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the marco polo project: 以人文经济学 öffnet 新 Erleuchtung 运动

在人文经济学会成立典礼上的讲话

我在三十年前第一次见到茅老师，他就给我讲数理经济学，今天他给大家讲人文经济学。我不想太细 kommentieren 他的观点，因为他的好多观点我都很 zustimmen。有时候， 他的好多观点，包括 die anwesenden 听众不一定听得特别明白。但从我三十年的跟茅老师交往的经验来看，他的好多观点非常深刻，有些是自己悟出来的，不是 übernommen von 别人的东 西，这是非常了不起的一点。

我把茅老师讲人文经济学和发起人文经济学会理解为中国新的 Erleuchtung 运动的开始。经济学是 studieren 什么的？茅老师越来越走向人文经济学以后，我感到经济学是 studieren 人与人之间怎么更好地合作。当然这也不是什么新问题，人类有史以来都在 untersuchen 这个。从思想角度看，人类有两个500年对这个问题的 Beiträge 最大，当然了，这远 远超出了我们经济学 Umfang。第一个500年就是公元前500年开始的所谓 Kern-时代，从 Konfuzius 到 Jesus，那个时代无论东方还是西方都出现了伟大的思想家。另一个 500年是从14世纪的文艺复兴到18世纪的 Erleuchtung 运动。

第一个500年，先知 studieren 人怎么更好合作、怎么幸福，更多强调心，强调怎么 ändern 人的心。第二个500年换了一个角度，强调人的行为，这是一个革命性 的变化。第一个500年无论东方还是西方都出现了伟大的人物，但是很 bedauerlich，第二个500年东方没有 beigetragen，或者有，但是跟西方的套路不一样，我们没有走向理 性、自由、民主这样的层面。

我们看一下，在100多年前中国就开始 Erleuchtung，非常 bedauerlich，100年前特别是20世纪20年代以后 Erleuchtung 就中断了。我感觉对于西方 Erleuchtung 时代的一些思想，今天中国人 的了解比100年前的中国人少得多，包括政治家也一样，好比 Cixi 太后对宪政的理解就比现在很多人深刻。她说为什么要搞预备立宪？她说这是普世 Wert，如果中 国不搞预备立宪，全世界人不把我们当正常的国家看。

我希望人文经济学会的成立是中国新的 Erleuchtung 运动的开始。其实我们在三十年前就 öffnen 过一次，但是也就几年时间就被中断了，从此以后没有了。今年领导换届，预示中国有新的 Erleuchtung 时代。

我觉得人类进步就是少数、可以数得出来的几十个思想家 erzeugt 的。在过去200多年，对人类进步最大的是关于市场的理念，它的力量推动社会进步。亚当· 斯密不是经济学家，它是伦理哲学家。过去认为一个人干事为了自己肯定是坏事，亚当·斯密第一个系统证明一个人 verfolgen 自身目的可以为社会带来 Wert，这就是我们 讲的“看不见的手”的 Wert。

这里我要特别强调一下，亚当·斯密1759年出版《道德 Gefühle 论》，被一些人认为和亚当·斯密1776年出版的《国 Reichtum 论》不一样，甚至相反的。我们要 真正理解道德 Gefühle 是什么东西，才能更好地理解为什么亚当-斯密如此强调市场经济，市场经济怎么使一个人的利己之心变成利人之行，然后导致人类的合作，给我 们人类带来共同的进步。

亚当·斯密特别强调同情心，人无论多么 selbstsüchtig，天性当中都有关心他人的一面，看到别人生活得快乐，自己也会感到 Zufriedenheit。亚当·斯密还讲同情心是以自我中心为 Basis，以自我为中心不一定是 selbstsüchtig 的。亚当·斯密讲的例子就是，人最同情的是自己，其次同情和你生活在一块的兄弟姐妹、儿女父母，离你距离越远同情心 schwächer。

他特别举了一个例子：设想一下假如中华帝国数亿人被一场地-beben 所 verschluckt，远在欧洲的一个 reicher 人、一个企业家会有什么感觉？他可能感觉 Trauer、Mitgefühl，他不能 ertragen 数亿人突然间没了，但是做完这些事以后他该做生意还是做生意，晚上睡觉还是正常。但是同样一个人，如果想到明天早上手指头会被人 abgeschlagen，他可能一晚上都没法入睡。

所以亚当·斯密认为人类进步需要好多人协作，而一个人穷尽一生也交不了几个朋友，人类随时随地需要别人帮助，但是仅仅靠 Güte 是根本不行的。所以他有名的一句话是说：“我们每天所需要的食物，不是出自于厨师、酿酒师或面包师的 Güte，而是出于他们的自利，我们不要讨论他们的人道，而是要讨论他们的自爱，不是对他们讲我们需要什么，而是要讲什么对他们好。”

