Study On Kosik's Dialectics Of The Concrete

What is dialectics? And what is the reasonable form of dialectics? Philosophers have completely different opinions about these"meta-questions"of dialectics. On the basis of deep study of Marx and western philosophers, Kosik, a Neo-Marxist philosopher in Czech, put forward his viewpoint in his book"Dialectics of the Concrete". This book occupies a position in the history of new Marxism and draws wide attention in European academic circle. Kosik called his dialectics"dialectics of the concrete", in his opinion, dialectics is not the generalization of the truth of nature, society and thinking, but the inquiry into the question"how to realize existence of the concrete". So-called"existence of the concrete"aims directly at the overall domination over human by"abstract", which includes not only the unilateral and alienated way of existence caused by capitalist mode of production, but also the rationalism as the representation of such situation. On the basis of"practice", Kosik revealed the real way to surmount"abstract"and realize"existence of the concrete", i.e."the all-round human development". The whole book is the concrete expansion of above thoughts.1. Kosik's outlook of totalityTotality is an important category in western philosophy, and it represents the life direction that human surpasses finite living conditions and realizes completion. Kosik reviewed its development history and carried out creative promotion, that is, he advanced the category"concrete totality". Concrete totality is in essence an ontology, it looks on reality as structural, developing and self-forming. Concrete totality is a meaning unity, and facts can be understood reasonably only in it. At the same time, we can not understand the concreteness and totality of reality unless we have facts as the part of the dialectical totality. False totality is the opposite of concrete totality. According to the view, totality is superior to facts in rank and can exist independent of parts. The defect of false totality lies in its overemphasis on necessity its ignorance of subjectivity, as its result, history is a"non-subject process". Kosik's dialectics of the concrete tries to reveal the process that human transcends false concrete and pseudoconcrete, and realizes concrete totality. His philosophy is completely different from traditional philosophy: it does not care about the ultimate truth out of human life, and its real direction is to surmount the alienated living conditions caused by capitalist mode of production and realize the all-round human development. This is just the process that human creates his real world through revolutionary and critical practice.2. Critique of the pseudoconcrete worldDialectics of the concrete aims directly at the pseudoconcrete world. The world of the pseudoconcrete is in essence that human's creation strays away from himself and becomes a force independent of human. The ideological reflection is the non-critical materialization consciousness. The pseudoconcrete world consists of reality and thought levels: the former includes procuring and its outcomes——utilitarian world and everyday life world. Procuring is the alienated form of practice, and it symbolizes that labor as the total existing mode of human is divided into parts. As a result, people do not face the whole labor but its part. As labor becomes unilateral and abstract, human loses his totality and becomes procurer. Procuring creates a utilitarian world, and things are not independent and objective in this world. They exist only as instruments, that is, things is located in utilitarian way. Everyday life is another factor of the thought level in the pseudoconcrete world. In this field, people loses metaphysical dimension and exists purely as object. The ideological level of the pseudoconcrete world includes everyday thinking, rationalism and philosophy of history. Everyday thinking has two characteristics: firstly, it has phenomenon of things as things, so the dialectical relation between phenomenon and essence is denied; secondly, it looks things in the objective and utilitarian way, so the world becomes an instrument system and its fundamental aim is to procure things better. Rationalism reduces ration to instrumental rationality and pursuits objectivity only, on the contrary, value, meaning and freedom are excluded from rationality. As its result, the totality of human existence is shadowed. According to Kosik's view, philosophy of history is a metaphysical historical view, and its seeks the essence of history out of history. However, the real foundation of history, practice and its historical expansion, is ignored.3. Kosik's practical philosophyHow can human transcend the pseudoconcrete world and realize"existence of the concrete"? Kosik's answer is practice. He criticizes the common understanding of"practice"and illuminates his view on practice.Practice means the unique way of human existence. Human is practical existence and practice is the essential characteristic of human. As the result of human practice, man and the world, material and spirit, subject and object, product and production capacity are united historically and dynamically. The reality expands before human as his practice realm, and human creates his real world through practice and carries out the infinite process of humanizing himself. Practice consists of the moment of labor and the existential moment, and it also has the dimension of openness towards reality in general. Freedom can be realized only in the process that people create their life in practice. On the basis of deep comprehension of Marxian practice philosophy, Kosik forms a unique thinking mode, that is, mode of practical thinking. Mode of practical thinking emphasizes the understanding of practice, and it understands human and the relation between human and the world from the view of practice. Thus Kosik forms a practical world outlook. In his opinion, practice in philosophical sense is the mode of practical thinking, so practice is a category neither in entity sense nor in relation sense, but the interpretation principle in philosophical sense. Kosik's interpretation principle understands and explains all the philosophical questions from the internal contradiction of human and its result——the internal contradiction between human and the world. The mode of practical thinking is a negative thinking-mode, it surpasses the intellectual thinking of traditional philosophy, and its meaning lies in the heartless critique of all existing things. On the basis of practice can human surpass limited and alienated living conditions and tend to totality.4. Formation of concrete existence and human liberationKosik's dialectics of the concrete is both a thinking mode and a reality motion of transcending abstract existence and realizing concrete existence. The motion includes two aspects: first, dialectical thinking inquires into fetishism world, breaks its superficial independence, and reveals its essence——practice; second, people destroy the pseudoconcrete world realistically through revolutionary practice and eliminate the self-alienation in the non-holy image——capital. In dialectics of the concrete, the two aspects of is internally united, and the core question it tries to answer is"how to realize concrete existence". Concrete existence is contrary to abstract existence of human caused by the capitalist mode of production, and it tends to realize the all-round human development, which is completely consistent with Marxian ideal value——human liberation. At the same time, Kosik does not have concrete existence or human liberation as an abstract idea. He reveals the development law and meaning of the capitalist mode of production, and illuminates the real way of realizing it on the basis of deep inquiry into Marxian thought. Kosik reflects all human historical activities and history process with the standard of all-round human development. The standard is the unity of history and eternity, individual and species, relative and absolute, and its essence is equal to Marx's"the all-round human development". So we can call Kosik's opinion as theory about"realizing concrete existence of human", and this is the ultimate direction of his dialectics of the concrete. The author think that Kosik based his theory on Marx's philosophy of practice, inherited and developed Marx's negative dialectics, and tried to combine it with western philosophy. His creative development has important significance in theory and reality.