Towards a Society of Meaning-Based Subjects

This book focuses on the transformation of human society from the era of economism to the era of meaning, elaborating on the birth, core elements, and operational logic of a meaning-based society.Core Summary:Social Evolution & Core Tension Shifts: Human society has experienced three core tension shifts—from the survival confrontation between humans and nature, to the material competition among humans, and finally to the tension between individual meaning pursuit and existential nihilism. This third shift marks the transition to an era of meaning, where meaning replaces material as the core of society.End of Material Scarcity & Rise of Meaning Scarcity: With technological progress, material scarcity is no longer the dominant social contradiction; instead, meaning scarcity (the collapse of traditional meaning systems and the lack of new spiritual anchors) becomes the new predicament, driving society to shift focus from material construction to meaning construction.Limitations of Economism: The old social theory centered on economism (reducing humans to material beings and society to material production) fails to explain the new era’s needs, as it ignores humans’ inherent demand for meaning and cannot resolve spiritual emptiness and existential anxiety.Subjectivity as the Primary Driving Force: As material constraints loosen, human subjectivity (consciousness, self-awareness, creativity, and meaning pursuit) becomes the core driving force of social development, reshaping economic, cultural, technological, and institutional logic to serve individual self-realization.Meaning as the Core Resource: Meaning becomes the core resource of future society, with unique attributes of non-consumption, pervasiveness, and subjectivity. It reshapes economic logic (meaning economy), power structures (meaning-based power), and social justice (meaning justice).Underlying Logic Shift: The civilization’s core logic transforms from "possession" (scarcity-driven external acquisition) to "creation" (subjectivity-driven internal meaning generation), realizing a fundamental ontological reversal of human existence.Additionally, the book touches on the symbiotic relationship between humans and AI: AI, as an unconscious tool, complements human strengths (speed, data processing), while humans provide AI with direction and ethics, forming a mutually augmentative symbiosis that supports the meaning-based society’s operation. Read more