The Value Orientation of the Close Integration of Investment in Things and Investment in People

The modernization process of human society has always been accompanied by a continuous exploration of the essence of development, the coordinates of value, and the path of practice. From the perspective of political philosophy, the relationship between humans and things constitutes the core category for understanding social development. How to establish the subject status of humans, how to grasp the foundational role of material conditions, and how to achieve the unity of instrumental rationality and value rationality directly determine the direction of modernization. Under the dominance of the logic of capital, Western modernization has long pursued a development path that prioritizes material capital and places supreme importance on the accumulation of wealth. While creating unprecedented material civilization, it has also fallen into the deep predicaments of human alienation, social polarization, and value imbalance. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [1]1 The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC, held in July 2024, focused on comprehensively deepening reform and advancing Chinese modernization., based on the new journey of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation, has made systematic arrangements for high-quality development, common prosperity, social fairness and justice, and the comprehensive development of humans, providing a fundamental guideline for correctly handling the relationships between humans and things, development and people's livelihoods, and efficiency and fairness in the New Era. We should always adhere to the people-centered development thought, base ourselves on historical materialism, and deeply advance the close integration of investment in things and investment in people in practice. Systematically elucidating the theoretical foundation, value connotation, and practical orientation of this integration from the perspective of political philosophy has important theoretical and practical significance for grasping the development logic of the New Era, advancing Chinese-path modernization, and creating a new form of human civilization.

人类社会的现代化进程，始终伴随着对发展本质、价值坐标与实践路径的持续探寻。从政治哲学层面审视，人与物的关系构成理解社会发展的核心范畴，如何确立人的主体地位、如何把握物质条件的基础作用、如何实现工具理性与价值理性的统一，直接决定着现代化的方向。西方现代化在资本逻辑的主导下，长期奉行物质资本优先、财富增值至上的发展路径，虽然创造了空前的物质文明，却也陷入人的异化、社会分化、价值失衡的深层困境。党的二十届四中全会立足强国建设、民族复兴的新征程，对高质量发展、共同富裕、社会公平正义、人的全面发展作出系统部署，为新时代正确处理人与物、发展与民生、效率与公平的关系提供了根本遵循。我们应始终坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，立足唯物史观，在实践中深入推进投资于物与投资于人紧密结合。从政治哲学视域系统阐释二者结合的理论根基、价值内涵与实践指向，对于把握新时代发展逻辑、推进中国式现代化、创造人类文明新形态具有重要理论意义与现实意义。

Political-Philosophical Inquiry in the Transformation of Development Paradigms

发展范式转型中的政治哲学追问

What is the essence of development? What is the ultimate purpose of development? What value order should be established between the accumulation of material capital and human development? These are both fundamental questions running through the entire process of human modernization and epochal propositions that contemporary political philosophy must address.

发展的本质是什么？发展的最终目的指向何处？在物质资本积累与人的发展之间，应当确立何种价值秩序？这既是贯穿人类现代化进程的根本问题，也是当代政治哲学必须回应的时代命题。

For a long time, mainstream Western development theories have taken material growth as the core criterion, placing material factors such as capital, land, technology, and resources in a priority position, forming a development paradigm centered on the expansion of material capital. While rapidly boosting productive forces, this paradigm has also brought about profound paradoxes of modernity: the rapid accumulation of material wealth coexists with the relative lag in human development; the continuous expansion of economic scale is accompanied by intensifying tensions with social fairness and justice; and the constant expansion of technological rationality goes hand in hand with the gradual weakening of humans' value subjectivity. Marx profoundly revealed in the *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844* that under capitalist conditions, the opposition between labor and capital ultimately manifests as "the increase in the value of the world of things is directly proportional to the decrease in the value of the human world" [2]2 This is a direct quotation from Marx's *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844* (MECW, Vol. 3, p. 272)., where humans are alienated from ends into means, from subjects into objects, and development itself deviates from the real needs of humans.

