Marxist Outlook on Development

Doctrine of Marxism on the driving forces and laws of development of things. Development is the basic category of materialist dialectics, a category that further reveals the motives, laws and trend of development of the motion and change of things on the basis of their motion and change, a change forward, both revolutionary and evolutionary. The outlook on development is the knowledge and evaluation of development made by the subject, the theoretical summation of the basic connotation and forms of development, as well as the pursuit for rationality of development. The outlook on development has different connotations and forms in different periods of history due to the constraints of the level of social development and scientific development in that historical period. The innovation of the Marxist outlook on development is that it has assimilated the intellectual achievements on development in history based on new social practice and discoveries in natural sciences, especially critically inherited the reasonable ideas contained in Hegelian dialectics and founded the Marxist outlook on development. It did not stop at the conception of nature, and extended the dialectical materialist thought on development to the sphere of the history of society, and explained the dialectics of history, and revealed the essence, the driving forces of development and the laws of motion of human social life.

Marxist outlook on development emphasizes that the productive forces are the fundamental driving force and the real material basis of the development of society. As man’s capacity for exploiting and reshaping nature and acquiring means of life, the productive forces embody the resolution of the contradiction between man and nature. As human needs grow continuously, men further the development of productive forces by making and using tools. The development of productive forces is a process of natural history, and men cannot choose their productive forces in any historical epoch. The totality of the relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of productive forces constitutes the economic foundation of society. The relations of production must be appropriate to the development of the productive forces. When the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production comes into conflict, a social revolution begins and a new form of social relations will be born. The contradictory motion of the productive forces and the relations of production is the fundamental driving force of the development of human society. Productive labor and economic development play a fundamental role, but the superstructure and the spiritual factors that arise on top of them also have a reaction. Moreover, the Marxist outlook on development emphasizes that the emancipation of mankind is the fundamental purpose of social development. Historical progress connotes the directionality of the value goals of the development of society. The emancipation and free development of mankind is the ultimate purpose of the development of society. Although the development of productive forces is of crucial importance to the development of society, the development of productive forces is not the ultimate end and the measure of progress of the development of society; the measure of historical progress is the realization of the emancipation and freedom of mankind.

The Marxist outlook on development is a historical and open category, which is bound to enrich itself in contents continuously with the development of practice. The scientific outlook on development in the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a Marxist outlook on development put forth by Chinese Communists against the new historical background of socialist construction, which has kept pace with the times. The CPC Central Committee with comrade Hu Jintao as its General Secretary upheld “putting people first”, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable scientific outlook on development. The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core emphasized the need to uphold the thought of people-centered development, and emphasized the need of resolutely  establishing and earnestly implementing the idea of innovative, coordinated, open, shared and green development, which embodies the innovative development and theoretical consciousness of the contemporary Chinese Communists regarding the Marxist outlook on development. The Marxist outlook on development is the most important and most profound theory of development of our times and plays an important guiding role in the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics.