Common sense of Marxist philosophy

Chapter 1 Philosophy: "Useless but Great Use"

Some people may ask: "What's the use of studying philosophy? You can't eat it." Indeed, you can't eat it when you study philosophy, but after learning it, you can know "what is eating for".When people ask physicists, mathematicians, and writers, "What is the use of your knowledge", they will talk eloquently, but philosophers will ask, "Is it necessary?" This is the blood flowing in philosophers.However, in the era we live in, the market economy is surging, and the common misunderstanding of philosophy keeps people away. We can't see the original appearance of philosophy as love of wisdom and the independent status of thinking as the highest question.

"Useless use" comes from such a story.One day, Zhuangzi and his disciples walked to the foot of a mountain and saw a big tree with luxuriant branches and leaves, but no woodcutter cut it down, because the woodcutters thought that the tree would sink in the water if it was used for boats; If it is used as a utensil, it will be easily damaged; if it is used as a door and window, the fat will not dry;So Zhuangzi said to his disciples: "This tree can live forever because of its lack of talent. Isn't it a useless use, doing nothing but doing something for oneself?"

What is useless? "Zhuangzi": "Everyone knows the use of usefulness, but not the use of uselessness." Uselessness and usefulness can be transformed into each other, and the two are in a dialectical relationship.To put it bluntly, useful is useful, and useless is also useful.For example, a bad Ailanthus tree is useless for making furniture, but it is of great use for the tree to live its full life without the axe.The wisdom of philosophy shows its "uselessness": it is "useless" because philosophy is different from specific knowledge or technology, and it cannot replace the latter to solve specific problems; Because the exploration of wisdom and the state of wisdom in the field of philosophy always lead to the unity of truth, goodness and beauty at the level of the individual and the species through the universal norms of the process of knowing and doing.Humanistic knowledge, including philosophy, literature and art, aesthetics, etc., is not "useless" as some people say, on the contrary, they are of great benefit to nourishing people's hearts, cultivating emotions, and inspiring inspiration.Bacon once said: "History makes people wise, poetry makes people imaginative, mathematics makes people precise, natural science makes people profound, ethics makes people solemn, logic and rhetoric make people eloquent." Learning these seems "useless" Over time, the knowledge accumulated gradually will play a role at the critical moment, just as Lao Zhuang said: useless use can be of great use.

([-]) Philosophy and basic issues of philosophy
As soon as they hear the term "philosophy", many people immediately think of unfathomable and profound issues such as secrets, and many people dismiss it, thinking that it is far away from their own lives.In fact, no matter what occupation or status a person has, there is philosophy all around him.Philosophy penetrates into every aspect of life.

The word "philosophy" comes from "philosophia" in ancient Greek, which means "pursuit" and "wisdom", that is, "love of wisdom".In Chinese, "Zhe" means cleverness and wisdom.Translating and expressing "philosophia" with "philosophy" often makes people regard "philosophy" as a collection of wisdom or knowledge about wisdom.From the original meaning of philosophy: love wisdom or pursue wisdom.Philosophy is a science that gives people wisdom and wisdom.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said that philosophy originated from curiosity, and people began to think philosophically out of curiosity.A person who is confused and curious about things and phenomena feels his ignorance, and people philosophize in order to get rid of ignorance.The famous western philosopher Russell said: "Philosophy is not general knowledge. The origin of philosophy is that we have to use a very serious attempt to pursue a real knowledge."

As the study of wisdom, philosophy can undoubtedly give people wisdom.But the wisdom of philosophy is different from other sciences.The wisdom of philosophy first manifests itself in a person's correct grasp and understanding of the universe and life, that is, to allow people to view the universe and life correctly, or as Feng Youlan said, the function of philosophy is not to increase positive knowledge, but to improve the realm of the mind .Concrete knowledge and philosophy have different effects on people. "Concrete knowledge makes people a certain kind of person, while philosophy makes people a person."Marx said: "Without philosophy, I cannot advance." Chen Yun said: "Learning philosophy well will benefit you all your life."