长期以来，西方主流发展理论以物质增长为核心标尺，将资本、土地、技术、资源等物质要素置于优先位置，形成了以物质资本扩张为中心的发展范式。这种范式在推动生产力快速跃升的同时，也带来了深刻的现代性悖论：物质财富急剧积累与人的发展相对滞后并存，经济规模持续扩大与社会公平正义张力加剧共生，技术理性不断扩张与人的价值主体性日渐弱化相伴而生。马克思在《1844年经济学哲学手稿》中深刻揭示，资本主义条件下劳动与资本的对立，最终表现为“物的世界的增值同人的世界的贬值成正比”，人从目的异化为手段，从主体异化为客体，发展本身背离了人的真实需要。

Entering the New Era, China's economic and social development has fully shifted to the stage of high-quality development. The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan [3]3 The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) is the next five-year plan for China's national economic and social development, currently under formulation; the author refers to its guiding principles as outlined in official documents. proposes to "adhere to putting the people first and adhering to high-quality development" and "promote solid progress in the comprehensive development of humans and common prosperity for all the people." Against this background, adhering to the close integration of investment in things and investment in people has been elevated from an economic policy proposition to a fundamental and overarching value program, marking a profound transformation in China's development philosophy. So-called investment in things refers to the input and construction of material conditions such as material capital, infrastructure, industrial systems, technological equipment, and the ecological environment, constituting the material foundation and hardware support for the existence and development of society. So-called investment in people refers to the input and construction in areas such as education, healthcare, elderly care, employment, skills training, social security, and spiritual culture, constituting the software support for the enhancement of human capabilities, the guarantee of rights, and the realization of value, as well as the end itself. Examined from the perspective of political philosophy, the integration of the two is by no means a simple issue of resource allocation, but a fundamental judgment concerning the subject of development, the driving force of development, and the purpose of development. It is a repositioning of the relationship between humans and things, between efficiency and fairness, and between capital and the people. It is a vivid manifestation of adapting Marxist political philosophy to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.

进入新时代，我国经济社会发展全面转向高质量发展阶段。“十五五”规划纲要提出，“坚持人民至上，坚持高质量发展”，“推动人的全面发展、全体人民共同富裕迈出坚实步伐”。在此背景下，坚持投资于物与投资于人紧密结合，从一项经济政策主张上升为具有根本性、全局性的价值纲领，标志着中国发展哲学的深刻转型。所谓投资于物，指向物质资本、基础设施、产业体系、技术装备、生态环境等物质条件的投入与建设，构成社会存续发展的物质基础与硬件支撑；所谓投资于人，指向教育、医疗、养老、就业、技能培训、社会保障、精神文化等领域的投入与建设，构成人的能力提升、权利保障、价值实现的软件支撑与目的本身。从政治哲学视域审视，二者结合绝非简单的资源配置问题，而是关涉发展主体、发展动力、发展目的的根本性判断，是对人与物关系、效率与公平关系、资本与人民关系的重新定位，是马克思主义政治哲学中国化时代化的生动体现。

The Implications of Historical Materialism in the Close Integration of Investment in Things and Investment in People

投资于物与投资于人紧密结合的唯物史观意蕴

Marx pointed out, "But the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of the social relations." [4]4 This is a direct quotation from Marx's *Theses on Feuerbach* (MECW, Vol. 5, p. 4). The deep philosophical basis for the close integration of investment in things and investment in people is rooted in the fundamental principles of Marxist philosophy concerning real humans and their material practical activities, the essence of humans, and the free and comprehensive development of humans, embodying a high degree of unity between instrumental rationality and value rationality, and between scientificity and value.

马克思指出，“人的本质不是单个人所固有的抽象物，在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”。投资于物与投资于人紧密结合的深层哲学依据，植根于马克思主义哲学关于现实的人及其物质实践活动、人的本质与人的自由全面发展的基本原理，体现了工具理性与价值理性、科学性与价值性的高度统一。

From the perspective of the subject of development, humans are the subject of development, and things are the condition of development. Marxism holds that "real individuals" are the logical starting point of historical materialism. Humans transform the material world through labor, and in the process of transforming the world, they achieve self-development. The production of material goods is the first premise of human existence. Therefore, investing in things and accumulating material capital is an unavoidable stage of social development and the foundation for achieving a higher level of development. However, material conditions themselves are not self-sufficient; they only have true value when they serve humans, meet human needs, and promote human development. Discussing material accumulation in isolation from human development inevitably leads to an alienated state of seeing things but not humans.

