The Argumentation of the Legitimacy of the Proletarian Political Practice
——the Analysis of the Marxist Political Philosophy
❏ Cheng Guangyun
Recently, the political philosophy has been taken as the “first philosophy” at the aboard to the home，which is an opportunity and challenge for the Marxist philosophy. I believe the study of the Marxist philosophy is not a closed one but one open to the following: The first is open to other political philosophies, exploring the critical and sustainable relation of classic political philosophy, modern political philosophy and the Marxist political philosophy, and improving the conversation between the Marxist political philosophy and modern political philosophy (such as western Marxism, new Marxism and post-Marxism).The second is open to other political thoughts through the discussion of the construction of democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which means we perceive and evaluate other political thoughts such as new-liberalism, new left-wing and new conservatism as the Marxist political philosophy. It is self-evident that the research theme of the Marxist political philosophy formed by the combination of Marxist political philosophy and the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics is an embodiment to put theory into practice.I believe the Marxist political philosophy is a kind of theoretic demonstration of the legitimacy of the proletarian political practice. Therefore, the Marxist political philosophy is neither a textual research nor a practical research. In its methodology, the Marxist political philosophy should go first and mainly focus upon logic argumentation. Here the so-called “logic argumentation” is not in its narrow sense, but in a broad sense which has something to do with the creations of theory and method which is also called argument structure and mode, etc.According to philosopher Leo Straus, the political philosophy as a discipline has its special meaning. The political philosophy is a branch of philosophy, which investigates deeply and widely the issues of human politic production. Facing the things involved in the political field, it is impossible for us not to hold the attitudes of approving or opposing, choosing or refusing and praising or condemning, all of which relate to the judgment of goodness and badness, mercy and evil, justice and injustice. That presupposes all kinds of judgment standards which are explored by us to gain the real knowledge of these standards. Therefore, the political philosophy itself is not neutral, whose purpose is to recognize not only the nature of political stuff but also the fair or good social system.Political philosophy is different from the general political ideology and a general political theory. Political ideology is a reflection or interpretation of political conceptions which are the basic rules relating to politics or the impression, opinion and fantasy of elements, etc. Political theory is a reflection on the political situation and policy recommendations, which will eventually resort to the principle acknowledged by public. All political philosophies are political ideology, political theory and political doctrine; Converse to the former, not all political thoughts, political theories and political doctrines are the political philosophy. In other words, the relation between political philosophy and the general political ideology, political theory and political doctrine is the same as the relation between knowledge and opinion. Political philosophy was political science originally. However, with the separation between philosophy and science, namely the authoritative establishment of modern natural science and the authoritative lost of philosophy, the difference between the non-scientific political philosophy and the non-philosophical political science appears. It can be said that the relation between the political philosophy and the political science is the relation between value judgments and factual judgments. According to the Marxist point of view, however this value and fact can be unified.The political philosophy existed since ancient times. The ancient Chinese philosophy, especially Confucian philosophy and Legalism philosophy are typical forms of political philosophy. The history of Western political philosophy, so far, has experienced three basic forms: first, the classically political philosophy is represented by Plato and Aristotle; second, the modern political philosophy is represented by Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Smith, Mill, Rousseau, Kant and Hegel; third, contemporary political philosophy is represented by Hayek, Rawls and Strauss. Marxist political philosophy is a transitional system of political philosophy from modern to contemporary and has exerted a significant impact upon the international communism and national socialist political practice.At present, the political philosophy has become the famous school of thought called the “first philosophy”. Under the influence of different kinds of political philosophy at abroad, political philosophy in China has become central issue in recent years and plays an important role in affecting a variety of political thoughts such as Hayek's research in the new liberalism, Rawls study on the New-left, Strauss's study on neo-conservatism, etc. In the background of this academic thought, lots of philosophers and other scholars in the field of humanities and social sciences turn to the study of political philosophy. It is both an opportunity and challenge for the research of the Marxist political philosophy. Meanwhile, the building of the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics has raised a number of problems required to be solved from a view of political philosophy, which provides the necessity, possibility and reality for the Marxist political philosophy studies. The socialism with Chinese characteristics is guided by Marxism, which implies that it should be actually based upon Marxist political philosophy (as well as political science) from the view of construction of democratic politics.We will better our understanding of the development of foreign political philosophy and promote the study of the Chinese political philosophy, which