A comparative study of Marx and Engels' understanding of metaphysics

Second, the basis of the paper.

1. The source of the topic and its theoretical and practical significance

Source of topic selection:

First of all, familiarity is not equal to true knowledge. In Marxist philosophy, metaphysics is generally understood relative to dialectics. That is, the problem is dialectical from the viewpoint of connection, development and contradiction, and metaphysical from the viewpoint of isolation, stillness and one-sidedness. It is concluded that metaphysics is absurd and wrong. In fact, our popular understanding of metaphysics masks our real grasp of metaphysics itself, which is very easy to cause all kinds of ideological confusion. So let metaphysics return to its true colors. The main reason for this misunderstanding is that people have not clarified the different understanding of metaphysics between Marx and Engels, and they do not know the true meaning of metaphysics.

In the previous textbooks of Marxist philosophy, people actually followed Engels' usage of metaphysics, regarded metaphysics as a way of thinking and opposed metaphysics and dialectics. Engels regarded metaphysics and dialectics as two opposite ways of thinking in his philosophical study of natural science, especially dialectics of nature, and thought that metaphysics was a unique limitation in the past hundred years. Engels wrote: "In the view of metaphysical scholars, things and their ideological reflections, that is, concepts, are isolated, fixed, rigid and unchanging research objects, which should be examined one by one and separately. They think with absolutely incompatible opposites; Their statement is: yes is yes, no is no; Other than that, it's all nonsense. In their view, a thing either exists or does not exist; Similarly, a thing cannot be itself and something else at the same time. " Engels' evaluation of metaphysical thinking mode is that although it is reasonable and even necessary in all fields according to the nature of the object, it will reach a boundary sooner or later. Once beyond this limit, it will become one-sided, narrow and abstract, and fall into insoluble contradictions, because it sees one thing after another and forgets the connection between them. See their existence and forget their emergence and disappearance; See their stillness and forget their movements; Because it only sees trees, but not forests. The metaphysical way of thinking seems very easy for us to understand, because it conforms to common sense. However, although common sense is a very respectable thing in the scope of daily application, it will encounter extremely amazing changes as soon as it enters a broad research field. Engels believes that in order to accurately describe the universe, its development and human development, and the reflection of this development in people's minds, we can only use dialectical methods and constantly pay attention to the universal interaction between emergence and disappearance, forward and backward changes. From this, it can be seen that, in Engels' view, the opposition between dialectics and metaphysics is as follows: metaphysics looks at problems from an isolated, one-sided and rigid point of view, denying that the reason for the movement and change of things lies in their internal contradictions, while dialectics looks at problems from a related, comprehensive and developing point of view, and attributes the driving force of development to the internal contradictions of things.

Obviously, Marx's grasp of metaphysics is not limited to the way of thinking. Marx used the word "metaphysics" in the sense of "system, transcendence and reflection" and said that Hegel established a "metaphysical all-encompassing kingdom". Marx thinks it is meaningless for Hegel and his predecessors to solve the problems of pure abstraction and objectivity that are divorced from reality and trace back to the origin of the whole world in various ways. Metaphysics, as the knowledge of "the existence of existence", is a transcendental inquiry into existence and human nature. Marxist philosophy does not shy away from this theme, but only expounds it in a new way. In his reflection on social existence, Marx started with productive labor, the most basic form of human practice. He believes that a history of social development is a history of labor. In his transcendental thinking about the real society, he also started with the production situation of capitalist society. Marx pointed out in the Introduction to Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Right: "After the sacred image of human self-alienation was revealed, it became an urgent task for philosophy to serve history to expose self-alienation with an unholy image." Therefore, the metaphysics understood by Marx should refer to the traditional metaphysics that opposes the basic principle of seeking "rationality". It doesn't necessarily mean the end of metaphysical thinking, but the primacy of traditional philosophical consciousness or the classical position that theory takes precedence over practice has been cancelled, and philosophy has changed the way of thinking. It is Marx's great contribution to metaphysics and philosophy to return metaphysics to serve the real world.

Secondly, in some texts co-authored by Marx and Engels, the space problem is also mentioned. Moreover, we can see that the surface is a geographical space, but we can completely read the meaning of social space from it. For example, in German Ideology, Marx and Engels talked about the opposition between cities and rural areas, which is not only the opposition of geographical space, but also the rupture of social space. In the Manifesto of the Productive Party, Marx and Engels talked about the history of the formation of the bourgeoisie, that is, the bourgeoisie expanded globally through international trade and colonialism. In essence, this is a reproduction of production relations, that is, the reproduction of social space, which makes all countries and regions accept this capitalist mode of production not only in production, but also in culture and law.

