Logic, Efficiency, and Values: A Triadic Analytical Framework for Social Evolution

What is the ultimate driving force underlying social evolution? This paper proposes an integrative analytical framework, arguing that in the hard-power competition of the human material world, the ultimate and inescapable underlying traction is "efficiency," while "logical optimization/degradation" is the fundamental mechanism driving efficiency changes. Values reside at the upper level, acting as directional regulators that set the weights of efficiency relative to other non-efficiency objectives in the objective function. The relationship among the three can be understood through an engineering analogy: efficiency is engine performance (power layer), logic is engine structure (mechanism layer), and values are the steering wheel (directional regulator). This paper introduces "logical degradation" as a symmetrical concept, proposes "direct cost bearing capacity" as a hard boundary for efficiency traction, and reveals the inescapability of competition: not participating in competition cannot prevent others from competing for resources; complete isolation can cut off efficiency transmission, but at the cost of an exponential widening of technological gaps. This paper strictly delimits the scope of application of the theory, provides illustrative evidence through cross-level cases from technological history, corporate competition, and national policies, and offers five testable qualitative corollaries. The paper also discusses the positive correlation between efficiency and hard power at the micro-individual level, "managed openness" as an intermediate zone between efficiency laws and institutional intervention, and the conditions, buffering mechanisms, and the three-outlet framework for the long-term traction of efficiency on values. This paper aims to provide a testable and dialogable integrative paradigm for social evolution.