Prof. Degui Cai

Shandong University

cdg1945@hotmail.com

Abstract:

The Harmonious Development of Three Kinds of Spirit of Humankind, an article I published on “Journal of Jinan University”(6^th Issue 2003), pointed out that three basic kinds of human spirit are the spirit of science, the spirit of humanity, and the spirit of religion.  These three kinds of spirit have different functions: the spirit of science seeks truth, the spirit of religion searches for morality, and the spirit of humanity seeks beauty (beauty of heart).  The mutual effect of such spirit pushes forward the development of three kinds of civilization, material civilization, political civilization, and spiritual civilization.  Therefore, such spirit has strong impact on human civilization.  After the article was published, the weekly book review of “Guangming Daily” quoted the thesis of the article, and several journals also cited the article.  Recently I pondered upon these issues and felt that the article was not thorough.  I want to add some more thoughts.

The migration from the political men during the period of Cultural Revolution to the economic men of market economy is progress but at the same time deformative development.  In fact, it is difficult to argue that such migration is advancement of human civilization.  Economic men, similar to political men, do not pay attention to spiritual development.  Political men are political animals, and money turns economic men into pecuniary machines.  Faced by the powerful material desires, lust, and pursuit of power, human morality and ethical constraint become extremely weak.  The restricted development of economic men results in moral corruption and ethical destruction.  Both political and economic men are seriously flawed, and need to develop into civil men.  Civil men epitomize the spirit of humanity, the spirit of religion, and the spirit of religion, and to foster civil men, human society needs three kinds of education: material education, humanities education, and spiritual education.  The goals of these three kinds of education are to develop Intelligent Quotient, Ethical Quotient, and Emotional Quotient, respectively.  The complete development of these three quotients will help improve human quality.