从发展主体层面看，人是发展的主体，物是发展的条件。马克思主义认为，“现实的个人”是唯物史观的逻辑起点，人通过劳动改造物质世界，同时在改造世界的过程中实现自我发展。物质资料的生产是人类生存的第一前提，因此，投资于物、积累物质资本，是社会发展不可逾越的阶段，是实现更高层次发展的基础。但物质条件本身不具有自足性，它只有服务于人、满足人的需要、促进人的发展，才具有真正的价值。脱离人的发展谈物质积累，必然陷入见物不见人的异化状态。

From the perspective of the driving force of development, the transformation of productive forces is the fundamental driving force, and the development of productive forces ultimately depends on humans' labor capacity, knowledge level, and innovation vitality. According to Marx's understanding, productive forces have three forms. The first is traditional productive forces dominated by labor experience and skills, where human existence and development depend on natural conditions. The second is emerging productive forces dominated by scientific knowledge. With the development of large-scale industry brought about by the industrial revolution, while humans gained space for development, they were also alienated into objects of things, "all powers of labor are transformed into powers of capital." [5]5 This is a direct quotation from Marx's *Grundrisse* (MECW, Vol. 29, p. 94). The third is the form of productive forces dominated by humans' general intellect. This general intellect is "the appropriation of his own general productive power, his understanding of nature and his mastery over it by virtue of his presence as a social body" [6]6 This is a direct quotation from Marx's *Grundrisse* (MECW, Vol. 29, p. 94)., where humans break free from the shackles of things and become masters of things again, and the relationship between humans and things unfolds entirely centered on the free and comprehensive development of humans. "New quality productive forces" are precisely the advanced qualitative state of productive forces under the current new development philosophy. "New quality productive forces" require the innovative combination and high-quality allocation of all factors of production. Both things and humans serve as core elements within this, jointly serving the high-quality development of social productive forces, and humans are defined as the starting point and ultimate goal of development. The close integration of "investment in things" and "investment in people" is precisely a typical hallmark of the new development philosophy.

从发展动力层面看，生产力变革是根本动力，生产力的发展归根结底依赖于人的劳动能力、知识水平与创新活力。按照马克思的理解，生产力存有三种形态。一是以劳动经验和技能为主导的传统生产力，人的存在与发展依赖于自然条件。二是以科学知识为主导的新兴生产力，工业革命所带来的大工业发展，人在获得发展空间的同时异化为物的对象，“劳动的一切力量都转化为资本的力量”。三是以人的一般智力为主导的生产力形态。这种一般智力是“对人本身的一般生产力的占有，是人对自然界的了解和通过人作为社会体的存在来对自然界的统治”，人摆脱物的桎梏而重新成为物的主人，人与物的关系完全以人的自由全面发展为核心而展开。“新质生产力”正是当前新发展理念的先进生产力质态。“新质生产力”要求全体生产要素的创新性组合和优质配置，物与人都是作为其中的核心要素而共同服务于社会生产力的高质量发展，并且人被定性为发展的出发点和落脚点。而“投资于物”与“投资于人”的紧密结合也正是新发展理念的典型标志。

From the perspective of the purpose of development, human development is the end, and material development is the means. In Marx's view, production itself exists to meet needs, and all development should ultimately be directed towards the free and comprehensive development of humans. Western liberalism abstracts and formalizes individual rights but cannot resolve the substantive unfreedom brought about by material inequality. Utilitarianism takes the greatest happiness for the greatest number as its principle but easily falls into the trap of prioritizing aggregate totals while neglecting individual development. Marxist philosophy clearly states that the free and comprehensive development of humans is the fundamental characteristic of communist society and the highest value of human social development. The close integration of investment in people and investment in things is essentially a confirmation of the subject status of humans, a guarantee of human capabilities, dignity, rights, and development opportunities, and a return to the purpose of development.