means that combined with the reality of the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we need the systematic study of the Marxist theory, the political philosophy dialogue with the foreign countries, clarifying the issues doctrinally and expounding the standpoint of all the political philosophies. And all of these play an important role in building a special Marxist-oriented political philosophy, with Chinese characteristics and the contemporary spirit. The major problems of political philosophy are not the political issues, but the academic issues concerning the basic problems of political thoughts from the view of philosophy. The bias of the western scholars is that there is only the political ideology but no political philosophy in China’s mainland. The dividing line between the political philosophy and the political ideology consists in whether it resorts to the human reason or the logical argument. The study of Marxist political philosophy will promote our national political philosophy through learning the contemporary Chinese and foreign political philosophy.On the one hand, contrasted to other philosophy, Marxist philosophy is related to political practice; on the other hand, we have actually not or rarely discussed it in a political philosophy sense. How to understand the political philosophy from the perspective of Marxism? How to understand the Marxist political philosophy? How to understand the Marxism from the perspective of the political philosophy? Our analysis of Marxist political philosophy consists of all these questions.First of all, understanding the political philosophy according to the Marxism is the understanding from the perspective of historical materialism. This is the Marxist theory of political production and reproduction. Marx and Engels proposed four theories of production and reproduction in the The German Ideology, the life production and reproduction includes the production of their own lives through work, the production of other lives and communicative forms through the fertility and the production of language ideas, concepts and awareness through languages. Furthermore, Engels claimed two kinds of theories of production and reproduction in the The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,which implies the direct production and reproduction of living includes the production of tools and productive material through work and the production of human beings through family. This theory is nothing but the abbreviated form of the production theory mentioned above. The production implies meanings such as practice, labor, contacts, the world objectification and the objectified world. The “world objectification” and the “objectified world” refer to that the object-world is produced and reproduced by people through practicing, working and communicating. This is the essence and the core of the Marxist conception of historical materialism. It is noticed that the production of the communicative form is also the political production in a broad sense, which contains the political production in a narrow sense. The Marxist conception of historical materialism clarifies the political and the cultural production from the perspective of material production, getting rid of its independent appearance. “political and cultural production have no their own history and development, which means people who develop their own material production and material communication not only change the reality but their thought and its product at the same time”; They also change their communication and the product of it--the social relationship between human society and the social essence (humanity). This is the Marxist basic understanding of the political philosophy and the essential characteristics of the Marxist political philosophy.Second, the Marxist political philosophy consists of three basic levels: first, the thoughts of the political strategy (including the military strategy) reflected in the summary of the previous proletarian revolution written by the classical Marxist writers. Strictly speaking, this level is not the political philosophy category, but the general political thought and the political theory. However, some political conceptions undoubtedly have the sense of political philosophy, which should be treated carefully but not be divorced from the specific context. Second, the political philosophy embodied in the research of basic political issues by the classical Marxist writers, such as Marx's early writings on ethics and law research; Engels’ research on equality and freedom in the Anti-Dühring (Part1 Philosophy) and the famous doctrine of class struggle, national doctrine, the theory of proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of proletariat, etc. Strictly speaking, however, this level does not belong entirely to the category of the political philosophy but partly to the political science. But it should be noticed that: the Marxist political philosophy and the political science are combined closely. Third, the most fundamental and important meaning of the Marxist political philosophy is that we comprehend the Marxist philosophy as political philosophy.Finally, understanding the Marxism from the perspective of political philosophy is the understanding the conception of historical materialism from the perspective of political philosophy. Marxist political philosophy is the theoretical argumentation of the legitimacy of the proletarian political practice. The Marxist conception of historical materialism is a strictly logical and completely theoretical system. However, no matter in the ideological development of the Marxist philosophy or in the historical development of the Marxist philosophy it contains two basic logics: one is the life theory or the logic of the practice, which means we could infer the legitimacy of the proletariat changing the world from the proletarian living condition; the other is the historical conception or the natural logic, namely the social laws deduced form the natural laws as the “iron law” determine the legitimacy of proletarian changing the existing world. In comparison, the former is more original than the latter one. They should supplement each other. However, they were usually separated