Rethinking Marx’s Theory Of Human Essence

The essence of man has always been the focus of philosophy,and many thinkers have made different answers to this question.However,the discussion about Marx’s theory of human nature also has a certain degree of one-sided tendency,which is contrary to the original intention and integrity of Marx’s theory of human nature.Marx’s thought has a process of transformation,in this process,we can clearly see the change in the direction of Marx’s investigation of human nature.Early influenced by Hegel’s idealism speculative philosophy,Marx believed that the nature of people is freedom,then affected by feuerbach’s humanism philosophy,the people to understand the nature of "class",in the end from the reality of human activities to grasp the production of labor and social relationships,especially notice the production relation is the basis of all social relations,He founded dialectical materialism and historical materialism.Marx’s concern for human is consistent,"early" and "mature period" to understand the essence of human is unified.Therefore,in different historical periods,Marx expounded the essence of human beings with different emphases,which provided a logical and hierarchical complete picture for us to understand Marx’s theory of the essence of human beings.The view that "man is the highest essence of man" makes the essence of man return to man itself and excludes the externalization of the essence of man,which is the logical premise of scientific research on the essence of man."Free conscious activity" highlights the subjectivity status and general principles of human beings,and provides value direction for human development."The sum of all social relations" leads the essence of human beings to the real society,to the social relations,especially the economic relations,and provides scientific weapons for the complete liberation of human beings."Human needs" is only a special attribute of human beings,which reflects the inner desire of human beings in the process of social development.Marx stipulated that human nature is multidimensional,human reality is also diverse,human should be a "complete person".The so-called "integrative man" as the subject refers to the man in the capitalist environment from the perspective of Marx,who has both value orientation and realistic expression,and whose ultimate orientation is the man who possesses his own comprehensive nature in a free and comprehensive way.The essence of integrative human is the unity of the essence of human value and the essence of reality.The essence of human value is "free conscious activity",which is the value direction of human society development.The realistic essence of man is "the sum total of all social relations",which is the concrete historical expression of realistic man in the development of social history.Labor is a kind of production and life,that is,free and conscious activities,labor is the essential content of human beings,social relations are the form of human nature,labor and social relations are interdependent and complementary.In the communist society,the human society by the inevitable kingdom to enter the kingdom of freedom,and eliminate the alienation,people realized the reality of labor,truly realize human’s free conscious activities,people’s all-round development of social relations,full possession of his own social relations,human value nature and practical nature unified in logic and history,which shows the essence of the integrity of the people.