从发展目的层面看，人的发展是目的，物质发展是手段。在马克思看来，生产本身就是为了满足需要而存在的，一切发展最终都应指向人自由而全面的发展。西方自由主义将个人权利抽象化、形式化，却无法解决物质不平等带来的实质不自由；功利主义以最大多数人的最大幸福为原则，却容易陷入总量至上、忽视个体发展的误区。马克思主义哲学明确提出，人的自由全面发展是共产主义社会的根本特征，也是人类社会发展的最高价值。投资于人与投资于物的紧密结合，本质上就是对人的主体地位的确认，对人的能力、尊严、权利与发展机会的保障，是对发展目的的回归。

The dialectical unity of investment in people and investment in things achieves a logical shift in the subject and purpose of development from "thing-centered" to "people-centered." The transformation of productive forces, as the driving force of development, both manifests the process of people's material practice and highlights people's subjective creativity. Comrade Xi Jinping once pointed out in *Zhijiang Xinyu* [7]7 *Zhijiang Xinyu* (《之江新语》) is a collection of short commentaries written by Xi Jinping during: "People are essentially cultural beings, not 'reified' beings; they are dynamic and comprehensive beings, not rigid or 'one-dimensional' beings." People and things achieve dialectical unity in practice. People's development cannot be separated from the support of material conditions, and the optimization of material conditions cannot be separated from people's subjective creativity. Investment in things can provide people with more complete infrastructure, higher-quality public services, broader employment opportunities, and more reliable livelihood security for their development; investment in people can enhance the quality of the labor force, stimulate innovation and creative vitality, improve the efficiency of material capital use, and propel material production to a higher form. The two are interdependent, mutually reinforcing, and neither can be neglected. Adhering to the combination of the two means adhering to the basic stance of historical materialism, opposing both utopianism that ignores the material base and thing-centered materialism that worships material capital, ultimately achieving the organic unity of the measure of things and the measure of people, of conformity with laws and conformity with purposes.

投资于人与投资于物的辩证统一，达成了发展主体与目的从“以物为本”向“以人为本”的逻辑转变。作为发展动力的生产力变革，既展现出人的物质实践进程，又彰显出人的主体性创造。习近平同志曾在《之江新语》中指出：“人，本质上就是文化的人，而不是‘物化’的人；是能动的、全面的人，而不是僵化的、‘单向度’的人。”人与物是在实践中实现辩证统一的。人的发展离不开物质条件的支撑，物质条件的优化离不开人的主体性创造。投资于物能够为人的发展提供更完善的基础设施、更优质的公共服务、更广阔的就业空间、更可靠的生活保障；投资于人能够提升劳动者素质、激发创新创造活力、提高物质资本使用效率、推动物质生产向更高形态跃升，二者相互依存、相互促进、不可偏废。坚持二者结合，就是坚持历史唯物主义的基本立场，既反对忽视物质基础的空想主义，也反对崇拜物质资本的物本主义，最终实现物的尺度与人的尺度、合规律性与合目的性的有机统一。

The Inherent Requirements of Social Justice and National Governance

社会正义与国家治理的内在要求

The close integration of investment in things and investment in people, in the political practice of contemporary China, is centrally embodied in the value pursuit of social fairness and justice and the practical requirements of the modernization of national governance, constituting an important connotation of socialist political civilization.