Finally, Engels paid special attention to the planning of urban space and working class living space. Engels spent 2 1 month in The Working Class in Britain, and used a lot of data and examples to reproduce the face of major industrial cities in Britain in the19th century. In On Housing, he not only pointed out the root of the poor living space of the working class, but also raised the issue of spatial justice.

Theoretical significance:

In recent years, many domestic scholars have discussed Marx's social space theory, and achieved a lot, but there are still some shortcomings, such as the related research is scattered, mostly limited to specific perspectives and individual problems, or more focused on the introduction of foreign space theory, or lack of a broader research vision combined with contemporary human space practice. Therefore, this paper will sort out and discuss these problems, so that Marx's social space theory has an overall framework.

Practical significance:

Marxist social space theory, from a micro perspective, is about spatial justice, urban development and urban planning; From a macro perspective, it is a problem of globalization. So in the current situation of our country, the first thing to consider is the housing problem. With the acceleration of urbanization and rising housing prices, there are some problems in the possession and use of urban living space. Engels' thoughts in this regard can give us inspiration, instead of taking the old road and detouring. Secondly, with the reform and opening up in China, the economy is in line with the world. As a key link in the global capital chain, how should we go on? Marx's social space theory can make us better understand the situation and truly take the road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

2. Data collection (including main references)

Category of works:

(1), Marx and Engels: The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 2, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1957.

(2) Marx and Engels: The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 2nd edition, Volume 30, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995.

(3) Marx and Engels: The Complete Works of Marx and Engels, 2nd Edition, Volume 3 1, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1998.

(4) Marx and Engels: Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vols. 1 and 3, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995.

⑤ Marx: Das Kapital, Volume/kloc-0, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2004.

(6) Li Chunmin: Research on Marx's Social Space Theory, Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 20 12.

(7) Gao Jianguo: New Marxist Urban Theory, Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2006.

(8) Sun Jiang: Spatial Production-From Marx to Contemporary, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2008.

(9) Tong Qiang: Philosophy of Space, Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 20 1 1 year.

(10), Zhang Yibing: Back to Marx, Nanjing: Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2009.

(1 1), Ning Wu: Criticism of Daily Life, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 2007.

(12), Bao: Modernity and the Production of Space, Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press, 2003.

(13), David? Harvey. The space of hope. Trans. Hu daping Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2006.

(14), David? Harvey. Postmodern situation--the origin of cultural change. Trans. Yan Jia. Beijing Commercial Press, 2003.

(15), Edward? W? Su Jia Postmodern geography-reaffirming space in critical social theory. Trans. Wang Wenbin. Beijing: Commercial Press, 2004.

Lefebvre, Henry. The Production of Space. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Blackwell Press. 199 1.

Paper category:

(17), Yu Wujin: A new theory of Marx's concept of time and space, Philosophical Research No.3, 1996.

(18), Hu Daping's Marxism and Spatial Theory, philosophical trends No.65438 +0 1.

(19), Duan Jinjun, Hu: Criticism and transformation of the concept of development space, philosophical trends, No.1 1 1.

(20) Liu Huaiyu: Dialectics of the Unbalanced Development of "Now" Historical Space, Learning and Exploration, No.6, 20 1 1.

(2 1), Zhuang Yougang: Capital Criticism of Spatial Production Paradigm and Innovation of China's Marxist Philosophy, Journal of Nanjing University of Political Science, No.6, 20 1 1.

(22), Wang Jinfu: "Five Questions about" Space and Spatial Production "-Questioning Professor Zhang Zhicang's Several Views", Academic Monthly, Vol.44,No. 1 issue, 20 12.

(23), Zhang Zhicang: Re-discussion on the production, construction and creation of space-in response to Professor Wang Jinfu's "query", Academic Monthly, 20 12, 1, Vol.44, No.

(24) Zhuang Yougang: Logic, Problems and Trends of Western Spatial Production Theory, Marxism and Reality, No.6, 20 1 1.

(25) Chen Zhong: Urban Enlightenment and Urban Dialectics: Re-discussion on the Construction of Urban Philosophy, hebei academic journal, 20 12, Vol.32, No.3.

(26) Wu Xiling: urban social space and human liberation, "philosophical trends", 20 12, No.4.

(27) Dong Hui: Body, City and Globalization: Harvey's Spatial Conception of Liberating Politics, Philosophical Research No.4, 20 12.

(28) Zhao Haiyue, He Xiying: Identification and Construction of Lefebvre's "Spatial Ternary Dialectics", Journal of Social Sciences of Jilin University, Vol.52, No.2, 20 12.

(29), Zou:' An Existentialist Interpretation of Spatial Turn',' philosophical trends', 20 12 No 4.