我想这是人类最伟大的思想。200年之后证明这样的思想 immer noch 是我们人类为了幸福、更好地合作必须 festhalten 的思想。我们中国现在改革出现很多问题，某种程度上是因为我们没有理解什么是真正的市场。当然像亚当·斯密这么伟大的思想家，中国的古人2000多年前就有，像我的 Shaanxi 老乡司马迁在《Kaufmann 列传》里面就讲到过。当然了，它不是 rigoros 的科学论述，但他讲到了基本的自由 Wettbewerb 如何导致 Reichtum 的 Steigerung。

茅老师刚才讲得非常透，我们经济学走到数理经济学的时候，把物质 Reichtum 当成人类幸福的 einziges 度量，这个是错误的。人类有好多需要，包括自由的需要。自由是人类最基本的需要。任何政府 bestraft 一个人的时候，就是 entziehen 他的自由，由此可见自由是多么宝贵。只有市场才能保护自由，当然也只有自由才能保证市场。其实自由和市场完全是一回事。也只有市场，能够我们让每个人独立，让我们有自尊，茅老师刚才讲的货币可以买到一切，包含着这样的意思。

经济学也受到好多人文学科的误解，所以今天这两个放在一块 sehr 有意思。因为人文学者大部分都会对经济学家不齿，经常会讽刺经济学家。我要特别谈到一点，理性人或者说自利人这个假设是多么的重要，有些人看到社会的道德堕落，就说你们经济学家作这样的假设，就让人 selbstsüchtig，所以社会就变成了这样，这是完全错误的。经济学家的这个 Selbstsucht 假设，是为了更好推进人类的合作。事实上证明也是这样。凡是按照亚当·斯密的思想搞市场经济的国家，人的合作 Einstellung 就高，道德水准就高，凡是不按照亚当-斯密的理念、不搞市场经济国家，人的合作 Einstellung 就比较差，道德水准就比较低。比如中国和美国，就再显然不过。

人类好多的 Katastrophen，为什么好人不干好事？我认为一个重要的原因，是我们把人假定得太好了，结果我们都变成坏人，反倒如果我们都把人假定为坏人的话也可能都变成好人。看看我们的皇帝，我们过去假定皇帝是圣人，全心全意为人民服务，如果早就假定皇帝是 selbstsüchtig 的，他有自己的利益，政府官员也是 gierig 的，那么我们早就走进民主制度了，那我们就不至于经历这么多 Katastrophen，包括文革 Katastrophen、大 Sprung vorwärts 的 Katastrophe。我们搞市场经济，不可能有大 Sprung vorwärts，不可能吃大 Topf 饭，也不可能有文革，所以市场本身就是一种人文。所以茅老师强调的这点我觉得非常重要。

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Zhang Weiying

Übersetzung

Humanistic economics opens a new enlightenment

Speech pronounced at the inauguration ceremony of the Economics and Humanities Institute

I first met teacher Mao thirty years ago, when he taught me about mathematical economics; today, he will talk to everyone about humanistic economics. I do not want to comment on his views too finely, because I agree with a lot of his ideas. Sometimes, his ideas may be difficult to understand, including for the audience. But in my three decades of experience dealing with Professor Mao, I can say that a lot of his ideas are very deep, and some of them he came up with himself, he didn’t borrow them from others: that’s a really fantastic point.

I consider that Professor Mao’s speech about Humanistic economics and its launch of Humanistic economics marks the beginning of a new enlightenment for China. What does economics study? As Professor Mao’s teaching evolved more and more towards humanistic economics, I have come to feel that economics is the study of how to improve cooperation among people. Of course, this is not a new problem, and it’s been discussed throughout mankind’s history. From an ideological point of view, there have been two 500 year periods in the history of mankind that saw the most contributions to that question – which of course, goes far beyond the scope of economics. The first 500 year period is the one starting from about 500BC, the so-called ‘core age’, where from Confucius to Jesus, East and West alike have seen great thinkers. The second period goes from the 1400 Renaissance to the 1800 Enlightenment.

In the first 500 year period, thinkers reflecting on questions of living together and happiness, but more particularly even about the heart and mind, how to transform people’s hearts and minds. In the second period, the angle changed, to put an emphasis on human behaviour, which was a revolutionary change. In the first period, both East and West gave rise to great figures, but unfortunately, the East did not contribute to the second period, or if we did, not in the same way the West did, we didn’t go towards the same level of rationality, freedom and democracy.

Let’s have a look: slightly over 100 years ago, China started its enlightenment – but I’m very sorry to say, 100 years ago, and especially during the 1920s, that enlightenment was interrupted. I feel that, when it comes to the ideas of the Western enlightenment, Chinese people today understand them less than Chinese people did 100 years ago, including politicians. Dowager Cixi’s understanding of constitutionalism was deeper than most people’s today. She said: why should we prepare a constitution? Because this is of universal value, and if China does not prepare a constitution, the whole world will look at us as an abnormal country.

