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Chapter 84 The Founding Work of Western Marxism
Chapter 83 The founding work of Western Marxism: "Marxism and Philosophy"

The two great men, Marx and Engels, are the founders of the theory of Marxism.Influential in the world, as a rising star
Korsch, a follower of Marxism, his "Marxism and Philosophy" is the foundation of Western Marxism

, in this work, Korsch takes the question of the relationship between Marxism and philosophy as the theme, emphasizing the whole of Marxism
He emphasized the inseparable relationship between theory and practice, and criticized the Second International's departure from Marxism.

Expelled from the Party for writing books following Marxism

Karl Korsch (1886～1961) is a well-known representative of German Marxism and a famous thinker in the West in the 20th century.

In 1923, he published "Marxism and Philosophy", which was severely criticized by the Communist Party. In 1926, he was expelled from the
party.

In 1936, in order to escape the persecution of the Nazis in Germany, he moved to the United States and gradually broke away from Marxism.

In the 20s, under the influence of the Russian October Revolution, proletarian revolutions broke out in many western countries, but soon
They all failed.This has caused some Marxist theorists to ponder this question.like lukacs of hungary

, Germany's Korsch is such a thinker.After thinking about it, they found that the leaders of the Second International were to a great extent
It deviates from Marxism in nature and understands and applies Marxism from the perspective of dogmatism. This is the failure of the revolutions in Western countries.

A very important reason, therefore, they began to try to criticize the Marxism of the Second International, trying to restore Marxism

The true face of doctrine.Korsch's "Marxism and Philosophy" was produced under such a background.

Criticizing the Mechanism of the Second International and Reviving Marxist Philosophy

The main content of the book is about the relationship between Marxism and philosophy, Mark

Three main stages of development of ideology and the main ideas in "Anti-Criticism" and other three aspects.Korsch believes that the horse
The question of the relationship between Marxism and philosophy is very important, but people do not know much about it.bourgeois philosophy
According to the professors, Marxism has no philosophical content of its own; while the Marxists of the Second International

, their Marxism has nothing to do with philosophy by its very nature.

German classical philosophy as
The ideological expression of the bourgeois revolutionary movement was transformed into a new science, which has since become the

The general expression of the bourgeois revolutionary movement appeared in the history of ideas, which is what Marx and Engels discovered in the 40s and

Systematic discussion of the "scientific socialism" theory.

According to Korsch, the separation between Marxism and philosophy is based on the idea that people are transcending bourgeois
In this action, Marxism itself, as a philosophical object, will be discarded and eliminated immediately.sincerity
Of course, when Marx and Engels created scientific socialism, they were not only trying to establish a new philosophy, but also from 1945
For years they ceased to express their new materialist and scientific views as philosophical views.because to them,

All philosophy is equivalent to bourgeois philosophy, so they want to use scientific socialism to finally overcome and replace all philosophy.

The purpose of Marx and Engels to propose the abolition of philosophy is to
The abolition of philosophy is a part of the abolition of the whole bourgeois social reality, because philosophy is a constituent part of this reality.

In this work, according to his own understanding of Marxist philosophy, Korsch put Marx's principles of dialectical materialism into practice

It is used in the development history of Marxism and puts forward its own unique theory about the development stages of Marxism.he thinks,

Since the birth of Marxist theory, it has experienced three main periods of development.The first period began around 1843 and ended in

The Revolution of 1849.The second period began with the June uprising in Paris in 1848, when the proletarian revolution was suppressed and lasted until the

late 19th century.The third period begins at the beginning of the 20th century and continues into an as yet undetermined future.

The theory of the first period, as the original form of Marxism, despite the negation of philosophy, the initial form of this theory
The attitude is completely permeated by philosophy.It is a theory that grasps and practices social development as a living whole.exist
There, not only economics, politics, and ideology, but also historical processes and conscious social action continue to constitute "revolutionary
the living unity of life practice". Of course, this original form of Marx's theory could not have been

remain unchanged for the period.But the core features of Marxist theory remained unchanged even after Marx and Engels

The same is true in this period of work, because their Marxism, as scientific socialism, remains the only integral theory of social revolution.

The inseparable link of theory and practice which is its distinctive mark, and especially the inseparable connection of theory and practice, is unrecognizable in the later forms of Marx's system.
In any case it has not been repealed.

During the second period, the Marxism of Marx and Engels was distorted by its followers: a unified view of society
The theory of social revolution was dismembered into a dismemberment of the bourgeois economic order, the state, the educational system, religion, art, science and culture.

of purely theoretical critiques, which no longer necessarily develop into revolutionary practice.But the orthodox Marx of the Second International

Incapable of resolving issues such as the relationship between the state and the proletarian revolution, they were unable to maintain the original Marxist
Revolutionary, so shaken in faith.