in the historical process and the former was overwhelmed by the latter, which makes Marxism turn to dogmatism or pragmatism.In addition, it is no doubt that the Marxist political philosophy exerts important guiding significance on the construction of the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The significance includes: to defend the fundamental socialist political system by applying the Marxist political philosophy; to criticize the existing political system; the most fundamental and important is to justify the way to build the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the contrary, the construction of the democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics plays a basic role in enriching and developing the Marxist political philosophy.When we interpret the whole Marxist philosophy as the political philosophy, we have already defined the Marxist political philosophy as the theoretic justification of the legitimacy of proletarian political practice. So, we further explore the two basic logics of the Marxist political philosophy: one is the life theory or the logic of the practice, which means we could infer the legitimacy of the proletariat changing the world from the proletarian living condition; the other is the historical conception or the natural logic deducing the social laws from the natural laws understood as the “iron law”. That justifies the legitimacy of the proletariat and its vanguard --Communist Party. The difference and connection and even the opposition and unity between the two logics should be apprehended.In a short text -- the interview about Karl Marx published in The Sun written by John · Swinton, Marx answered the question “what is the being?”. The answer is “struggle”. It has showed the logical premise of the Marxist political philosophy: I struggle therefore I am being.The Marxism is Marx’s innovation. Therefore, the Marxism first reflects its creator’s life situation. A person's life situation is composed of two aspects: first, his objective living environment or experience; second, his subjective attitude towards the living environment or experience. Marx is a typical public intellectual (the intellectual not only refers to a knowledgeable one but one who concerns about culture and society). His identity of common people decides his real situation and fate of being the member of social bottom. Meanwhile, the identity of the intellectual has decided his ideal conceptions and awareness of the mission as a senior member of intellectuals. This tension determines Marx’s character. As is well-known, Marx completed the questionnaire made by his eldest daughter-Jenny like this: “What is your understanding about happiness?” -- “struggle” ; “What is your understanding about unhappiness?” --“surrender”. It is no doubt that there are only two ways to save the people living in the bottom of society: either struggling or surrender. The senior intellectuals, however, have no choice but to struggle.The young Marx has engaged in the theoretic criticism and the practical struggle with the passion and reason. He wants to discover the new world through criticizing the old world and criticize all existent things heartlessly, which means this criticism is not afraid of his conclusions and the conflict against various existing forces. He wants to combine the theoretic criticism with the practical struggle. However, he knows once we changed the theoretic criticism into the practical struggle, the changing is not affordable to the individual intellectuals, which has to mobilize the masses to participate in the struggle. He holds that the weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon and material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has controlled the masses. Theory is capable of controlling the masses as soon as it persuades people [ad hominem], and it persuades people [ad hominem] as soon as it is complete. To be complete is to grasp the nature of matter. However, the nature of people is just people themselves. Marx found the proletariat according to the strict logic which can be described as that philosophy takes the proletariat as its material weapon, so the proletariat takes philosophy as its spiritual weapon; the head of the emancipation is philosophy, its heart the proletariat. All roads lead to Rome, Marx’s comrade， Engels found the proletariat in his real life. Engels pointed out firstly that the proletariat is not only a class suffering pain but also one had a humble economic status, which promotes it forward invariably and forces it to fight for its ultimate emancipation. The struggling proletariat can help itself.The thoughts of Marx, Engels and the living conditions of proletariat contribute to Marxism as the class consciousness of the proletariat, which not only makes Marxism get the class basis but also enables the proletariat to get self-consciousness. Since then, Marxism as a political philosophy was set up firstly in the western industrial proletariat.The proletariat is a suffering class, a special class status which contributed to its ability of fighting. The Struggle is the justification of the existence of proletariat. However, Marxism is consciousness of proletarian class, which is not only because it has aroused the struggle consciousness of the proletarian but also because it points out the practical approach and the ideal objective of struggle.“How do we fight?” -- The way of struggle is the second basic aspect of the Marxist political philosophy.The proletarian living condition decides that it can’t rely upon any other power but its own. It has neither “gun” nor “effective writer”; It has no wealth, knowledge, power and public opinion, etc. It fights against the bourgeois and other social forces depending only upon its union and organization, uniting all forces that can be united to be the collective power.“Unity is power” is the basic way of the proletarian struggle. As is well-known, there are two sentences inscribed on the Marx's “epitaph”: “Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. However, the point is to change it”, “Working man of all countries, unite!” The first sentence expresses the theme of “struggle” while the second expresses the theme of “unity”.It should be noted that as the “scholar revolutionary”, Marx and Engels emphasize the proletarian union. Lenin，as “a professional revolutionary”, emphasizes particularly the “organization” of the proletarian party. Lenin once pointed out that when the proletariat fights for the political power, there are no other weapons but organization.