The Discovering Of The Real Man

My aim in this thesis is to analyze the theoretical process of Marx's discovering the real man and to show the change happened in Marx's theory of human nature in the context of theories on human nature in the history of western philosophy. In my idea, what concerns us most in philosophical research is man, and the history of philosophy is actually the history of man's creation being represented by self-consciousness. There is a profound tradition of humanity in the history of western philosophy. Lots of viewpoints are given on human nature by the philosophers, who start with great enthusiasm and ambition, but regard man as an abstract being as a result. Human beings are stark and changeless. The reason for this is that they do not understand man in the way of his own, and treat man as a ready-made being. It is in the Marxist theory that starts the way of understanding man in the practical way. By inheriting the products of the traditional western philosophy, Marx changes the way of understanding man, understands man in his own way, makes man as the real starting point of philosophical research for the first time, and then achieves the revolutionary change in philosophy.There are four parts in this thesis.In the first part, I clear up ideas on man in history of philosophy from Ancient Greece to the 19th century. The Naturalist philosophy of ancient Greece achieves the understanding of human beings through the observation to the phenomenon of nature. In the eye of a naturalist, man is the Demiurge of the hypostases; the essence of man is the soul and the idea; and man is identical with the outer world; and human happiness does not exist in material things. The sophists change the attention of the philosophy from the outer world to the human himself. Protagoras brings forward the famous〝man is the measure of everything〞, and Socrates defines the task of philosophy as〝to know yourself〞, which aim to approach nature by the way of observing man himself, and cares much for the internal principle of soul. Socrates posits the nature of human on the level of logos. Plato inherits his tutor's idea and finally results in the conclusion that human nature is the thinking power by demonstrating the nature of soul. Aristotle considers the logos as the natural essential hypostases of man. He establishes the tradition of logos in the western philosophy and advances the theoretical level of Greek philosophy. In the middle age, the divinity of Christianism is in the tiptop of philosophy, which regards man as instrument of god. Man is treated as the product of God, and God endows man with freedom to choose good or evil. The nature of man can be both good and evil. Only with the devoutly worship at God, human beings can expiate the original sin. In the age of Renaissance, the chain of religion is broken, and the human nature is to be eulogized. In the modern age, the development of humanity can be divided into two parts, which are sensible humanity and logical humanity, according to the development of epistemology in philosophy. The former affirms the sensibility and utilitarian needs of man, treats human as the sensible material esse, and maintains that human nature is the human nature. The latter prefers the flag of logos and science, treats man as a spiritual being, which owns rationality. In such kind of philosophy, logos can know the nature of human and the world, and create a perfect society which permits the existence of man's freedom, equality and humanity. The classical philosophy of Germany reaches the highest level of research on human nature, which aims to understand the origin, essence and character of man through his activity. Hegel enlarges the aforementioned logic and treats human reason as absoluteness which can enact and realize itself. In Hegel's idea, human is the product and exhibition of absolute spirit. Feuerbach opposes Hegel's absoluteness, and interpreted human nature in the limit of his natural character. In a word, although the theoretical products on human nature in traditional philosophy are plentiful, a wrong inclination is inevitable, that is, human rationality is highlighted while human sensibility is ignored, and man is understood in an abstract nature.In Part Two, I mainly expatiate on the process in which Marx frees man in his real sense from Hegel's abstract interpretation. Marx in his early days follows Hegel's philosophy, and treats the nature of human as self- consciousness, which gets its existence in the basis of absolute spirit. Marx praises the critical nature and free nature of self-awareness, and hopes to change the real world through self-consciousness. After his devoting to the practical life, Marx finds that freedom in Hegelian sense does not even exist. The state and law are not the embodiment of human rationality, but the protector of private benefit. There are no abstract human beings in the real life, but idiographic ones. According to the research on the history of the status of bourgeoisie, Marx claims that idiographic person only exists in the civil society, in which the nature of human divides to real citizen and abstract individual. In order to unify them, Marx thinks that it is necessary to conquer the civil society and to surpass the political liberation to the humanity liberation, which is the task of the proletariats. In the year of 1844, Marx reviews the citizen in the civil society, and praises Hegel's point of view that it is a process that human beings produce themselves through work. Marx treats this point of view as the best point of Hegel's dialectic. Finally, Marx concludes the point that human beings can produce objective and the real man by the active work, which is with the full freedom and self-consciousness.The third part of this thesis is mainly about the process in which Marx changes Feuerbach's conception of man with natural character to the real man. Feuerbach makes profound animadvert on Hegel's dialectic philosophy, reestablishes the authority of materialism, and reveals human nature in its natural quality. Marx assimilates Feuerbach's opinion, treats human beings as the sensible and objective existence, and criticizes Hegel's abstract spirit, and then turns himself from an Idealist to a Materialist. However, Marx does not agree Feuerbach's overemphasis on the natural side of human beings, which in essence is to treat man as abstract natural existence and to degrade man's subjectivity. In Marx's opinion, human beings are not only sensible and objective existence, but also social existence. There is not only sensibility, but also activity in human nature. Praxis is the way that human beings exist. The nature of human is not changeless but a product of human praxis. The basic form of praxis is working, which has the nature of historicity and sociality, expressing itself as manifold in social relations. Marx concludes that the nature of human is the summation of social relations.In the fourth part of this thesis, I expatiate on the logic of Marxian transition in understanding human nature. Marx gets much inspiration from Hegelian philosophy. In Hegel's theory, idea itself is active, and idea in essence is the unity of universality, particularity and personality. Concreteness of idea as the self-definition of man is far away from the sensibility, and it is only one of the courses in the way that absolute spirit expands itself."Work"as the nature of man in Hegel's philosophy only means the pure spiritual working and theoretical concreteness. Marx establishes the real man by changing abstract theoretical concreteness into sensible activity. In Feuerbach's philosophy, man only means sensible existence and human nature is the same as natural man, and man loses his activity as subject. Marx reinvents Feuerbach's natural man by thinking about man and his existence via his praxis and by regarding praxis as human nature. Marx inherits the active product of traditional philosophy, defines the basic meaning of praxis, treats praxis as the way that man exists, reveals the social and historical character of praxis, and makes praxis as the actual historical activity of human beings. That is why praxis is the real nature of human beings.