Philosophy can inspire wisdom and make people smart.Not only to learn philosophy well, but also to use philosophy to guide life.How should philosophy be understood?
1. Philosophical understanding
Philosophy is a systematic and theoretical world view
Worldview is people's general and fundamental views on the whole world.A worldview is formed by people in practice.Why do you say this way?Because if human beings want to survive, they must carry out material production and must deal with the surrounding world. Through material production and other practical activities, they must understand nature and the surrounding world.It is in the long-term labor practice of human beings seeking material means of subsistence to maintain their own survival and continuously improve their living conditions that they gradually form their views and viewpoints on the surrounding world. This view and viewpoint is the world outlook.This kind of world view is a scattered, unsystematic and non-theoretical world view formed spontaneously in people's life practice.Everyone has a worldview, and not everyone has their own philosophical thoughts; philosophy is a theoretical system of worldview.Philosophy is the systematic answering of the most general questions about the world by means of theoretical arguments and logical analysis.Philosophy is a world view, but a world view is not philosophy, only a part of the world view can become philosophy.

How does a worldview become philosophy?The key is practice.Because people's understanding of the surrounding world in practice always starts from a partial and specific understanding. With the deepening and development of practical activities and the continuous expansion of horizons, people's understanding of the world is constantly expanding and deepening, and gradually Elevate the partial and specific understanding of things to the overall and abstract understanding, from individuality to commonality, refine and sublimate the spontaneously formed, unsystematic, and non-theoretical worldview, and form a relative system of the surrounding world views and viewpoints.With the emergence of social division of labor, especially after human beings enter the class society, some people in the society may calm down to engage in this kind of theoretical research, and through a series of unique concepts, categories and systematic logical arguments, unsystematic , A non-theoretical world outlook forms an ideological system, that is, a systematic and theoretical world outlook has been formed, and various philosophical thoughts and philosophical schools have emerged.

Philosophy is the generalization and summary of natural knowledge, social knowledge and thinking knowledge
There is a distinction between philosophy and concrete science.The research object of concrete science is the special law in a certain field of the world; the research object of philosophy is the most common and general law of the development of the whole world.Philosophy and concrete science are connected again.Philosophy is based on specific science, and at the same time provides guidance on world outlook and methodology for specific science.We must oppose both the "replacement theory" that replaces concrete science with philosophy, and the "elimination theory" that cancels the guiding role of philosophy.

Philosophy is the doctrine of methodology

Adapting to the requirements of the times and practice, Marx and Engels realized the unity of materialism and dialectics on the basis of critically inheriting and transforming the excellent achievements of previous philosophy, and created dialectical materialism and historical materialism, thus establishing the whole theory of Marxism. The foundation of the building provides us with a scientific worldview and methodology.Worldview is expressed through methodology.Methodology is the theory and theoretical system of the fundamental method followed by people to understand and transform the world, and methodology is unified with the world outlook.The unity of world outlook and methodology is manifested in: first, world outlook and methodology are two aspects of the same issue; second, generally speaking, there is a methodology for whatever world outlook there is, that is, the world outlook determines the methodology.

2. Basic Philosophical Questions
Marx and Engels critically absorbed past philosophical achievements, summed up the achievements of natural science and the historical experience of proletarian struggle, and established Marxist philosophy.

The fundamental problem common to human beings in the practical activities of understanding and transforming the world is the basic problem of philosophy; it is the premise and basis for solving a series of other philosophical problems, and determines the basic line and direction of all philosophical systems.It provides a basic guiding thread for studying the history of philosophy development; it provides the only scientific standard for dividing the basic schools of philosophy; it is a sharp weapon against all kinds of idealism, agnosticism, and metaphysics; it is the basic principle in practical work. Problems provide a fundamental principle for us to understand and transform the world.

The fundamental question of philosophy, also known as the basic question of philosophy and the highest question of philosophy, refers to the relationship between thinking and existence, consciousness and matter.