“Why do we fight?” -- The target of struggle is the third basic aspect of the Marxist political philosophy.From Plato's The Republic to Moore's Utopia, the communism as the common ideal of mankind has an ancient origin and long development in the history of human society. It is people's glorious memory about the primitive system, the romantic protest against the existing social system and the happy vista about the future of social system. However, the reason why the utopian of socialism is the utopian because it only stays upon the explanation of the human society “should be” and upon the moral sympathy to the proletariat as a suffering class. On the contrary, Marx and Engels realized the revolution of communism from the utopian to the scientific one. The reason why the scientific socialism is a science is that it transformed into the explanation of the human society “must be” and into the economic understanding about the proletariat as a revolutionary class. The Marxism points out the historical inevitability of realizing the communist ideal through the conception of historical materialism and points out the power of social reality which realizes the communist ideal through the theory of surplus value. Since then, the communist ideal has become the faith of proletarian struggle through the scientific justification.“Communism is our ideal” is the basic objective of proletarian struggle. As we all know, the last three sentences of The Internationale are: “This is the final struggle/Let us group together, and tomorrow/The Internationale/Will be the human race!” The expression of the first sentence is the “struggle” theme; the second expresses the “unity” theme and the third sentence is the “ideal” topic.The Marxism spirit of struggle presupposes historical-logic from the view of the historical logic. Marx and Engels are both revolutionary and scientists. Marx and Engels founded their revolutionary strategy and the scientific theory. Furthermore, the struggle is the starting point of this construction in their strategy and theory. They consider that the reason why the theory is irresistible attractive for the socialists all over the world is that it combines the nature of revolution with the nature of strict science. And the combination is inherent and indivisible.In Marxism, “struggle” is a social practice. The Marxist “practice, labor, communication, production, etc” is the being of human. In this sense, we point out the foundation of the Marxist theory is the life theory and the practice theory. In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels pointed out repeatedly that the first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living individuals. We must begin with defining the first premise of all human existence and, therefore, of all history. The premise is that people have to live in order to be able to “create history.” In this book, Marx and Engels took the human lives as the precondition to establish their basic theory. The logic here is: human earning their life depends upon their living condition, which requires people to produce and reproduce continuously themselves, others and all social conditions. The true understanding of human society and history derived from the practice of human life and a series of objective activities. Marx established the theory of historical materialism, the social organic system and the “natural” history process from the perspective of the human life and a serious of objective activities including practice, labor, communication, production and reproduction.There are two basic study paths in Marxism: one is the research and the other is the narrative. The first expresses “the life theory” and “the practice theory”. Marx establishes the struggle position, the revolutionary strategy and the scientific theory by concerning the human’s life condition, especially by the situation of proletariat. Then the second expresses “the historical conception” and “the natural conception”. It seems that Marxism establishes the proletarian struggle position because it finds the scientific truth of the natural law and the historical law of human society.Marxism originally focuses upon “the life theory and the practice theory”, while afterwards, it is covered by “the history conception and the natural conception”, which leads to the dogmatic and pragmatic Marxism. On the standpoint of the dogmatic and pragmatic Marxism, there is only the “iron law” people should obey and the truth people should sacrifice themselves to it but lacking the concern of condition of human life. Because of the oblivion of the people’s living condition, people are the tools of realizing the ideal, the means of achieving the target but not the target itself.In short, there are two logical arguments in the Marxist political philosophy. The first is: bad living condition forces the proletarian struggle; poor resources force the proletariat to unite, organize and associate. Only when the universal and inevitable historical ideals are founded, the proletariat will mobilize others widely and effectively to change the world. The second is: there is an objective natural and social law unchanged by human’s will, which leads to the inevitable historical trend of the extinction of existing world and the victory of ideal society. Those who know the law will represent the direction of the historical development; those who represent the direction of the historical development will control the leadership legally. The two logical arguments can be combined occasionally with each other but unrelated strictly. For example, we could define the proletariat according to poverty while we could also define the proletariat according to advance. There is a kind of relation between the two definitions. However, the legitimacy of the leadership of the Communist Party can not be justified by the relation above because its logic is not strict and needs to be clarified.