3. Basic situation of related research at home and abroad.

Domestic research status: In recent years, domestic academic circles have paid more and more attention to Marx's social space theory. Many scholars have presided over the translation of relevant works of contemporary neo-Marxism and written papers on the theme of Marx's social space theory. A lot of achievements have been made, but there are still some problems, mainly because the relevant research is scattered, mostly limited to specific perspectives and individual issues, lacking overall combing and discussion.

First, Marx's theoretical definition of social space. The first explanation path of domestic academic circles is to take time and space as the logic of the existing form of material movement to the end, emphasizing that social movement is a basic form of material movement. Secondly, Marx's view of social space is regarded as a sublation of the view of natural space in the sense of pure ontology and a revolutionary change of the view of practical materialism space. Practice makes space have social attributes, which are related to issues such as value, freedom and social revolution.

Secondly, world history and global space production. World history is an important dimension of Marx's social space discourse, which has been discussed in academic circles. From the perspective of capital, Ren Ping pointed out that from Marx at that time to contemporary Marxism, the mode of spatial production has always been one of the key issues of concern. In Marx's spatial perspective, capital is not only a historical mode of production, but also a spatial mode of production. The globalization of capital makes history a global historical process.

Third, the spatialization of historical materialism. Academic circles have just started in this respect. Zhuang Yougang pointed out that in the historical materialism, the category of production inherently implies the connotation of the production of space itself, because the production of social life itself means the expansion of social living space, that is, the production of social living space. Liu Huaiyu believes that spatialization is a unique perspective to understand the contemporary significance of historical materialism. Spatialization research makes up for the deficiency of traditional historical materialism in spatial perspective, and is the fundamental way to carry forward the contemporary value of Marxist philosophy.

Finally, urban space production and space deprivation. Urban space production is another important dimension for Marx to explore social space. Gao Jianguo believes that the combination of Marx and Engels' exposition on urban space and capitalist mode of production has promoted the rapid growth of new cities. At the same time, the developed capitalist urbanized countries occupying monopoly position take advantage of the international differences and oppositions between urban and rural areas to control and plunder colonies and semi-colonies and exploit developing countries.

Present situation of foreign research: The research on Marx's social space theory abroad is not only reflected in the research system of neo-Marxism, but also permeated into other theoretical schools of contemporary space research, involving human geography, urban sociology, space philosophy and other disciplines, which shows that Marx not only has no vacancy, but also occupies an important position in the "spatial turn" of contemporary social science.

First, reflect on Marx's view of social space. Foreign related research generally believes that there is a lack of spatial dimension in traditional Marxist research. Lefebvre pointed out that space should not only serve as an auxiliary or background, on the contrary, it is the protagonist itself; The core of Marxist historical dialectics is the production of production relations, and the production of production relations itself is a kind of spatial production. Harvey also believes that Marx paid attention to the importance of space and geography, and he keenly noticed that the rise of capitalism was intertwined with its geographical activities and strategies on the world stage. Su Jia also believes that Marx's classic texts are permeated with clear geographical analysis, such as Critique of Political Economy, which involves the geographical expansion of world trade and capitalism.

Second, the research method based on Marx's social space theory. Lefebvre put forward the ternary dialectics of "society-space-history", which is an important attempt to adhere to historical materialism and spatialize dialectics. On this basis, starting from the social attribute of space, he divided space into perceptual space, conceptual space and realistic space, and based on Marx's theory of production mode and social formation, he summarized the history of human spatialization into six stages. Harvey put forward the theoretical proposition of upgrading historical materialism to "historical geography materialism", and at the same time explained the new time and space experience from the perspective of postmodernism with the category of "time and space compression". Su Jia distinguishes between "space" and "spatiality", and thinks that the latter is the true expression of the social attribute of space. On the basis of combing several different theoretical tendencies of Marxist spatial analysis, he constructed "social spatial dialectics" and set its theoretical premise.

Third, the research plan

1. Outline of the paper (main research content)

On Marx's Social Space Theory

Introduce space and capital.

(1) On Space

1, the concept of space

2. Spatial attributes (natural attributes, social attributes)

(2) About capital

1, the concept of capital

2, the form of capital (the form of things and personalized capital, a relationship, a process)

First, from a micro perspective of social space: capitalist industrial cities

(A), the formation of capitalist industrial cities and modern capital

1, the formation of capitalist industrial cities (the development, prosperity and decline of workshops and handicrafts. Simple collaboration. The use of machines. Factory system. The formation of industrial cities. )

2, the formation of modern capital (* * * the emergence of the same subject at the end of the exchange. The emergence of the merchant class. Transformation from commercial capital to industrial capital. )