The third period was that of the "reconstruction" of Marxism by the Russian Marxists.rosa luxemburg and lenin wanted
Freeing Marxism from the confinement of the Social Democratic Party during the Second International to suit the class struggle of the proletariat

The practice of the new stage requires that the issue of the dictatorship of the proletariat be put on the agenda as a practical issue.but for
In order to consciously rebuild the internal relationship between theory and practice, the question of the relationship between the proletarian revolution and ideology must also be raised afresh.

question.Spiritual life should be viewed in conjunction with the political life of society, and the existence and development of society should be

research in conjunction with social awareness of the real components of the process.Social consciousness cannot be viewed dualistically as truly concrete and
The reflection of the real development process does not depend entirely on this process.The chief defect of vulgar socialism is its adherence to austere

In On, a sharp dividing line is drawn between consciousness and its objects.But in Marx there is absolutely nothing about meaning
Knowledge and
The dualistic metaphysics of the relation of reality.It cannot be naively assumed, like the orthodox bourgeois metaphysical point of view, that

Thought is independent of being, and defines truth as the correspondence of thought with objects external to it and "mirror-reflected" by it.

After Korsch's "Marxism and Philosophy" was published, it was immediately criticized severely by the Communist Party and condemned

blamed heresy, and thus began a fundamental debate about the general state of modern Marxism.

Korsch points out that the critics are not concerned with the more limited questions defined by the book's subject, but with the
The other two issues that have not been fully discussed, one is about the concept of Marxism itself, and the other is about the concept of Marxism itself.
ideology or questions about the relationship between consciousness and being.

With regard to his criticism, he conducts systematic debates.Regarding the former question, "Marxism and Philosophy" proposes a positive
Accurate scientific view of Marxism: Marxism is completely non-dogmatic and anti-dogmatic, historical and critical,

Hence materialism in the strictest sense.This view includes the application of historical materialism to historical materialism itself.old and new

The opposition opposed this and accused Korsch of an unjustified preference for the "primitive" form of Marxism.division
Ersch makes it clear that each doctrinal "Marxist" faction evaluates the different aspects of Marxism in very different ways.

The same historical stage; however, only when Marxism is divided into three development periods like Korsch's, this special treatment is
The only correct one. The fact that the relationship between Marxism and philosophy did not change decisively in the second half of the nineteenth century is not to say that three
There is no difference between the periods.View the dialectical materialist, critical theory of revolution created in the 19s as an "anti-
Philosophy", although it still belongs to philosophy in essence. Its theoretical characteristics after the 50s may be defined as a kind of Hegelian philosophy
The return of learning.The whole theory of Marxism, including its philosophical aspects, is indeed the successor of German classical philosophy.However
However, Kautsky's theory actually deprives Marxist theory of its essentially revolutionary character, and even excludes the

The basic connection between the theory and the proletarian struggle is a replica of Bernstein's theory.

With regard to another criticism made by orthodox Marxists, Korsch points out that there is actually another issue involved here,
That is to say, the relationship between Marxism and philosophy in the third stage of the development of Marxism needs to be re-evaluated.Due to the Marxist
Philosophy of Righteousness and Philosophy reemphasizes an aspect of the revolutionary philosophical content of Marxist doctrine that stands in line with all earlier self-conscious

Against the German and International Marxist blocs that emerged as Kantians, Machians, and revisionists,

The most prominent of these factions increasingly adopted an anti-philosophical, scientific positivist view of Marxism.It is "horse
This view in "Marxism and Philosophy" is in strong opposition to the Bolshevik "Marxism-Leninism" theorists.
resistance, and was attacked with extraordinary hostility by the Russian party press, which accused the book of denying the dialectic of nature and attacked the
The book's dialectical negation of naive realism, accusing the book of "betrayal of idealism" to Marxism.because the book is against

"to draw a strict demarcation between consciousness and its objects", against "taking consciousness as something ready-made, as
from the very beginning as opposed to existence and nature". At that time, only a rough understanding of the relationship between consciousness and existence was assumed.
critique of pre-dialectical, even transcendental notions.Didn't realize this inadvertently touched the distribution from Moscow to the West
The crux of the philosophical worldview of the communist world.

Among the numerous books of Western Marxist classics, Korsch's "Marxism and Philosophy" is the contemporary Marxist
It is an important document in the history of the development of Marxism. Since its publication, it has produced a huge impact in the theoretical circles of Marxism and the communist movement.
great influence, and this influence still exists even today.

This work profoundly criticized the Second International's understanding of the mechanism of Marxism, trying to restore the Marxist
Integrity, profoundly discusses the relationship between Marxism and philosophy, which is very important for correctly adhering to Marxism
righteous.This book and Lukacs' "History and Class Consciousness" together opened the study of Western Marxism, marking the beginning of the

It is a new stage in the diversified development of ideologicalism in the West.Many theories of later Western Marxist research are derived from
This book draws on its theoretical origins.Of course, many of the views in this book are also incorrect. His criticism of Engels and Lenin
Many of the evaluations are very one-sided and wrong, and readers should pay attention to this when reading this book.

(End of this chapter)