The basic issues of philosophy have two aspects: the first aspect is the question of which is the origin of thinking and existence, consciousness and matter.There have always been two fundamentally different answers to this question, thus forming two camps, two basic factions, and two opposing lines in philosophy, idealism and materialism.All philosophical schools that believe that consciousness is primary and matter is secondary, that is, consciousness precedes matter, matter depends on consciousness, and matter is the product of consciousness, belong to idealism; those who believe that matter is primary, consciousness The school of philosophy that is secondary, that is, matter precedes consciousness, and consciousness is a product of matter, belongs to materialism.In addition to these two fundamentally opposed answers, there is another answer, which holds that matter and consciousness are two independent and independent principles.The school of philosophy that holds this point of view is called dualism. It is an incomplete philosophy that vacillates between materialism and idealism, and it often falls to idealism in the end.Another aspect of the fundamental problem of philosophy is the problem of the identity of thinking and being.To this question, most philosophers, including materialist philosophers and some idealist philosophers, have answered in the affirmative.However, the materialist and idealist solutions to this problem differ in principle.Materialism recognizes the objective existence of the material world and its laws, and recognizes that thinking is the reflection of existence, and admits that the world can be known; idealism regards the objective world as the product of thinking and spirit, and believes that knowing the world is the product of the spirit. self-knowledge.There are also some philosophers, such as Hume and Kant, who deny the possibility of knowing the world, or deny the possibility of thoroughly knowing the world. They are agnostics in the history of philosophy.

Marx and Engels critically absorbed past philosophical achievements, summed up the achievements of natural science and the historical experience of proletarian struggle, and established Marxist philosophy, namely dialectical materialism and historical materialism.

([-]) Marxist philosophy is a scientific world outlook and methodology
The emergence of Marxist philosophy has created a new stage in the history of human philosophy.It is fundamentally different from the old philosophy in terms of content, object and social function, and has become the only scientific world outlook and methodology.In terms of content, Marxist philosophy organically unifies materialism and dialectics, especially implements the principle of materialism into the concept of social history, and for the first time correctly resolves the relationship between social existence and social consciousness, which is the basic historical concept. Problems created historical materialism and ended the long-term monopoly of idealism in the view of history.The inseparable high degree of unity of dialectical materialism and historical materialism makes Marxism the most thorough materialist philosophy in history.In terms of objects, Marxist philosophy for the first time established "the external world and the general laws of human thinking" as its objects.Thus, the relationship between philosophy and specific sciences is correctly resolved, and the era of the all-encompassing "science of science" pursued by philosophers in the past is ended.Philosophy can neither "replace" all concrete sciences, nor can it "cancel" philosophy because of concrete sciences.Marxist philosophy is a scientific world outlook and methodology.From the perspective of social function, previous philosophies "just interpret the world in different ways", while Marxist philosophy is "practical materialism" aimed at transforming the world.Marxist philosophy is the ideological weapon for the proletariat to understand and transform the world.Marxist philosophy, with its high degree of unity of science and revolution on the basis of practice, marks its fundamentally different characteristics from the old philosophy.Therefore, Marxist philosophy is not only the inheritance and summary of the excellent philosophical heritage in human history, but also a new and higher stage in the development of this philosophical thought.

Marxist philosophy is a science about the general laws of nature, society, and thinking development; it is a scientific theoretical system of proletarian world outlook and methodology; it is fundamentally different from old philosophy; its emergence is a revolutionary change in the history of philosophy.

First, in terms of the object of study and the relationship between philosophy and specific sciences, it is a science about the general laws of nature, society and the development of thinking, thus truly solving the relationship between philosophy and specific sciences.

Second, in terms of philosophical content, it is a complete theoretical system that unifies materialism and dialectics on the basis of scientific practice, and unifies the materialist dialectical view of nature and history.

Thirdly, from the perspective of philosophical class attributes and social functions, it is a powerful ideological weapon that guides the proletariat and the broad masses of the people to understand and transform the world, and it achieves the inner unity of science and revolution on the basis of practice.

To sum up, Marxist philosophy has achieved revolutionary changes in the history of philosophy in many aspects, and is fundamentally different from the old philosophy. It has become the most scientific worldview and methodology system since philosophy, and is the essence of the spirit of the times.

([-]) The emergence and development of Marxist philosophy
Marxist philosophy was born in the middle of the 19th century. It was co-founded by Marx and Engels and continuously enriched and developed by its successors. It is a theory about the general laws of the development of nature, society and human thinking.The emergence of Marxist philosophy is a product of modern natural science, a product of modern social practice and class struggle, a summary of the entire history of thought, and the result of theoretical exploration by the founders of Marxism such as Marx and Engels.

