Social Intercourse

Mutual influence and interaction among men. The essence of man is the ensemble of all social relations. Generally speaking, all social relations are nothing but the relations of men with society and with each other that takes place in a certain social environment in which men live. The formation and development of social relations are achieved in the social intercourse of men. Throughout ages, intercourse was defined from different perspectives. Intercourse means “reciprocal dealings”. In a general sense, social interaction refers to the most fundamental mode and process of mutual communication, mutual cognition, interaction and mutual understanding between men or communities of people as social subjects under certain historical conditions with the help of verbal and non-verbal media, and it is the social interaction realized between men. The two parties in the intercourse are subjects to each other, and the end of the intercourse lies in the exchange and communication between the subjects. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, The German Ideology, The Communist Manifesto, Capital and other works, Marx and Engels put forth an abundance of ideas on social intercourse, holding that the relations of intercourse are the most fundamental relations in human society, that there are diverse forms of intercourse, and that the relations of intercourse are closely linked to the development of the productive forces of society. Especially in The German Ideology, the term “intercourse” has a wide meaning, which includes material and mental intercourse among individuals, social groups and nations. Marx and Engels held that material intercourse, first of all, the intercourse of men in the production process, is the basis of any other intercourse, and repeatedly used “forms of intercourse,” “modes of intercourse,” “relations of intercourse,” “relations of production and intercourse,” etc., expressing the concept of relations of production formed by Marx and Engels in this period. Intercourse has an intrinsic unity with the form of intercourse, the mode of intercourse, and the relations of intercourse. Intercourse is an actual activity of man indissoluble from social practice. Real individuals or groups of people who carry out productive activity in a certain mode always carry out intercourse with other people or groups of people, and enter into certain social relations such as economic and political relations. Social intercourse is diverse in form, chiefly divided into immediate and indirect intercourse, individual and universal intercourse, material and mental intercourse, internal and external intercourse, harmonious and disharmonious intercourse, positive and negative intercourse, educational intercourse and general daily intercourse, etc. The formation and development of intercourse do not arise out of thin air, but arise on certain bases and under certain conditions. The material basis of social intercourse is chiefly the productive forces. The outstanding feature of Marx’s theory of social intercourse lies in the close connections between intercourse and productive practice. He held that intercourse between individuals is the premise for the practice of production of the material means of life, but the forms of intercourse, such as immediate and indirect intercourse, material and mental intercourse, are always determined by such productive practice. Marx pointed out that a distinct mode of production determines the specific mode of consumption, distribution, exchange and the specific relations of these different phases to one another. This production only makes its appearance with the increase of population. In its turn this presupposes the intercourse of individuals with one another. The form of this intercourse is again determined by production. Thus, production and intercourse are different determinations of the same process, and they are mutually inclusive.

Marxism holds that all forms of social intercourse have a temporary nature, and are historical forms. Men’s forms of intercourse correspond to the conditions in which they live and to their existence and development. When the development of the history of society began to break through the original form of intercourse, people began to feel the contingency of the actual form of intercourse, and treat it as a fetter upon the emancipation and development of mankind. Therefore, we can see that the original form of intercourse, which appears first as conditions of self-activity, later as fetters upon it, forms in the whole evolution of history an interconnected series of forms of intercourse, the interconnection of which consists in this: in the place of an earlier form of intercourse, which has become a fetter, a new one is put, corresponding to the more developed productive forces and, hence, to the advanced mode of the self-activity of individuals—a form which in its turn becomes a fetter and is then replaced by another. Since these conditions correspond at every stage to the simultaneous development of the productive forces, their history is at the same time the history of the evolving productive forces taken over by each new generation, and is, therefore, the history of the development of the forces of individuals themselves. It is worth noting here that social intercourse in class society is inevitably imprinted with the stamp of classes. Therefore, the replacement of a form of intercourse by another new form of intercourse is often achieved through class struggle, even fierce class struggle. Only in the communist society can mankind truly achieve and enjoy universal, equal and harmonious intercourse. Marx pointed out that communism “presupposes the universal development of productive forces and the world intercourse bound up with them”. In the communist society, world-historical, empirically universal individuals are put in place of local ones. It is thus clear that social intercourse is a socio-historical category. In the evolutionary process of the history of social intercourse, there is a process of development from the lower to the higher, a process from estrangement to the sublation of estrangement, and at the same time, the constant development of social intercourse activity enriches the history of human society.

Social intercourse plays an important part in the progress of society and development of man. It is only in the social intercourse activity that a society progresses and personal development is possible. The active participation of group and individual subjects in the many spheres of social life and in world intercourse will lead to an universal exchange with countless other individuals, and thus with the material and intellectual production of the world as a whole, and will enable the individual to break free from the local and national narrowness and to form abundant and comprehensive social relations and to achieve his own development in the intercourse. Moreover, it is only in the social intercourse that people can convey their feelings, wishes, purposes and other information to the other party, so that both parties can communicate with each other, understand each other, eliminate contradictions and reach consensus, and so that the two parties in the interaction can work together in harmony and co-operation.