Explore the emergence and nature of privacy

　 The significance of privacy affecting and regulating today's social life in a profound and subtle way is beyond words, so it has long been focused on important philosophical literature, first seen in the British philosopher Stephen's book "Freedom, Equality and Fraternity", followed by Warren and Brandeis's influential book "The Right to Privacy", and the issue has developed from a concern for the "private life sphere" to a concern for the "right to be alone". However, throughout privacy research, the Western tradition focuses on the private sphere, which is separated from the public domain, focusing on the value and type of privacy, and there is little in-depth exploration of the emergence and nature of privacy, thus lacking a deep grasp of the historical clues and development logic of privacy.

The basis on which privacy arises

　　Privacy is a matter related to the self, the private part of self-extension is constrained by culture, and the development of the subject relationship is defined by society. Therefore, the concept of privacy is a product of the development of human self-consciousness, and continues to evolve with the development of society, and has different ways of expressing it in different socio-cultural backgrounds.

　　First, the cognitive underpinnings that privacy generates. The development of human consciousness has gone through a process from "herd consciousness" to "self-consciousness" to "subject consciousness". At first, human beings are in the stage of "herd consciousness", consciousness is only a consciousness of the perceptible environment around it, a consciousness of a narrow connection between others and other things that are beginning to become aware of themselves, a purely animal consciousness of nature. At this stage, people have not yet formed a unique sense of self, there is no shame, let alone privacy, freedom and dignity can not be talked about. Self-consciousness comes from reflection on the world of sensibility and perception, essentially a return from something else, a return of consciousness to itself, to the awareness of itself in its other side. Thus, from "self-consciousness," man can distinguish himself directly from other things, and can make his life activity itself an object of his consciousness. There is no doubt that with the emergence of self-awareness, especially freedom consciousness, the concept of shame and privacy began to germinate. With the development of self-awareness, people can not only be aware of their own lives, but also constantly create and generate their own lives, and achieve free development. In this respect, self-consciousness is essentially a free consciousness. Freedom consciousness is the subjective consciousness of the self, which is the consciousness of man who stands on his own as the subject and realizes his own subject status, subject ability and subject value. With the establishment of subjective consciousness and the development of practice, people in the process of practice can not only distinguish themselves from the outside world, but also realize their own status and ability, and then divide the individual area with "self-nature" among groups, privacy is what belongs to "me", and the characteristics of privacy are precisely based on the premise that human beings can recognize and distinguish their relationship with the world.

　　Second, privacy arises on the social underpinnings. Consciousness is from the very beginning a product of society, based on man's "quasi-nature", that is, his social nature, so that the emergence of the concept of privacy as self-consciousness is naturally inseparable from the social situation. The American philosopher Mead believed that "self-consciousness" is that the individual becomes an object of himself by adopting the attitude of others to himself in the context of an organized social relationship, and if the individual does not become an object of his own in this way, then he will not be self-conscious at all. In order to be aware of himself, one must become an object of oneself, that is, to enter one's own experience as an object, and one can become an object of oneself only through social means, only by adopting the attitude of others towards oneself. It can be seen that self-awareness is a social attitude that people adopt towards themselves. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that when people begin to look at themselves from the perspective of society or the other, the concept of privacy is possible. Therefore, the concept of privacy not only comes from the awakening of self-awareness, but also from the perspective of others. At the same time, it is precisely because people are self-aware subjects that they can feel insulted after some information is known to others. Because one can realize that one can be the object of scrutiny, that one can be the focus of attention of others or the public, a new sense of self arises, which is hostile. Stanley Benn argues that the new hostility is people's awareness of privacy. We can not only be aware of ourselves, but also aware of what kind of social situation we are in, but more importantly, we can also react to that social situation in our actions, which is both an awakening of self-consciousness and an attitude of the social community, an attitude of awakening the community in self-consciousness. Thus, in this regard, the concept of privacy as self-awareness is the internalization of the attitude of the social community.

　　Finally, privacy creates a cultural foundation. Defining privacy is extremely difficult because it is a concept that is strongly related to culture. The etymology of English Culture is the Latin word Cultus, which originally means "tillage", which derives from the long-tempered meaning of upbringing and freedom from the state of nature. Mr. Xu Zhongshu, a Chinese paleographer, believes that "private" is a farm tool, from the 厶, like the shape of the qi, which is used by farmers to cultivate as a tool for their own private ownership. The etymology of the Chinese character "private" shows that "private" has both the means of practice and the meaning of subject belonging, the former is man's cultural way of survival, and the latter is man's ownership of his own creation. The American anthropologist Herskowitz also believes that culture is a tool for individuals to adapt to their entire environment, a means of expressing their creativity. It can be seen from the above that the concept of privacy is inseparable from the cultural way of life of people. The most fundamental difference between man and animal is the conscious practice, and the product of social practice is the way man's culture exists. Practical activities make people's essence objectified, intuitively self-identifying themselves in the world created by man, and confirming the cultural essence of "belonging to me"; at the same time, making nature human, changing nature into my work and reality, and generating a cultural world of "for me". It is not difficult to see from the "ego" and "ego" that there is a natural source of privacy in the existence of human culture. Culture is the intrinsic attribute of man, through the objectification of self-consciousness, so that human beings from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom, reflecting man's ability to control himself and nature and the boundaries of his freedom, which is the basis of privacy's "self-nature". Furthermore, culture is the essential force of man, confirmed by practical activities, the former embodies subjectivity and freedom of consciousness, the latter embodies power and the ability to transform, so culture is to some extent expressed as the will to power. The above analysis can be seen that the concept of privacy has a certain cultural basis, and at the same time has a power attribute due to the power characteristics of culture.