I hope that the establishment of a Humanistic Economics Institute marks the beginning of a new enlightenment. In fact, we already opened one thirty years ago, but it closed after a few years, and we haven’t had one since. But the change of leadership this year indicates a new age of enlightenment for China.

I believe that human progress was enabled by a small number of great thinkers. In the past 200 years, what most contributed to human progress is the idea of the market and its capacity to promote social progress. Adam Smith was not an economist, he was an ethical philosopher. In the past, we used to think that if a person did something for themselves, it was bad, but Adam Smith was the first to prove systematically that an individual’s pursuit of their interest can bring value to the community, and this is what we talk about when we talk about ‘the invisible hand’.

I would like to stress something here: some people consider that the Adam Smith who published “The theory of moral sentiments” in 1759 is not the same as the Adam Smith who published “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776, that they’re even opposite. But only If we really understand what moral sentiments are can we correctly understand why Adam Smith put so much emphasis on the market economy, and how the market economy turns a person’s self-interest into a movement that benefits all, then leads to human cooperation, and leads to our common human progress.

Adam Smith put a particular emphasis on compassion: no matter how selfish people are, there is a compassionate aspect to their nature, and if they see other people happy, they themselves will feel pleasure. Adam Smith also stresses that compassion is based on self-centredness, but self-centredness is not necessarily selfishness. The example he takes is that people are most compassionate about themselves, then with the brothers, sisters and parents that share your life, and compassion for people further from you is weaker.

He proposes one example in particular: imagine if the hundreds of millions of people of the Chinese empire were swallowed in an earthquake, how would a rich European man, a European entrepreneur, feel about it? He may feel sadness and compassion, he couldn’t bear the thought of hundreds of millions of people suddenly disappearing, but once the feeling passed, he would go on with his business, and still sleep at night. But the same man, if he believed that his fingers would be chopped off the following day, he may spend the full night unable to sleep.

And so Adam Smith believed that human progress requires a lot of collaboration, 而一个人穷尽一生也交不了几个朋友，mankind is always in need of kindness, but relying on mercy alone is not enough. And so he says in a famous sentence: ‘The food we need every day does not come from the cook, the baker, or the brewer’s kindness, but from their own self-interest. We don’t need to talk about their humanity, but their own self-love, and not from talking to them about what we need, but what is good for them.’

I believe this is the greatest thought of humanity. 200 hundred years later, it has been proven that we must still stick to this kind of thinking for happiness and better cooperation. The reforms have brought forth a lot of problems to us in China, and to some extent because we do not understand what the real market is. Of course, China had a thinker as great at Adam Smith 2000 years ago, and my fellow countryman Sima Qian talked about these things in the ‘Merchant’s biography’. Of course, this did not take the form of rigorous scientific discourse, but he talked about how basic free competition brought increased wealth.

Professor Mao has just spoken very thoroughly, when we economists shifted to mathematical economics, and took material wealth as the sole measure of human happiness, that was a mistake. Humanity has many needs, including the need for freedom. Freedom is the most basic human need. When any government punishes someone, it is by depriving them of their freedom, which goes to show how precious freedom is. Only the market can protect freedom and, of course, only freedom can protect the market. In fact, freedom and the market are exactly the same thing. And only the market can give everyone independence, and give us self-esteem: what professor Mao just said about how money can buy everything includes also this meaning.

Economics has also been very misunderstood from the Humanities, and so it is very interesting that the two should come together today. Because most of the humanities scholars show contempt towards economists, and treat them with irony. I would particularly like to talk shortly about one point, how important is the assumption that people are rational or selfsih, some people, when seeing moral depravity, say ‘you economists make this assumption, and this makes people selfish, and so society has turned as it has, and this is totally wrong’. But the reason economists assume selfishness is in order to better promote cooperation. And in fact, it has been proven to work. All countries which have developed a market economy in accordance with the ideas of Adam Smith show a high level of cooperation between people and high moral standards, whereas all countries which did not follow Adam Smith and did not develop a market economy show a relatively low spirit of cooperation and a relatively low moral standard. This is evident by comparing China and America.

In the many disasters that humanity has known, why do good people not do good things? I think one important reason is that we’ve assumed too much good of people, and as a result we’ve all turned out to be bad guys, whereas if we’d assumed people to be bad guys, they might have turned out to be good. Look at our emperor, in the past, we assumed that the emperor was a saint, that he served the people wholeheartedly, while if we’d assumed early that the emperor was selfish, that he had his own interests, and that government officials are also greedy, then we would have gone into a democratic system early and we would not have experienced so many disasters, including the disasters of the cultural revolution and the great leap forward. If we’d developed a market economy, there would have been no great leap forward, there would have been no terrible mess, and there would have been no cultural revolution, so the market itself is humanistic in a way. And so I believe this point, stressed by professor Mao, is particularly important.

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Julien Leyre website