The Scientific Outlook on Development：New and Modern form of Historical Resultant Theory

Pan Dandan

（School of Humanities and Social Science Beijing Jiaotong University，Beijing 100044）

Ⅰ.People－first value—a new and modern form of the HRT in the development thrust

Historical Resultant Theory was put forward by Engels in his late years when historical materialism was criticized and challenged by Bourgeois scholar E.E.P.Barth（1858－1922）and the Youth School of German Social Democratic Party，and was seriously misinterpreted as a view on“technological and economic history”or social determinism.They held that historical materialism thought highly of such substance as economy and technology，that the economic relation was the only functional factor in history progress while“person”is the“chess－man”adhered to economic relation and is the slave of history.This is a typical standpoint of social determinism，which completely ignores and denies the role of people in social development.

In the scientific development view，people are both the value subject and the practical subject of social history.“All nationalities of China are the subject of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.Peoples’enthusiasm and creativity guarantee the success of our cause，and the ultimate goal of our party is to let overwhelming majority of her people achieve their fundamental interests.This fully affirms the significance of people as the subject in the history progress and greatly praises people’s subjective initiatives.The people－first Scientific Outlook on Development does recognize the contribution all individual and its group have made to the social development，and establish the subjective status of people in the development.

Therefore，from the perspective of practice，people should be taken as the carriers and creators of the socialism’s political，economic，cultural and social construction；from the viewpoint of value，achievement of people’s fundamental interests should be taken as the goal of our Party and government；people’s subjective status should be respected，people’s subjective role should be given a full play；people’s interests should be safeguarded；and people’s quality should be improved.Only by constructing and adhering to the people－first value can Historical Resultant Theory be given a full play so as to construct a harmonious socialist society.The Scientific Outlook on Development clings to the core of people－orientation，further enriching and developing the theory of interaction between subject selectiveness and the objective law of historical development which HRT stickss to，and responding and refuting the criticism —the view of technical and economic history and social determinism，and highlighting the subjective status of people in the history development.In short，the people－first value constructs a new and modern form of Historical Resultant Theory.

Ⅱ.Overall coordinated outlook on development：a new and modern form of HRT in development mechanism

Bourgeois scholar E.E.Paul Barth（1858－1922）and the Youth Group of Germany Social Democratic Party misrepresented historical materialism as“economic materialism”or “economic determinism”and argued that economic factor is the only factor of social progress.This is a mechanical and one－sided view on development.Engels’Historical Resultant Theory holds that in social development exists not only the power of people and their resultant forces as subject but also that of such object and their resultant forces，i.e.，various elements in social development，including economic，political，cultural，and spiritual，among which economic relationship mainly refers to the mode of material production and the rest the superstructure.

Coordinated development requires us to handle well the relationships between objective factors.On one hand，the decisive role of economic relationship in social development requires the persistence in economic development that provides political，cultural and social development with material support.On the other hand，resultant force from each element in social system promotes so－cial development，which requires the continual promotion of socialist political reform，cultural prosperity，providing economic construction with political support，spiritual impetus and social environment，so as to enhance coordinated and all－around development and build up a harmonious socialist society.The outlook enriches and develops Historical Resultant Theory.It is a new and modern form of HRT in modern China.

Ⅲ.Ecological view on sustainable development：a new and modern form of HRT in development process

Sticking to sustainable ecological environment，the Scientific Outlook on Development wisely deals with the relationship between human and nature，and present－future generation relationship as well.By sustainable development，it means to maintain coordination and harmony of the three systems，i.e.economy，society and ecology in economic，political and cultural development.In particular，the man－nature and man－man relations need to be well handled.On the one hand，economic development should ensure the equal－pace progress of economic development，social progress and ecological civilization，avoid destroying natural environment.On the other hand，the development of a region cannot be achieved at the expense of others，and similarly，the development of contemporary generation not at the price of ecological rights of future generations.Only by achieving fairness and justice of development can Human society achieve sustainable development.

The Scientific Outlook on Development stresses a sustainable ecological view，which enriches and develops Historical Resultant Theory.In other words，the development of human history is a process.It can be achieved by well－handled man－nature and man－man relation，and by coping with present－future generation’s relation of ecological rights in particular.Only by combining the power of nature and man，and power of nature and society，and present－future generation development as well，can human beings possibly achieve sustainability of social development.