The basic nature of privacy

　　With the development of society, self-consciousness leaps to subject consciousness, and the awakening of subject consciousness makes people begin to examine and establish their own status, actively maintain the freedom and dignity of individuals, and the concept of privacy is born. Therefore, from the perspective of the cognitive basis, social basis and cultural basis of privacy, privacy has three basic natures: subjectivity, sociality and power.

　　First of all, the subjectivity of privacy reflects an independent personality. The subject is aware that he is the master of his own destiny and has an independent personality that is not dependent on others. Hannah Arendt argues that in the emotions of ancients, the private nature of the word "privacy" was of such importance that it essentially meant depriving it of something, even the state of the highest, most human thing in man's capacity. Therefore, when we talk about privacy, it is essentially a confirmation of human subjectivity. To protect privacy is to resist the intrusion of the innermost realm of the person, and it is about the "inviolable personality". The American scholar Brustin believes that this principle includes personal dignity and integrity, personal uniqueness and individual autonomy, and that invading our privacy threatens our freedom as individuals. Brustine studied the reasons Warren and Brandeis wrote The Right to Privacy, arguing that they feared that the media that hyped up private lives would undermine the dignity and integrity of the individual and weaken the freedom and independence of the individual. Thus, Brustine defines the essence of man as an individual with dignity, autonomy, and independence, noting that "a man who is fully subject to public supervision will lose his uniqueness, autonomy, and his sense of self as an independent individual, in short, his moral personality." It can be seen that privacy is extremely important for maintaining subjectivity. According to Sartre, when we encounter the other and realize that we are an object to be examined, this allows us to re-recognize ourselves and seek a freedom of unrestricted behavior; to break free from the ungratched "existence for the object of others" is tantamount to plotting to achieve a world in which others do not exist. In this sense, privacy is the world, the boundary between the self and freedom, and its nature lies in the defense of subjectivity. It can be seen that privacy is an essential element of respect for people, as Stanley Benn said, because we are rational individuals, not because we are merely reservoirs of painful or pleasant reactions, so our privacy should be respected. In fact, the emphasis on privacy can make the subject realize that he is an independent being with moral values, and point out a new direction for human beings to find the meaning of life.

　　Secondly, the social nature of privacy reflects social distance. Privacy is a product of society, the result of examining itself from a social perspective in a certain social life. Privacy is not innate, but develops gradually, as a result of establishing and adjusting the relationship between individuals and society in social life. Therefore, the discussion of privacy mainly revolves around social relations. Jeffrey Lehman believes that privacy is an important part of a social practice through which society recognizes the existence of the individual and communicates with the individual, making the individual realize that his own existence is taken for granted. Lehman speculated that one's sense of self can neither develop nor survive outside the social system that teaches and governs the private sphere of knowing others. Distance in social interaction is beneficial, according to Mead's understanding, the concept of self is given to us by social interactions, so given the unique threats and dangers in social relations, participants need to maintain autonomy and self-esteem, and keeping distance helps to protect themselves partially and temporarily, because too close breeds threats. Murphy studied the reasons why the Tuareg people wore veils for a long time and found that they used veils to keep their distance from the outside world and maintain their privacy. Thus, in terms of privacy, social distancing is the boundary of the self. At this point, it is not difficult to find that although the self-concept is given by society, it is also threatened by society, so the existence of privacy has existential value. The American scholar Westin's research on animals also shows this: animals have the need to survive in small groups or alone, which is similar to humans. "The study of territory has even shattered the romantic notion that robins sing or monkeys scream purely for the 'joie de vivre of animals.' In fact, issuing warnings within the animal's private territory to warn of possible invaders is often a blatant call for privacy. ”

　　Finally, the power of privacy reflects the freedom of the subject. Privacy derives from the cultural survival of mankind and has what Nietzsche called the "will to power," which equates with something like life force or the impulse to preserve and enhance the vitality of the organism and its control over the environment. Anthony Giddens argues that power is logically bound to human action, that power emphasizes the effects of action, and that it has the tendency to equate power with freedom. Thus, culture and power are intertwined, and the concept of power refers to the ability to do something and the actual exercise of that ability, which is equivalent to the ability to "bring about significant changes in the external world." Logically, the original concept of privacy is the simple state of the private, i.e. not sharing the experience with anyone else. A more complex variant of privacy is a "state" in which either there is no sharing, or although there is sharing, privacy is a power simply because the subject wants to share. As a state that allows sharing, the concept of privacy naturally arises as the ability or power to control others' access to private objects (private places, information, or activities). Therefore, privacy is an ability to maintain a private state or a relaxed state, reflecting the degree of freedom of the subject. Power reflects the subject's ability to realize itself, and it is precisely because the subject has this ability that the subject's rights can be protected. In that sense, power means rights. Therefore, privacy is not only the right of the subject to maintain its own state, but also the right that the subject should enjoy. If a person has the ability to decide whether or not to maintain a private state, then he has a right, that is, the "right of the personality of man".

　　As a core concept in today's society, privacy is deeply influenced by different societies and cultures, has a wide variety of forms, but influences and regulates our experience of social life with similar origins and natures. The technological survival of modernity makes us face an unprecedented privacy crisis. The purpose of exploring the historical generation and basic nature of the concept of privacy is to awaken people's consciousness and vigilance about privacy, provide a reasonable basis and effective defense for people to guard their emotional and intellectual space, and promote the independent survival of individuals and the harmonious development of society.

　　(Author Affilications:School of Philosophy, Anhui University; School of Humanities, Southeast University)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Wang Jinzhu Zhang Xu