The threefold dimension of Marx's view of civilization

Huang Weiming, Xue Xiujun

The question of civilization has always been a matter of great concern in the history of ideas, and different thinkers have their own unique views on civilization. In Marx's view, human practice is the basis for analyzing civilization, human development is the scale of evaluating civilization, and realizing human liberation is the ideal pursuit of communist civilization, which together constitute the three basic dimensions of Marx's concept of civilization.

The Practice: Analyzing the Foundations of Civilization

The study of modern Western civilization is deeply influenced by the trend of enlightenment, and strives to break the ideological imprisonment of religious theology since the Middle Ages, highlight the concern for human beings, examine human society from the perspective of human beings rather than the perspective of God, and confirm that human society from the state of natural obscurantism to the civilized state is achieved by relying on the rational power of human beings, and modern society is a civilized society that is intrinsically compatible with the spirit of reason. This research tradition continued until Marx's time, and derived its own unique research directions, including historical research represented by Gizo, anthropological research represented by Morgan, and so on. These studies refute the theological view of history and assert that man's dominant position in the development of civilization is of indelible progressive significance. However, while emphasizing the subjectivity of man, he also summarizes "man" as an abstraction of all the "commonality" of man in a metaphysical way of thinking, and grasps civilization from the perspective of "abstract man". Therefore, the study of human beings becomes the study of human ideas, inner nature, and self-desires, and the search for human civilization inevitably falls into the quagmire of idealism, and civilization is regarded as the product of human ideas and concepts, and the progress of civilization is regarded as the progress of human ideas and the satisfaction of self-desires.

Different from the logical approach of "abstract man", Marx analyzed civilization based on the practical activities of human ontological existence, that is, "producing material life itself", and placed the study of civilization within the scientific category of human practice. As Engels said, "civilization is a matter of practice and the quality of society", and civilization is, in the final analysis, the practical creation of people in various specific social relations.

Practice is the endogenous driving force for the development of civilization. In Marx's view, it is the practice of material production that has a fundamental impact on the development of civilization. Due to the development of productive forces and the drive of the movement of internal contradictions in society, the entire social development presents itself as a process of dialectical negation of "self-abandonment", which is the process of continuous progress of human society. The development of productive forces adds vitality and impetus to the prosperity of civilization, creates the necessary material foundation, and constitutes the ultimate decisive force for the development of civilization. Of course, affirming the overall progress trend of human social development does not mean that the development process of human society will be a straightforward road. In fact, this process is full of twists and turns or stagnant, setbacks and even retrogressive factors, but the historical trend of continuous progress of human society will not change, which also means that civilization will also draw inexhaustible power in the continuous development of production practices.

Practical activities shape the characteristics of civilization. Marx regarded practice as a "conscious life activity" that characterizes "human-like characteristics." In the practical activities of transforming the world, people use themselves as the scale to shape the external world, so that the natural characteristics of the object are transformed in the direction of conforming to the aesthetics and needs of people, and the essential power of human beings is vividly interpreted, creating splendid and rich civilization achievements. In this regard, from its birth to its development, civilization is rooted in human practice, from which the unique essence of civilization is tempered. First, civilization is a practical category. Civilization is the result of human practice, without which there would be no so-called human civilization. Second, civilization is a historical category. Human practice is constantly evolving, and civilization will evolve with practice. Finally, civilization is a social category. Civilization is the sum of wealth jointly created by human spiritual strength and productive forces, and it is a prominent symbol of the development and progress of human society.

Human Development: An Assessment of the Scale of Civilization

As we all know, the investigation and criticism of capitalism is the core topic of Marx's ideological theory, and capitalist civilization is a modern civilization form based on the capitalist mode of production, and the development of human beings in this civilization form constitutes the focus of Marx's civilization research.

Marx affirmed the "civilized side" of capitalism. Capitalism has created unprecedentedly huge productive forces, "more and greater than all the productive forces created by all previous generations", and has a historical progression that surpasses all previous forms of civilization. In Marx's view, the great civilizing role of capital lies in "the creation of such a social stage in which all previous social stages are manifested only in the form of the local development of human beings and the worship of nature." Capitalist civilization has made important contributions to promoting human development and greatly demonstrated the meaning and value of human beings. First of all, capitalism frees the people in various isolated areas of the world from the closed state of isolation from each other, puts an end to the original situation of human beings "closing themselves to meet existing needs and repeating old ways of life", gradually integrates the world, changes the way of human interaction, broadens the scope of human interaction, and enriches the connotation of human beings themselves. Second, capitalism, with advanced science and technology and developed social production, has broken the previous passive dependence of human beings on nature, so that people no longer crawl under the feet of nature, and "make nature (whether as a consumer goods or as a means of production) subordinate to human needs." Finally, capitalist civilization creates free time for laborers, expands the space for people to pursue their own development, cultivates people's social attributes, and helps to give birth to new social factors.

