Realm of Freedom

Corresponding to “realm of necessity”. It denotes the realm in which people, in their cognitive and practical activities, having realized and mastered the laws of objective things, consciously use them to dominate and change themselves and the external world. In the social sphere, the realm of freedom refers to a state of society in which people themselves have become the masters of nature and society, free from the domination of the blind forces of nature and the social sphere, and able to consciously make their own history.

In Capital, Marx made the assertion about the “realm of freedom” of social development, that is, “on the other side of and beyond the realm of necessity, begins the true realm of freedom, i.e., development of human energy, which is an end in itself. However, this realm of freedom “can blossom forth only with this realm of necessity as its basis.” Here, Marx understood freedom as the self-realization of the individual attained by sublating the external necessary through labor. The realm of freedom is a process of development, and as far as mankind is concerned, it is a process from having no freedom to attaining freedom. As far as the history of social development is concerned, it is a process from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. Freedom is the knowledge and domination of necessity. Once people have a correct knowledge of the objective social and natural necessity and can consciously control it to make it serve the purpose of mankind, they enter the realm of freedom from the realm of necessity. The realm of freedom and the realm of necessity are a one-to-one correspondence. Engels further discussed the relationship between the realm of necessity and the realm of freedom in Anti-Dühring, and put forth the proposition of “the humanity’s leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom”. Once any objective law is recognized and exploited, it is a leap forward from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. Engels once made a brilliant description: “The extraneous objective forces that have hitherto governed history pass under the control of man himself. Only from that time will man himself, with full consciousness, make his own history — only from that time will the social causes set in movement by him have, in the main and in a constantly growing measure, the results intended by him”.

Marx and Engels repeatedly proved that highly developed productive forces are the most basic prerequisite leading to the realm of freedom. Marx clearly pointed out in Capital: “In fact, the realm of freedom actually begins only where labor which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases; thus, in the very nature of things it lies beyond the sphere of actual material production.” Every step of development and leap in productive forces will give rise to greater freedom for people. Engels also pointed out that highly developed productive forces alone make possible a state of society in which there are no longer class distinctions or anxiety over the means of subsistence for the individual, and in which for the first time there can be talk of real human freedom, of an existence in harmony with the laws of nature that have become known.

While profoundly revealing the laws of development of human society, Marx and Engels proved that the communist society is the ideal realm of freedom of mankind. The process in which man changes nature and social history is a process of dialectical development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. In this process, the practical activities of production play a decisive role, and mankind needs to attain freedom not only in its relations with nature, but also in its social relations, and the extent to which man is emancipated in his social relations depends, in the final analysis, on the extent to which he attains freedom in his natural forces, because man’s political and ideological relations depend on his economic relations, and the latter depend on the state of development of the productive forces. Although previous socio-historical progress has made some contribution to the cause of the emancipation of mankind, man has never been liberated from economic exploitation, political oppression and ideological enslavement. Therefore, in order for mankind to be thoroughly emancipated from the forces of nature and society, and thus to become the true masters of nature and social relations, private property and social relations based on private property have to be abolished, and must be replaced by the socialist system and the communist system. The establishment of socialist society marks the beginning of the leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom for mankind. Communist society is the ideal realm of freedom of mankind with an enormous abundance of material wealth, the distribution of the means of consumption according to needs, a high degree of harmony in social relations, a tremendous improvement in the spiritual realm of the people, and the free and all-round development of every individual.

Marx held that by that time, man emancipated itself from “personal dependence” under the conditions of natural economy and from “objective dependence” under the conditions of commodity economy, and achieved “free individuality”, i.e., “humanity’s leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom”.

The leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom is an unending process. The material world in which men live is an eternal movement and development, and is infinite in time and space, therefore, men’s knowledge of the material world and its laws is also a never-ending process. Communist society is the higher stage of the development of human society and the society of the realm of freedom of man, however, communist society is also developing continuously, and the degree of freedom of man and the development and perfection of man himself will certainly develop to a higher level along with the progress of society. Mao Zedong also pointed out that the history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. This process is never-ending. Therefore, the humanity’s leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom is a historical process of infinite development consisting of countless leaps.

See Realm of Necessity on p. 287.