Marx made the theoretical arguments for the legitimacy of the proletarian political practice during his whole life. The development of the socialism from the utopian to the scientific one means the foundation of the Marxist political philosophy.
The utopian socialism is an ancient thought system and human’s pursuit of social justice. The modern utopian socialism is the production and performance of contemporary industrial revolution and capitalist social system. It is manifested in two aspects: one is its critique of the existing capitalism; the other is its utopian nature which refers to the utopian future of socialism. The utopian socialism is based upon the idealist historical conception as its philosophical foundation. Its explanation about the human social history is a moral way. Depending upon this theory, it can prove that socialism should replace capitalism exclusively when one justifying the badness of capitalism and goodness of socialism. In this way, the problem of achieving socialism will consist of the conscience of bourgeoisie and the social experiment of reformism to change education and environment.
Although the early thoughts of Marx and Engels are still confined to the utopian socialism, in my opinion, they contain the sprout of being scientific socialism. Marx defined communism in Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Marx develops what is useful in “alienation of labor” and “private assets” and discards what is not to define “communism”. “Naturalism” and “humanism” are the earliest expressions of the “practical materialism” theory. “The conflict between man and nature” and “the conflict between man and man” are the earliest expressions of historical materialism productive force, production relations (economic basis) and superstructure. While the theory of “alienation” embraces the thought spout of the residual value theory.
Generally, Marx and Engels’ early arguments on socialism are about “life theory and practice theory”. In The German Ideology Marx and Engels take “the real individuals”, “the living existing individuals”, “the individuals in reality”, “the individuals engaged in practical activities” and “the individuals who are real, visible through the experience and developing in certain condition” as the premise and the standpoint to describe communism again. They believe that in fact, all the problems for practical materialist, namely, the communists consist in making the existing world revolutionary and fighting against and changing the existing world. Furthermore, they point out that we call communism the real movement which destroys the present state of things. The conditions of the movement result from the actual premises in existence.
In the maturity stage of Marx and Engels’ thoughts, the argument of “the life theory and the practice theory” turns into “the history conception” and makes “the natural conception” supplementary. There is a subtle relationship between the two forms of arguments: On the one hand, the latter is derived historically and logically from the former. In The German Ideology Marx and Engels first pay close attention to the “real individual”, then the “material living condition” of the “real individual” and the “production” of the “material living condition”, which implies the classical theory--historical conception of materialism. On the other hand, in the classical theory the logic of “life and practice theory” is replaced by the logic of “history and natural conception”. From the Manifesto of the Communist Party to the On Capital Marx and Engels realized the development of socialism from the utopia to a scientific one. Engels points out rapidly: because of Marx’s “two greatest discoveries—the historical conception of materialism and the secret of capitalist production, …Socialism turns to be scientific.” The historical conception of materialism exposes the law of developing the social history, which justifies the objectivity and necessity of replacing capitalism with socialism. The representative work which expressed the legitimacy of the above justification is the Manifesto of the Communist Party.The Manifesto of the Communist Party demonstrates the legitimacy of replacing capitalism with socialism with the grand historical narrative logic and the delicate style. The theory of surplus value exposes the secret that capitalists exploit the workers, justifying reasonably the necessity and possibility of the proletarian revolution overthrowing the bourgeoisie, which is represented by the work On Capital. It would be better to define the On Capital a political philosophy work than an economic work. This work doesn’t expound the methods of enhancing national wealth but expresses the reasons of “expropriate expropriator” and demonstrates the legitimacy of the proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisie. The historical conception of materialism and the surplus value theory are the basic logics of the scientific socialism. Both of them are the “history conception” and abandon the argumentative form of “life theory and practice theory” but they preserve and develop the basic elements of those two theories. Engels even used the argument of “natural conception” as the supplement of Marx’s “historical conception” argument. In this way, the argument of socialism seems not to take the human living practice as the premise or the standpoint; however, it takes the natural laws existing independent from the human consciousness and the “iron law” which is not up to human will as the premise or the standpoint. The scientific socialism is a new thought system and the pursuit of the truth of social law for human. The scientific socialism takes the historical conception of materialism as the philosophical foundation. It is a “determining” way to explain the human social history. According to it, the transition from capitalism to socialism is necessary. Therefore, the problem of realizing socialism consists in arousing the consciousness of proletarian class and devotes to the radical social revolution to change the superstructure and economic basis.