Marx criticized the "anti-civilizational side" of capitalism. Despite the many favorable conditions that capitalism brings for human development, all this is only a false "manifestation of civilization". The fundamental malaise of capitalist civilization lies in the fact that: "all the progress of civilization, or in other words, any growth in the productive forces of society (and so on of labor itself) ... will not enrich the workers, but only the capitalists. "Capitalist civilization is a modern civilization form with "capital" as the main body, and capital is the guiding force for the development of civilization, which dooms all achievements in the development of civilization to be ultimately used to sacrifice capital multiplication. First of all, the core logic of capital is to "multiply itself and create surplus value" indefinitely, and to achieve this goal, it is necessary to constantly "suck live labor", that is, the exploitation and oppression of laborers, which is undoubtedly a "criminal civilization built on labor slavery" at the cost of killing human life and stifling human development. Secondly, the large-scale machine industry that emerged with capitalist civilization, while releasing huge production potential, also reduced people to the "vassals" of machines, and people's creative ability was distorted in the repeated mechanized social division of labor, and finally led the comprehensive development of man to one-sided, deformed and incomplete development. Finally, although capitalist civilization has changed the situation that human development was bound by the community in the pre-capitalist period, it has given people the possibility of independent development. However, capitalism is essentially a form of civilization "based on the dependence of things", and individuals fall into the "dependence on things" while getting rid of the previous "human dependence" and obtaining a certain limit of freedom. The prominence and publicity of the subjectivity of "things" means that human subjectivity is covered and dissolved, and people are completely "deprived of all free activities in body and mind" and become slaves of "things", becoming fanatical competitors for capital wealth. In this way, people's self-needs, ability and personality interpretation can only be confined in a narrow materialized form, and people are at best the "victims" and "stepping stones" of capital profit, rather than the value destination of civilization development.

Human Emancipation: The Ideal Pursuit of Communist Civilization

"Marx studied human civilization, and its value orientation and pursuit goal are very clear, that is, human liberation and the comprehensive development of human freedom." In order to achieve human emancipation, it is necessary to free him from the yoke of capitalism and enable him to enjoy full freedom. On this basis, people can get rid of labor slavery, extend and expand a higher level of self-development space, pay attention to the exertion of creative ability, pursue the improvement of spiritual level, and cultivate people's all-round and diversified civilization literacy in free and conscious practical activities. Only by realizing the transition from capitalism to the stage of communist civilization can the goal of complete human emancipation and the pursuit of free and all-round development be truly achieved.

The development of the individual is unified with the development of others. "The free development of everyone is the condition for the free development of all people" is a distinctive feature of the stage of communist civilization. This means that the equal rights between members of society are fully guaranteed, the self-development of individuals is no longer at the cost of depriving others of development opportunities and squeezing the development space of others, and the presentation of individual free personality and the exertion of self-potential are ultimately to promote the development of others, which makes everyone's willingness to develop freely and comprehensively can be generally respected and recognized by society.

Human labor and human development are unified. As communism is a civilized stage that eradicates private ownership of the means of production, labor is no longer a forced means of livelihood, individuals are no longer limited by a fixed social division of labor, there is no need to rigidly develop the labor skills required by capitalist production, and people can independently engage in labor that meets their own development needs. In this way, "labor will become attractive labor, become the self-realization of the individual", and the individual's ability will be comprehensively enriched and enhanced in social labor.

Comprehensive human development and all-round social progress have been unified. Communism is not only a stage of civilization in which everyone's intellectual and physical strength is comprehensively enhanced, but also a stage of civilization in which everyone's talents and potentials are fully developed, and "the all-round development of individuals and their common social productive capacity become their social wealth." On the one hand, the all-round development of human beings has greatly promoted the development of social production and the accumulation of social wealth, and cohesion has become a strong driving force for promoting all-round social progress; On the other hand, the all-round progress of society has also become a solid foundation for the all-round development of people, and people's subjectivity, creativity and self-transcendence will be fully displayed.