice.