邓小平同志在1992年南方谈话中明确指出:“社会主义的本质,是解放生产力,发展生产力,消灭剥削,消除两极分化,最终达到共同富裕”（《邓小平文选》第3卷第373页）。要把握好社会主义本质,必须运用辩证科学的方法论。 一、从生产力、生产关系与上层建筑的辩证统一 中把握社会主义的本质 社会制度与社会形态是两个不同的范畴。社会制度指的是经济制度、政治制度、思想文化制度,等等,是经济基础与上层建筑的统一。社会形态指的是包括生产力、生产关系和上层建筑在内的社会有机整体,其内容比社会制度厂泛,包括经济制度,但又不限于经济制度,还包括生产力。显然,邓小平在概括社会主义本质时,把社会主义看成是一种社会形态而不仅仅是一种社会制度,把解放生产力,发展生产力纳入了社会主义的本质。过去,我们对社会主义本质的认识,往往只强调生产关系和上层建筑方面的特征,而忽视了解放和发展生产力这个历史唯物主义最基本的原则。我们过去由于长期离开生产力孤立地研究和论述社会主义,其结果是把社会主义简单地等同于公有制、按劳分配、计划经济、消灭剥削,而没有把生产力纳入社会主义本质的范畴,这是对社会主义本质把握的一种失误。 总之,把握社会主义本质,必须把生产力和生产关系统一起来。离开生产力 In his 1992 interview in the south, Comrade Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out: “The essence of socialism is to liberate the productive forces, develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate the polarization and eventually achieve common prosperity.” (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, p. 373). To grasp the nature of socialism, we must apply the dialectical science methodology. I. Grasping the Essence of Socialism from the Dialectical Unity of Productive Forces, Production Relations and Superstructure Social systems and social forms are two different categories. Social system refers to the economic system, political system, ideological and cultural system, and so on, is the economic foundation and superstructure of unity. Social form refers to the organic whole of society, including productive forces, relations of production, and superstructure. Its contents are broader than those of the social system, including the economic system, but not limited to the economic system and also include the productive forces. Obviously, in summation of the essence of socialism, Deng Xiaoping regarded socialism as a social form and not just as a social system, which incorporated the liberation of productive forces and the development of productive forces into the essence of socialism. In the past, our understanding of the essence of socialism tended to emphasize only the relations of production and the characteristics of the superstructure, while neglecting the most basic principle of liberating and developing productive forces, the historical materialism. In the past, because we left for a long time to study and discuss socialism in isolation in isolation, the result is to simply equate socialism with public ownership, distribution according to work, plan for economy and eliminate exploitation, without incorporating productive forces into the nature of socialism. A mistake made by the essence of socialism. In short, to grasp the essence of socialism, we must unite the relations of productive forces and production. Leave productivity