Compared with the utopian socialism, the argument form of scientific socialism has been significantly changed, which is still an ideal one. Marx and Engels changed their thought from the ideal to reality in their old age. On justifying socialism, the old age Marx and Engels changed their argument obviously: one is the “theory of stage”; the other is the “theory of national conditions”. In the Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx differentiated the “the first stage of the communist society” from “the higher stage of the communist society”, which means that the former stage has “the rights of the bourgeois”(such as “from each according to his ability, to each according to work”)，practicing the dictatorship of the proletariat; The latter eliminates “the rights of the bourgeois”, practicing “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. Marx proposed the “Asiatic production mode” in his early age, while in his old age he proposed the “Way of the development of eastern society”. In his research about the Russian “agriculture commune”, Marx pointed out that all fruits produced by capitalist system can be incorporated into the commune by Russia without passing through Caudine Forks. However, to save the Russian commune, a Russian revolution is necessary. It should be noticed that Marx sublates the previous form of universal argument in the argument of “stage theory” and “national conditions theory” and used a special form which has a significant impact upon the movement of international communism and socialism practice of every state. But the “stage theory” and the “national conditions theory” lead to kind of attitude of “suspension” (the suspension of belief and ideal), which results in a conservative attitude that justifies the existing world rather than critique and revolution.
From the utopian socialism to the scientific socialism, from the theoretical socialism to the practical socialism and from the form of the “life theory and practice theory” and the “historical conception and natural conception” to the form of the “stage theory and national conditions theory”, the theory of socialism has changed a lot. On the one hand, it is fit for the development of reality; On the other hand, it exposes the contradictions between theory and reality.
There is a basic paradox among Marxism and the international communism and socialism practice of every country. This means that, according to the general principle, Marx and Engels predict that socialism should be realized firstly in some developed countries (such as Britain, the United States, France, Germany, etc). On the contrary, in fact, socialism is realized in some undeveloped country--Russia and even a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country (such as China). It is hard to resolve the paradox with the explanation of the “history conception and natural conception”. No matter what we based the explanation upon the frame of historical necessity or the frame of actual social power, the problem of realizing socialism and communism is more maturely resolved in the west than in the east. This paradox can be resolved by the explanation frame of the “life theory and practice theory”. The revolution, in a certain case, is not decided by the historical necessity and the mature of the actual social power but by the deterioration of human’s living condition. Therefore, theoretically, socialism is the result of the development of capitalism but in reality it is the consequence of undeveloped capitalism.
After the Paris Commune, the Western European capitalist society moved into a peaceful period of development. Marx and Engels noticed the historical fact that along with the peaceful development of capitalist society the revolutionary storm lulled gradually. When Engels described the British proletariat at early time, he pointed out that the British proletariat is, in fact, becoming increasingly bourgeoisified, so that the most bourgeoisified nation in all nations seems to make it to such a extent that besides the bourgeoisie, it wants a bourgeoisified aristocracy and a bourgeoisified proletariat. The historical fact proved latterly that the particular phenomenon in Britain became the common phenomenon in Western Europe. Except the revolutionary trend in the two World Wars, the western proletariat, with the improvement of their living conditions, became less revolutionary and more conservative than before.
When the Western revolutionary storm gradually subsided, the storm is brewing in the East. “The West does not shine but the East to be bright.” Puzzled by the above fact, Marx and Engels turned their eyes from the West to the East, from Western Europe to Russia. Marx put forward the theory of “Asiatic production form” and “the eastern social development path” theory. The subsequent history has proved this prophecy. Russia (Soviet Union) as well as some countries in Eastern Europe, China as well as some countries in East Asia and some countries in Central America have achieved the victory of the proletarian revolution and built the socialist system. Marxism originated in the developed countries of West (Western Europe) and prevailed in some developing countries of East (Asia, Africa and Latin America); when the proletariat in the developed countries is indifferent to Marxism, it is embraced by the poor people in the developing countries. This historical fact is inconceivable with the explanation of the “history conception and natural conception” but reasonable with the explanation of the “life conception and practice conception”.