Therefore，it is advisable to stick to development in a sustainable way by means of striving to achieve man－nature harmony，and meanwhile，initiatively avoiding setting social development as opposed to environment protection.This will help to skip the“treatment after pollution”stage that western developed capitalist countries once have experienced.It is unwise to concern only the development of contemporary people and forget the future generations，or even worse，like developed countries，achieving national economic interests at the cost of ecological benefits of other countries.Also，it is advocated to abandon traditional way of industrialization of high consumption，high pollution，high emissions，and low efficiency，actively exploring a new way，while balancing economic construction，population，resources，environment and ecology.The contemporary generation should respect and protect the rights of future generations，instead of plundering the natural resources without restriction from fu－ture generations.

Consequently，the path of sustainable development of human society claims taking the civilized development of production being developed，life being rich，ecology being fine，and constructing socialist ecological civilization.The sustainable ecological view proposed by the Scientific Outlook on Development indicates that the CPC now has a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the idea “the social history development is a process”，which enriches and develops Historical Resultant Theory.

Ⅳ.A balanced view of coordination：a new and modern form of HRT in development method

Engels’Historical Resultant Theory is not only about social development but also of methodological significance.As a social development theory，HRT expounds the decisive functions of economic factors in social development，and points out the significance of superstructure and individual will in social development as well.Persist in the monism of historical materialism and the dialectics of social developments，the theory possesses the importance of methodology for people’s understandings and observations of history and society as well as their promoting social progresses.Plekhanov，founder of Marxism in Russia，believes that one of greatest achievements of Marx and Engels on materialism is that they have found the right methods，and the explanation to historical materialism is of methodological significance.Therefore，learning and understanding the methodological significance of HRT in a proper way remains vital to the modern application of the theory and the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The methodological significance of HRT highlights the integrity and coordination of social development.“Without a systematic concept of the world，the materialism and dialectics of Marx cannot be fully and precisely understood.All of the most important discoveries in Marxism，with decisive premises of systematic concepts and principles，indicate a new era in the understandings of sciences and society.The core of HRT decides that social－historical development would develop along the direction of parallelogram of the resultant forces，then how could these resultant forces come into being？It just arises from and among the inner and inter coordination and integrity between subjects and objects.Consequently，numerous parallelograms of forces would emerge during the process which then combine to a total average of forces thus to produce a resultant force.And this formation eventually could be held as the ultimate resource of forces for the development of history.Hence，the resultant forces for the development of history could be described as something generated under the mutual influences and effects of different factors rather than the independent force of a single factor，for no independent force could separate form collective forces and they could only make contributions to the development of the resultant forces for the development of history in the integrity of forces and in coordinative orders.Meanwhile，each independent force could also produce positive condensation effects actively for historical resultant forces，and exert significant influences to the magnitude and nature of related forces.Therefore，the development of history could not only rely on the view of integrity but that of coordination.Only coordinative coexistence and optimal combination of independent forces in the integrity could produce the maximum resultant forces for the development of history and society.

As the fundamental method of the Scientific Outlook on Development，the concept of making overall plans and taking all factors into consideration inherits and develops the methodology of HRT，and manifests the integral and coordinative requirements of social development.If treated as an enormous and complicated project，socialist modernization and balanced development could only be realized by insisting the scientific methods of making overall plans and taking all factors into consideration.The insistence of such methods，furthermore，requires the balances of individual factors and their mutual relations in social systems，namely to balance the development of urban and rural areas and that of different regions，economy ＆ society，mankind ＆ nature and domestic development ＆opening－up，and balance the relations between central and local governments，the interest of individuals and community and that at partial＆overall levels，at present and in the future.In addition，the enthusiasm at all levels should also be promoted so as to balance the relations between productive forces and production，economic foundation and superstructure，and the development of all aspects at all phases.The concept of making overall plans and taking all factors into consideration defines Historical Resultant Theory in a brand new way.The new and modern form of HRT in the development method in related fields turns to be the insistence of views of integrity and coordination，balances with new harmonies and the unification of“two－aspects”and“focal－point”doctrines.

Notes：

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〔7〕Tao Wenzhao，On the Epochalness of the Scientific Outlook on Development，New Horizon，2012（4）.

〔8〕Li Yidan，Zhou Zhigang，A Study into the Connotation of the Scientific Outlook on Development，Journal of Tianjin Normal University，2013（3）.