What is prosocial development?

Philosophy of Science: In what ways can the Chinese government's Scientific Outlook on Development (科学发展观) ideology be said to be scientific?

• The Scientific Outlook on Development, sometimes translated to either the scientific development concept,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Outlook_on_Development#cite_note-1 or as the scientific development perspective, is one of the guiding socio-economic principles of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China (CPC). It incorporates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_socialism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_welfare, a humanistic society, increased democracy, and, ultimately, the creation of a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Harmonious_Society. According to official statements by the CPC, the concept integrates "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism with the reality of contemporary China and with the underlying features of our times, and it fully embodies the Marxist worldview on and methodology for development."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Outlook_on_Development#cite_note-2 -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Outlook_on_Development#Background

• Answer:

  科学 as science, an etymological note. "Science" was translated to "科學" by 19 century Japanese reformers, which was later adopted by modern Chinese. Although this particular sense was new then, the word kexue(科学) has a much longer history in China. Roughly in the Song Dynasty, the word 科学 was coined, meaning 科举之学, the study/discipline of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination. Among all its synonyms, 科学 was a popular but not dominant one throughout Song Dynasty. In the later Ming and Qing Dynasties, much more prevalent words were 制艺, the art of Imperial Examination writing, and 时艺, the art of contemporary writing. Thus, when people like 康有为(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kang_Youwei) introduced 科学's new sense to Chinese, there wasn't much confusion at that time. 科, means class, catalog, or discipline.  科举(imperial examination) literally means "(different) disciplines examinations". Though the most esteemed "discipline" was 进士(official candidate), others disciplines such as "ancient ritual study", "rhyming literary composition", "poetry", and "Confucian classics interpretation" did exist. Once upon a time in the Song Dynasty, even "drawing/painting" was one of the disciplines of 科举. Thus, 科学 from the beginning has another sense: the study of different disciplines. In Japan, although imperial examination has been long gone  since 11th century, the borrowed word "科學" survived meaning only "the study of different disciplines" to the Edo period. It's not a big leap for Japanese to connect it to "science". It is fare to say that, etymologically, calling "science" "科学" makes it sound like an umbrella name for all that is instrumental and trivial. scientific=instrumental/pragmatic Sadly, this goes deep into Chinese's  understanding of this word. 科学 as a slogan of sociocultural evolutionists/progressivists. Except for those extreme conservatives, from the beginning of 20th century to 1949 many Chinese intellectuals accepted the idea of progressivism on some level.  In 1918, a popular slogan of the famous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%94%E5%9B%9B%E8%BF%90%E5%8A%A8 was "Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy". Science was then deemed as one of the two key factors that made the western world as it was. Although 科学 then was still of instrumental value, it was linked to the concept of progression. Later in a significant national debate known as "Science vs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanxue"(科学与玄学之战), science finally became the hero. Science maybe still was recognized as an instrument, but it's the instrument that can determine one's philosophy of being. Since then, "science" became the trophy concept that every political force in China claimed for. scientific=progressive/advanced/forward-looking You know who's the winner. Vulgarization of 科学 In CPC's political language, the word "scientific" has been a rather vague adjective since Mao claimed that Maoism is the localized version of Marxism in China. I am not going to bore you with details. One of the results of this arbitrary choosing of word is, these happen: 科学种田: scientific farming; 科学养殖: scientific breeding/aqua farming; 科学作息: scientific labor-rest regimen; and: 科学算命: scientific fortune telling. There are popular idioms like: 你这不科学啊。 You are not making sense here. (You are not being scientific here.) scientific=benign/healthy/reasonable/feasible/modern/guaranteed/..., in short, good or better At last, how scientific is the Scientific Outlook on Development? It's as scientific as pretty much all above, combined. Some upsides about the Scientific Outlook on Development here. If you are a China hater or a Communist hater, you are duly informed. In Deng Xiaoping's 发展就是硬道理(The rock hard rule is to develop) statement, there are but two essential goals for the Chinese people (CPC) now: to develop, and to enhance the people's living level. Although here the second one is the ultimate goal, it's often "temporarily" succumbed to the first one as a trade-off for faster development. The Scientific Outlook on Development slogan works as an amendment of Deng's statement. What it does is to invite a third goal here with a priority no lower than the development goal. From what CPC interprets, the Scientific Outlook on Development stands for: 第一要义是发展； The first principle is development; 核心是以人为本； the core idea is people foremostï¼› 基本要求是全面协调可持续； the basic requirement is all-round coordinated and sustainable developing; 根本方法是统筹兼顾。 the fundamental method is overall consideration and balancing. I know, bit of rhetorical bullshit. Still, it adjusts Deng's powerful but oversimplified statement. It helps. It works. The best way to invent/introduce a political value into a society/country/party is to disguise it as reinventing/reinterpreting existing values. e.g. FDR's invention of the 4th freedom. Criticize CPC all you want, and I am joining you most of the times, but when some policy is good for my people, it is good for my people.