Marxist philosophy is the inevitable product of the social and historical development of Europe in the middle of the 19th century.

The capitalist mode of production has dominated some major countries in Europe from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century.The Industrial Revolution, which started in Britain first, enabled the rapid development of productive forces.Marx said in the "Communist Manifesto": "The productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in less than 100 years of class rule are more and greater than all the productive forces created by all past generations." develop.The tremendous development of social productive forces has made various social contradictions rooted in the capitalist mode of production increasingly acute, class antagonisms have been simplified, and class conflicts have been sharpened.The contradiction between the socialization of production and private ownership of means of production began to intensify, and the intensification of this contradiction will inevitably lead to the outbreak of periodic economic crises. In 1825, Britain experienced the first economic crisis of overproduction in world history.Since then, such crises have erupted periodically.The economic crisis occurred, factories closed down, and a large number of workers lost their jobs.The economic crisis sets the capitalist economy back.With the development of capitalism, the ranks of the proletariat are also growing and becoming an independent political force. From 1831 to 1834, the workers' armed uprising in Lyon, France, the Chartist movement in Britain in 1836, and the textile workers' uprising in Silesia in Germany in 1844.The three major European labor movements all failed, but it marked that the proletariat as an independent political force entered the stage of history, indicating that the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie has entered a new historical period.In order to realize the historical mission of destroying the old world, creating a new society, and turning slaves into masters, the proletariat urgently needs a scientific theory that can correctly reflect the laws of social development and the interests of the proletariat.At the same time, the rich experience of the class struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie provides practical experience for the production of this scientific theory.

Engels said: "With every epoch-making discovery in the field of natural science, materialism is bound to change its form." At the stage of connection and cross-category research, the metaphysical view of nature was gradually opened up one after another. The nebula hypothesis of Kant and Laplace overturned Newton's concepts of "universe invariance" and "God first pushes"; Lai Paul's geological theory proved that the earth also has an evolutionary history.In particular, the three major discoveries of the cell theory, the law of energy conservation and transformation, and the theory of biological evolution revealed the unity of matter in nature and the dialectical nature of the connection and development of various material forms, summarizing natural phenomena and understanding their general laws for philosophy Provides a solid knowledge base.

Engels said: "As a result of these three discoveries and other great advances in the natural sciences, we are now able to point out connections not only between processes in the various fields of nature, but also between fields in general, In this way we are able to paint, in an almost systematic form, a clear picture of the connections in nature, relying on the facts provided by the empirical natural sciences themselves."

The creation and development of scientific theories requires standing on the shoulders of giants, and Marxism is no exception.Marxism has absorbed all the outstanding achievements in the development of human thought and culture for thousands of years.The historical thought of British classical economics, Franco-British utopian socialism, and French Restoration historians provided indirect theoretical sources for Marxist philosophy.British classical economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo founded the labor theory of value.Its main achievement is to lay the foundation of the labor theory of value and make a preliminary analysis of the economic roots of the opposition between capitalists and workers. Due to class limitations, they cannot thoroughly reveal the law of capitalist economic development, and there are many contradictions in the system. Confusion and unscientific.The historical theories of French Restoration historians Thierry, Guizot, and Miniet, especially their investigation of the role of class struggle in social development, they have perceived the power of the people and economic interests in social life and class It occupies an important position in the struggle, tries to explain the relationship between class struggle and economic interests, believes that class struggle is the driving force of political events, and is the key to understanding French history since the Middle Ages, and advocates the study of people's history.Utopian socialists such as Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen ruthlessly exposed the inherent contradictions of capitalism and made genius guesses about the future society.They believe that capitalism is a world where right and wrong are reversed, a society that bases its own happiness on the suffering of others, a society of egoism and speculation and fraud, "private ownership turns people into devils and the whole world into evils." Hell is the root of all evil.They also made a lot of predictions about the future society.It provides valuable ideological materials for enlightening the consciousness of the working class and beneficial ideological materials for scientific socialism.