投资于物与投资于人紧密结合，在当代中国政治实践中，集中体现为社会公平正义的价值追求与国家治理现代化的实践要求，构成社会主义政治文明的重要内涵。

The combination of the two is the fundamental path to achieving substantive justice. Justice in the sense of political philosophy includes both formal equality and, more importantly, substantive equality; it includes both equality of starting points and equality of process and outcomes. Solely emphasizing investment in things can easily lead to the concentration of resources in efficiency-oriented areas, widening disparities between regions, urban and rural areas, and groups; solely emphasizing investment in people, lacking material support, is difficult to implement and can easily fall into egalitarianism and low-efficiency cycles. Investment in things provides the material guarantee and institutional carrier for social justice; investment in people provides capacity empowerment and rights protection for social justice. The "15th Five-Year Plan" [8] outline explicitly requires "increasing efforts to safeguard and improve people's livelihoods" and "ensuring that the fruits of modernization benefit all people more and more fairly." Only by combining the two, with equalization of public services and universal investment in human capital, can we steadily achieve common prosperity, the essential requirement of socialism.

二者结合是实现实质正义的根本路径。政治哲学意义上的正义，既包括形式平等，更包括实质平等；既包括起点公平，也包括过程公平与结果公平。单纯强调投资于物，容易导致资源向效率领域集中，拉大区域、城乡、群体之间的差距；单纯强调投资于人，缺乏物质基础支撑则难以落地，容易陷入平均主义与低效循环。投资于物为社会正义提供物质保障与制度载体，投资于人为社会正义提供能力赋能与权利保障。“十五五”规划纲要明确要求“加大保障和改善民生力度”，“让现代化建设成果更多更公平惠及全体人民”。只有二者结合，以公共服务均等化与人力资本普惠化投入，才能稳步实现共同富裕这一社会主义本质要求。

The combination of the two is an inherent requirement for consolidating the foundation of national governance. The essence of national governance is to handle the relationships between people and society, people and the state, and people and material conditions. A stable and vibrant society must be one with sufficient material support and full human development. Investment in things can enhance public service capacity, improve the hardware system of governance, and strengthen the country's comprehensive national power; investment in people can enhance civic literacy, cultivate social consensus, consolidate spiritual strength, and resolve social contradictions. Only through the coordinated effort of the two can institutional advantages be transformed into governance effectiveness, providing a solid material foundation and human-centered foundation for the long-term stability and security of the country, better coordinating development and security, and consolidating the foundation for comprehensively building a modern socialist country.

二者结合是夯实国家治理根基的内在要求。国家治理的本质，是处理人与社会、人与国家、人与物质条件之间的关系。一个稳定而有活力的社会，必然是物质支撑充足、人的发展充分的社会。投资于物能够提升公共服务能力、完善治理硬件体系、增强国家综合实力；投资于人能够提升公民素养、培育社会共识、凝聚精神力量、化解社会矛盾。二者协同发力，才能把制度优势转化为治理效能，为国家长治久安提供坚实的物质基础与人本基础，更好地统筹发展和安全，为全面建设社会主义现代化国家夯实根基。

The combination of the two is a Chinese solution that transcends the alienation of capital logic. In the process of Western modernization, the profit-seeking nature of capital has led to highly utilitarian and materialized investment behavior, reducing human development to the reproduction of labor power, ultimately triggering governance problems such as polarization between rich and poor, spiritual emptiness, and social fragmentation. Chinese-path modernization adheres to a people-centered approach, emphasizes the effective guidance and regulation of capital, promotes capital for good and investment for the people, and achieves the alignment of material growth and human development. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the CPC [9] made systematic arrangements for regulating capital development and promoting high-quality development, transcending the modernization predicament dominated by capital from the value foundation, and providing a Chinese solution for humanity to achieve higher-quality development.

二者结合是超越资本逻辑异化的中国方案。西方现代化进程中，资本逐利本性导致投资行为高度功利化、物质化，人的发展被简化为劳动力再生产，最终引发贫富分化、精神空虚、社会撕裂等治理难题。中国式现代化坚持以人民为中心，强调对资本的有效引导与规范，推动资本向善、投资为民，实现物质增长与人的发展同向同行。党的二十届四中全会对规范资本发展、推动高质量发展作出系统部署，从价值根基上超越了资本主导的现代化困境，为人类实现更高质量发展提供了中国方案。

(Author: Wang Wencheng, Executive Dean and Professor of the School of Philosophy, Zhengzhou University)

（作者：王文成，系郑州大学哲学学院执行院长、教授）