(B), industrial cities: an important carrier of capital accumulation

1, the gathering space of various factors of production (the emergence of surplus population: landless farmers, bankrupt family craftsmen, etc. Convenient transportation conditions: railways, ports, etc. Means of production: sufficient funds, use of machinery, etc. )

2, the representative of advanced productive forces (the combination of technology and capital. Development and application of natural science. The continuous improvement of the machine. )

3, the combination of living labor and means of production (the agglomeration effect of urban space. Spatial gathering ability of capital. Coexisting labor. )

(c) Space justice: housing issues

1, urban planning (concentration of workers' residential areas. The establishment of commercial blocks and the demolition of aborigines. The planning of workers' residential areas is unreasonable. Disease outbreaks, high mortality, etc. )

2. Living environment (comparison of living environment between workers and capitalists: indoor and outdoor, traffic sanitation around residential areas, etc. Life: shopping, eating, entertainment, etc. )

(D) the binary opposition between urban and rural space: the inevitable result of capital development

1, the transition from urban-rural separation to urban-rural opposition (pre-capitalist urban-rural situation. The emergence of modern capital and the formation of industrial cities. The subordinate position of the countryside has been established. )

2, the formation of urban-rural opposition (the development of productive forces. Rural craftsmen went bankrupt. Employment opportunities in cities have increased. The plunder of rural resources. Rural factories: rural urbanization. )

(v) Industrial cities: the birthplace of the workers' movement.

1, concentration of the working class (division of residential areas. A constant influx of farmers. Workers from many regions and countries gather together. )

2. Awakening of the revolutionary consciousness of the working class (machine improvement has made a large number of workers unemployed. From hating machines to capitalists. Be aware of your situation. )

3, the birthplace of the workers' revolutionary movement (the destruction of the means of production. Various strikes. Organized revolutionary movement, Paris commune, etc. )

Second, the social space from a macro perspective: the globalization of capital

(A), the formation of global space

1, the development of capital: the formation of regional space (the opening of new routes and the discovery of the American continent. The occupation of new space. Resource plunder. Primitive accumulation)

2, the expansion of capital: the spatial reproduction of production relations (colonial theory. )

3. Inevitable trend of capital: the formation of global market (capitalist economic crisis and excessive accumulation. The domestic market is saturated. The urgency of opening up new markets. )

(2), the global space fault

1, unbalanced regional development (objective geographical environment. Three subordination: uncivilized and semi-civilized countries are subordinate to civilized countries, peasant nationalities are subordinate to bourgeois nationalities, and the East is subordinate to the West. )

2, the formation of international division of labor (with industrial countries as the core. Agricultural countries are affiliated. Agriculture serves industry. )

(C), the global space reproduction of capital

1, the globalization of production mode (space domination. Capital accumulation. Excessive accumulation of transfer. )

2, the globalization of capitalist ideology (currency. Exchange. Freedom. Equality. )

(D), the significance of capital globalization

1, positive aspect (productivity improvement. The accumulation of material wealth. The popularity of communication. )

2. Negative aspects (ecological damage. The unilateral development of mankind. )

3, the demise of capitalism (multinational victory theory. )

Third, the contemporary value of Marxist social space theory

(A), the guiding significance of China's current space production

(2) The guiding significance for the current human space practice.

2. The emphases, difficulties and innovations of thesis writing.

Writing emphasis: how to describe the spatial theory of Marxist society from two perspectives and realize the unity of logic and history.

Difficulties in writing: In addition to expounding Marx and Engels' social space theory, how to better integrate the space theory of contemporary new Marxists (Lefebvre, Harvey, etc.). ) in order to highlight the contemporary significance of Marx and Engels' space thought.

Innovation in writing: This paper puts the formation, development and expansion of capital and capitalism in the perspective of space, thus turning historical materialism into space and discussing the issue of human liberation from a brand-new perspective.

3. Research ideas, methods and the plan and progress of thesis writing.

Research ideas: In view of the different emphasis on the study of Marxist social space theory at home and abroad, we will mainly take the original works of Marx and Engels as the fundamental basis and read the relevant research results of new Marxists as a supplement.

Research methods: On the basis of searching books, periodicals, academic reports and other second-hand materials related to this article, return to the text and be loyal to the original.

Planning and scheduling of thesis writing;

(1), March 20xx to May 20xx: Collect materials, read relevant materials and complete the opening report.

(2) From June 20xx to June 20xx, 10: Further study the relevant literature and complete the first draft of the paper.

(3), 20xx 1 1 to 20xx 12: After repeatedly studying and revising the first draft, submit it to the tutor for guidance.

(4), 20xx 1 to 20xx February: complete the final version under the guidance of the tutor.

(5) May 5)20xx: Conduct thesis defense.