Marxist Conception of Truth

Fundamental view of Marxism on questions such as the source and essence of truth and the criterion for testing the truth. Truth is a correct reflection of objective things by the subject. What is truth and what is the essence of truth? There are two opposite views. Idealism regards truth as an inherent attribute of the spiritual substance itself. Subjective idealism regards truth as something purely subjective and denies objective truth. For example, pragmatism holds that “the useful is the true”, Hume held that truth is the conformity of ideas to subjective sensation, Kant held that truth is the coincidence of thinking with its a priori forms, and Machism held that truth is a complex of sensations, organizing form of human experience, etc. Objective idealism regards truth as the self-manifestation of the absolute spirit. For example, Hegel held that truth lies in the identity of objectivity and concept, and the objectivity of truth is the objectivity of the absolute spirit. Materialism emphasizes that truth is the conformity of man’s knowledge with objective things, and upholds the theory of objective truth. However, because old materialism did not understand the fundamental significance of practice to knowledge, its knowledge of truth had limitations. For example, absolutists exaggerated the absoluteness of truth and held that truth can be exhausted, blocking the path of development of truth; relativism exaggerated the relativity of truth and eventually relapsed into idealistic sophistry. Marx and Engels inherited and developed the materialist principle of objective truth, and emphasized that objectivity is the fundamental attribute of truth. Moreover, they introduced the standpoint of practice into epistemology, upheld both materialism and dialectics, and scientifically explained questions such as the source, the essence, and the criterion of testing of the conception of truth. Later, under the new historical conditions, Lenin and Mao Zedong summarized the achievements of the new development of natural and social science, made an in-depth elaboration on questions such as the objectivity, comprehensiveness, and concreteness of truth, and that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, enriching the Marxist conception of truth.

The chief contents of the Marxist conception of truth are as follows:

First of all, upholding the objectivity of truth, which emphasizes that truth is the correct reflection of objective things and their laws in the human brain. Truth belongs to the category of human thought, but the content of truth is objective and does not depend on human will. Upholding the principle of truth is to know the world and change the world according to the true colors of the world of objects, and to determine human activity according to the scale of the object itself. To know and master the truth of things to maximum extent and follow the inherent attributes and laws of things are the intrinsic demands of all successful practice.

Further, the Marxist conception of truth upholds the dialectical unity of absolute and relative truth. The absoluteness of truth includes two aspects: First, any truth includes an objective content that does not depend on man’s consciousness, is in conformity with and close to the object and its essence and cannot be overthrown within its scope of application, otherwise it is not truth. To acknowledge the objectivity of truth also means to acknowledge of the absoluteness of truth. Second, according to the essence of man’s practice and knowledge, mankind can know the infinite material world, and every step forward in human knowledge is an approximation to the infinite material world, which is definite and absolute. To acknowledge the knowability of the material world also means to acknowledge the absoluteness of truth. The relativity of truth means that for a concrete epoch and concrete people, the subject’s knowledge of the attributes of the object and its laws is limited and incomplete, because the material world is infinite in time and space, and any truth is the correct knowledge of a part or fragment, an aspect or level of the infinite world to a certain degree. To acknowledge that man’s knowledge needs further deepening is also to acknowledge the relativity of truth. Absoluteness and relativity of truth are dialectically unified, and the two are interdependent, conditioned by each other and transform into each other. Absolute truth contains relative truth, and relative truth also contains components and contents of absolute truth. Human knowledge is a process in which relative truth moves toward absolute truth and approaches absolute truth, and any truthful knowledge is a link in the process of transformation from relative to absolute truth.

Further, the Marxist conception of truth emphasizes that practice is the sole criterion for testing the truth. Practice is the sole source of knowledge, the driving force and fundamental end of knowledge, and the sole criterion for testing the truth. Practical activity is the activity of translating the subjective into the objective, and has the quality of universality and immediate reality. Only through the practice of revolutionizing things, can men obtain universal knowledge, and test theories which have universality. As the sole criterion for testing the truth, practice refers to the total practice of human society, not to people’s accidental or singular activities. Only a practice with universal and socio-historical character is the criterion for testing the truth; individual, partial practice is insufficient to prove or refute a universal proposition. Therefore, the testing of truth by practice is always concrete and historical. As far as practice is the sole criterion for testing the truth and there is no other criterion for testing the truth, the criterion of practice is definite and absolute; and for each concrete stage and process, the criterion of practice is relative and indefinite. Lenin pointed out: “Of course, we must not forget that the criterion of practice can never, in the nature of things, either confirm or refute any human idea completely. This criterion also is sufficiently ‘indefinite’ not to allow human knowledge to become ‘absolute,’ but at the same time it is sufficiently definite to wage a ruthless fight on all varieties of idealism and agnosticism.”

Marxist conception of truth is closely connected with the basic question of the philosophical world outlook and philosophical epistemology of Marxism, and Marxism’s scientific knowledge of truth enables it to draw a clear line between itself and all forms of idealism and agnosticism on the question of truth.