Marxist philosophy is the crystallization of the advanced thinking achievements of human beings, and it critically inherits the fine traditions of materialism and dialectics in the history of philosophy.The direct theoretical source of Marxist philosophy is German classical philosophy.German classical philosophy is the highest form of the development of modern philosophy, reaching its peak in Hegel's system.Hegel is a master of dialectical thought.His greatest achievement is to restore dialectics, the highest form of thinking, to describe the entire natural, historical and spiritual world as a process, to describe it as in constant motion, change, transformation and development, and to try to reveal this Intrinsic link between movement and development.The main aspects of Hegel's dialectical thought are: the thought of development and internal connection, the thought of the unity of opposites, the thought of subjective initiative, the thought of the unity of history and logic.However, his rich dialectical thoughts are hidden in the mysterious idealism system, his dialectics is revolutionary, but the omnipotent system suffocates dialectics.Feuerbach is the last representative of classical German philosophy.His great achievement is to criticize Hegel's idealism, restore the authority of materialism, and insist on the philosophical viewpoint that matter is first and consciousness is second.But when he criticized Hegel's idealism, he also abandoned Hegel's dialectics.He saw the natural existence of man, but what he said was man in the biological sense, and he did not understand that the essence of man was practical.

Marx and Engels critically absorbed the "reasonable core" of Hegel's philosophical dialectics and abandoned its idealism; critically absorbed the "basic core" of Feuerbach's philosophical materialism, abandoned its metaphysics, and Based on the new practical experience and scientific materials, they were revolutionaryly transformed and developed, thus organically combining dialectics and materialism, unifying the materialist dialectical view of nature and history, and creating a brand-new Marxist philosophy.

Both Marx and Engels were scholars with profound knowledge and keen thinking, which enabled them to stand at the peak of the wisdom of the times, critically inherit all the outstanding achievements in the history of human thought, and generalize and summarize the latest achievements of scientific development.At the same time, they were great revolutionaries. They personally participated in and led the great struggle practice of the proletariat for liberation at that time. During the struggle against various erroneous trends of thought in revolutionary practice, they realized the power of the broad working masses to create history and saw the proletariat. The great future of the class gradually transforms from idealism to materialism, from revolutionary democracy to communism, and becomes a great communist.

In 1842, when Marx was running the "Rheinische Zeitung" newspaper, he had the opportunity to have a broad understanding of society and contact with society. He made a lot of investigations and studies on various aspects of society, and published a series of articles. Among them, "On Forest Trees" Debates on the Law of Theft", "In Defense of the Moser Journalist", played a key role in the transformation of Marx's worldview.

Because of Marx's progressive views, he was persecuted by the Prussian government, and Marx lived a life of displacement.But Marx persisted in writing Das Kapital for 42 years.Marx had a fearless critical spirit, and he criticized and studied everything that human beings have built.For the writing of "Das Kapital", he read more than 1000 books and made 400-500 reading notes.

We learn more about Marx in life and work.Marx had a special talent in language.When he wrote, in the words of his friends, he sometimes even reached the point of scribbling words.He pays great attention to the conciseness and correctness of the language, but also does not forget the originality and vividness of the text.In his economic works, many rigorous concepts are expressed with vivid metaphors and allusions.When his masterpiece "Das Kapital" was published, some experts commented that, compared with the usual economics works, one of the major features of this book in terms of text description is "easy to understand, clear ... very vivid"; "Gives a unique fascination to the dullest economic problems."Even in his youth, Marx had mastered Latin, ancient Greek and French.After settling in London, he learned English again.German, English, and French have become the main languages ​​in which he expresses his thoughts.Liebknecht said that Marx wrote in English and French like real Englishmen and Frenchmen: the article for the New York Daily Tribune was in exemplary English, The Poverty of Philosophy was in exemplary in French.In addition, Marx can read proficiently in Italian, Spanish, Romanian and other languages; at the age of 50, he actually started to learn Russian (Russian is considered by the public to be a difficult language to learn because it is different from Western European languages. very large), and will soon be able to read Russian books with gusto.Marx was very fond of writers such as Pushkin and Gogol. After reading the works of the Russian revolutionary democratic writer Chernyshevsky, he respected him very much.

