Marxist Philosophy

Also known as “dialectical and historical materialism”. The theoretical system on the most general laws of the development of nature, of human society and of thinking founded by Marx and Engels, the scientific world outlook and methodology of the proletariat, the cornerstone of the Marxist theoretical edifice.

Marxist philosophy was born in the 1840s. In the mid-18th century, the Industrial Revolution marked by modern mechanical production began in England and spread throughout Europe in the first half of the 19th century, hastened the development of the productive forces of society and furthered the universal establishment of the capitalist mode of production based upon private property. Under the exploitation and oppression of the solely profit-seeking bourgeoisie, the misery and sufferings of the proletariat became the most serious issue of society. The struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie constantly developed from economic to political struggle, from the smashing of machines to organized revolution. In the 1830s and 1840s, the Lyon workers’ uprising in France, the Chartist movement in England, and the Silesian weavers’ uprising in Germany demonstrated that the proletariat has entered the arena of history as an independent political actor. The rising of the proletariat and revolutionary struggle were in urgent need of scientific theoretical guidance, and it was for the exploration of the emancipation of the proletariat and the mankind that Marx and Engels founded Marxist philosophy. Moreover, the development of natural science in the 19th century also provided the necessary conditions for the founding of Marxist philosophy. With the development of the productive forces of capitalism, epoch-making discoveries were also made in the natural science, such as the cell theory, the law of conservation and transformation of energy and Darwin’s theory of evolution, which made it possible to know the inner connection of the spheres of the world and their laws of development, thus providing a natural science basis for the founding of the Marxist philosophy. In addition, the achievements in the development of social science in the 19th century also provided important intellectual material for the founding of the Marxist philosophy, with the classical German philosophy, the classical English political economy and the British and French utopian socialism being the major ones. These achievements in social sciences enabled the founders of Marxism to scientifically reveal the essence of human social life and its laws of motion.

The immediate ideological sources of the founding of Marxist philosophy were the classical German philosophy and French materialism in the 18th and 19th century. Marx and Engels have critically inherited the militant spirit of the French materialist sensationalism and empiricism, the “rational kernel” of the Hegel’s dialectics and the “fundamental kernel” of Feuerbach’s materialism, abandoned their theoretical premise of starting out from absolute Idea or sensuous being, established the mode of thinking that starts out from human practical activity, extended materialist dialectics to the knowledge of the history of society, and founded dialectical and historical materialism. After Marx and Engels, Marxists such as Lenin and Mao Zedong upheld the fundamental principles of Marxist philosophy, combined them with the practice of socialist revolution and construction, and constantly enriched Marxist philosophical thought. For example, Lenin’s thoughts of dialectical materialist conception of matter, materialist dialectics and dialectical materialist epistemology and Mao Zedong’s thought on practice and contradiction have all enormously enriched and developed Marxist philosophy.

Marxist philosophy is the science for the knowledge of the laws governing the development of nature, human society and human thinking, a complete ideological system. It includes dialectical and historical materialism, which are organically unified and constitute a scientific world outlook and methodology. The main characteristics of Marxist philosophy are scientificity, practicality and class nature. First, scientificity means that it is capable of assisting men to correctly understand the essence of various phenomena in the objective world and the laws governing the development of things. The materialist conception of history is a science that uses materialist dialectics to know the history of society, the only science which can correctly reveal the laws of development of society. Lenin called the materialist conception of history the “only scientific conception of history”, “a synonym for social science”. Second, practicality is an important feature of Marxist philosophy, and the establishment of a scientific conception of practice is also a hallmark of the birth of Marxist philosophy. Marxist philosophy has scientifically solved the problem of the source of human knowledge as well as the question concerning the objectivity of truth. Practice is the source of knowledge and the ultimate criterion for testing the knowledge of objective truth. Based on the scientific conception of practice, Marxist philosophy has achieved the organic unity of the materialist conception of nature and the materialist conception of history. The history of society is the process of human social practical activity conditioned by the mode of material production. The natural world of human life is the result of human activities for generations, humanized nature. Human practice is not only the source of knowledge, but also the basis for the existence of human society. Marxist philosophy emphasizes that the task of philosophy lies not only in interpreting the world, but also in reshaping the world. Xi Jinping emphasized that efforts should be made to make Marxist philosophy a special skill. Third, class nature is the essential feature of Marxist philosophy. Marxist philosophy openly proclaims itself as an ideological weapon of the working class and the working people in their struggle for their emancipation. Scientificity and class nature are highly unified in the Marxist philosophy: the more consistently the laws of development of human society are revealed, the more it is in in harmony with the interests of the working class and the working people. Engels pointed out: “The more ruthlessly and disinterestedly science proceeds the more it finds itself in harmony with the interest and aspirations of the workers.” Marxist philosophy is a complete scientific system and theory of development. Along with the constant economic, political and scientific-cultural development of society, it constantly changes its form and is enriched with new content.

See Dialectical Materialism on p. 21 and Historical Materialism on p. 62.