Therefore, the reasons why Marxism-Leninism was introduced to China and has gradually become the mainstream ideology are not the capitalist factors in Chinese society and the degree of proletarian maturity but the bad living condition of Chinese people.
Today, we need to reexamine the various form of justification for socialism. The utopian socialism has not lost its historical significance, let alone the scientific socialism. Socialism which is an institutional arrangement complied with principle of justice, is designed for people’s happy lives. This is the essence of the form of “life theory and practice theory”. However, the scientific socialism has always been interpreted as the form of “historical conception” or even “natural conception”. Indeed, it is no doubt that interpreting the human social history by using two basic social contradictions or fundamental historical driving force like productive forces and production relations as well as economic basis and superstructure(such as using “the incompatibility between the social production and possess of capitalism” and its appearance of “opposite between proletariat and capitalist”, “the opposite between the organization of production in each factor and the anarchy state of social production” for interpreting the necessary death of capitalism as well as the necessary victory of socialism), have inspired us to grasp the objective conditions and material basis realizing socialism. However, if we believe that realizing socialism is a “natural” history decided by some “iron laws” (social laws and even the natural laws), We will, as the history has proven that, no longer take human as the purpose but as the tool, which moves toward some kind of totalitarianism. Therefore, we should weaken the form of “historical conception”, in particular, the form of “natural conception” but strengthen the form of “life theory and practice theory”. We must understand that socialism is a process that is chosen, constructed and created by human freely and consciously and it takes the human as the purpose rather than the tool. As for the form of “the theory of stage and national conditions”, on the one hand, they make socialism more realistic because of their particular concerns; on the other hand, they make socialism away from the ideal because of their lack of universal concerns. In fact, socialism on the one hand is an ideal of universal value which transcends every history stage and national conditions; on the other hand it takes the ideal of value as the paradigm to adapt the system to the design of every historical stage and national condition.
Paralleling the paradox between theory and practice, there is a basic paradox between revolution and construction. Given the deterioration of their living conditions, the proletariat and laboring people devote themselves to the revolution for improving their living condition. However, when people changed their living condition they changed their revolutionary spirit fundamentally. Therefore, there is a conflict between Marxism and its bases of the “theory of life” and the “theory of practice”.
The basic tendency of the dogmatic and pragmatic Marxism is that they talk blindly about Marxist words, getting what they need but being indifferent to its basis of the “theory of life and practice”. Hence, the Marxist political philosophy becomes the purely political philosophy. Therefore, the essence against the dogmatic and pragmatic Marxism is that we should base the Marxist political philosophy upon the “theory of life and practice” again and restore the Marxist fundamental spirit which cares about the living condition of the proletariat and laboring people. The key point is that the Marxist fundamental spirit does not only express their concern about the living conditions of human (common people) but about the proletarian living condition particularly. If we know how to concern all stratums’ (upper, middle) living conditions but neglect the poor people's living condition, then we depart from Marxism. Only we regard it as a discourse for people living in the bottom of society can Marxism’s vitality and vigor be restored.
Contemporary Chinese Political Thought: Debates and Perspectives, Edited by Fred Dallmayr and Zhao TingYang，The University Press of Kentucky，2012
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ii Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 4, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.2.
iii Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.73.
iv Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 31, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1972, p.588.
v Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 47, Beijing: Peoples Press, 2004, p.64.
vi Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.9.
vii Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, pp.15-16.
viii Refer to Collection of Lenin, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, pp.91-92.
ix Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.57, p.307.
x Refer to Collection of Lenin, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.526.
xi Refer to Collection of Lenin, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.83.
xii Refer to Collection of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 1995, p.67, pp.78-79.
xiii Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 1, Beijing: Peoples Press, 2002, p.75, p.87.
xiv Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 3, Beijing: Peoples Press, 2002, p.366 p.740.
xv Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 3, Beijing: Peoples Press, 2002, p.765 p.773.
xvi Refer to Complete works of Marx & Engels, volume 4, Beijing: Peoples Press, 2002, p.552.