After the failure of the 1848 revolution, the European labor movement was in a state of stagnation and dormancy, while capitalism was developing rapidly.At this time, Marx retreated to his study, devoted himself to studying the capitalist mode of production, and forged theoretical weapons to reveal the future trend of social development.

He read a lot and wrote summaries and notes a lot.What he studied most was economics.He thoroughly studied the history of political economy, from Xenophon in ancient Greece to his own contemporary economists; he studied the economic history of various periods, especially the economic history of capitalism; he also studied technology. , have a deep understanding of the application of technology in capitalist production and the discovery and invention of science and technology.In his notes, he included detailed excerpts of the centuries-old applications of mathematics, physics, and other sciences to production.He worked deeply on the theory of money and prices, the turnover of circulating capital, and the accounting of capitalist enterprises.He also read voluminous official reports, including numerous "blue books" of factory investigators' reports - material that MPs sold as scrap paper and that Marx bought cheaply from used booksellers .Not only economics, Marx also has in-depth research on philosophy and literature throughout the ages.He once had the idea of ​​writing the history of philosophy.He is full of love for great writers, from Homer, Aeschylus to Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe, Balzac's works, he is very familiar with; he regards Shakespeare as a great human drama Genius, can recite his plays paragraph by paragraph.He also likes to do math, and regards it as a kind of labor.He has a special preference for mathematics, and believes that a science can only be considered truly perfect when it successfully uses mathematics.

Marx has done solid research on the history, politics, diplomacy, and international relations of various countries, and has always paid great attention to them.He has always had a strong interest in history, and has read a large number of historical works, travel notes, memoirs, biographies, etc. from ancient times to the present.His involvement ranges from Europe to America and Asia, and even to China as far away as the East.He also wrote a large number of historical notes until his later years.Throughout his life he wrote so many articles and pamphlets on international issues that one cannot but marvel at the author's wealth of knowledge and insights.

Since Marx received a reading card from the British Museum in June 1850, except for bad weather, illness, and temporary outings, Marx spent almost every day from 6:9 am to 7:[-] pm looking up materials, making summaries, and writing books.He continued to work at home in the evening, often all night long.

Due to the intense work, his originally strong body gradually began to fail from the 19s.Headaches, liver disease, hemorrhoids... These ailments eroded his health and made him suffer.Doctors have repeatedly asked him to strengthen physical exercise and prohibit night work, but he will not seriously comply with these requirements unless it is absolutely necessary.Overwork, lack of exercise, and poor diet are important reasons why Marx did not live a long life.Many years after his death, Liebknecht recalled that Marx would have lived a long life if he had made up his mind to lead a normal life.This is a true portrayal of Marx's study and work.Marx devoted his whole life to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat.We realize that the establishment of Marxist philosophy cannot be separated from the subjective efforts of Marx himself.From this we can see Marx's studious and profound academic quality.

The "Theses on Feuerbach" written by Marx in the spring of 1845, and the "German Ideology" co-authored by Marx and Engels from 1845 to 1846, based on social practice, systematically expounded dialectical and historical materialism. The basic principles of Marxism mark the formation of Marxist philosophy.

Marxist philosophy is the product of a fundamental turning point in human history and the crystallization of all the outstanding cultural heritage of mankind.The development of history to the middle of the 19th century not only put forward the task of creating a new world outlook to meet the requirements of the times, but also provided the necessary conditions for the creation of a new world outlook from all aspects.The great historical achievement of Marx and Engels is that they complied with the urgent needs of the times, turned this possibility into reality, and provided the proletariat with a scientific world outlook and great cognitive tools.

Marxism is produced in practice, and is constantly enriched and developed in practice.This kind of development, in addition to the constant enrichment and improvement of the theory created by Marx and Engels based on the development of practice, was first realized by Lenin and other Marxists in leading the Russian revolution.The Communist Party of China has established Marxism-Leninism as its guiding ideology since its founding, and has persisted in integrating the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality in its long-term struggle, developed Marxism, and successively produced Mao Zedong Thought and Chinese characteristics system of socialism.

(End of this chapter)