The Ontological Foundation And Contemporary Meaning Of Marx's Theory Of Development

The main subject of this paper is focused on philosophical examination about Marx's theory on development. This examination tries its best to explore the essential characters of Marx's theory on development through deeply touching the ontological foundation, and make a complete and thorough elucidation of the contemporary meaning of the theory on this foundation. The theoretical value of the subject lies in that nowadays, considering increasingly severe global problems and human existent predicament, 'the understanding of development question, at the same time, is the key to understand the reality and current age', while Marx's theory on development directly touches the root of the development question so that its ontological insight not only provides powerful thought resources for us to understand the development itself, but also can make an active response to important development problems confronting the contemporary.This paper tries, through analyzing the idea of 'development-progress' in light of history, to explore and examine the historical origin of this idea. This origin is, in a unique way in the west, related to the transformation from ancient Greek thought to Medieval Christian philosophy. This paper tries to illustrate how the idea of 'development-progress' appears, accompanying the emergence of historical sense.Since the beginning of modern time, due to the drive of scientific and technological reason and capital principle, the development of modern society has had fundamentally connections with the essence of the world (namely, the modernity). The great fruits of the whole modern civilization and gradually emerged difficult situation of human existence and development while man acquire these fruits, in a sense, are rooted in the climbing development of modern western metaphysics, and results from its increasingly deepened theoretical crisis. The paper further analyzes and explores the ontological origins of 'The world becomes an image' and 'Man turns intoasubject', which is of determining meaning to the basic process of modern history, and points out, it is the western two-value logical nature and the abstract subjective principle of 'objective thinking', while grasping 'the being' as an entitative 'object', that cancels the actual historical nature, excludes and overshadows the whole sensible richness of man and man's sensible existent area which can not be objectified so that the freedom to use reason turns into rigidified rational external coercive power, resulting in the loss of meaning world as 'the root' of human life. This process under the principle of capital historically becomes the fate of modern human beings.The fundamental nature of Marx's thought is obviously represented in his double critiques of modern western metaphysics and the principle of capital. The root mark of the foothold and its fruits of these critiques is: it opens up a totally new way to understand the historical actuality and so lays down a historical materialist foundation for comprehending human development. The paper, through the explanation of the ontological meaning of the conception of Marx's 'sensible activities' (namely, practice), makes great efforts to show that Marx, using the penetration of 'sensible activities' as the entitative substance of alienated reality, re-establishes the bridge for the organic connection between sensible life, its rich life world and thought so that it realizes transcendencyover 'objective thinking' and abstract 'subjectivity' in modern metaphysical basic constitution with actual individual historical being in the ken of historical materialism. Marx's philosophical reform leads the principle of actual history into the root of being and clarifies sensible, concrete meaning-value area, in which man becomes man, directed by history-practice. Thus it ensures the measure and target of historical materialism in order to lead human development rightly and completely.Starting from Marx's philosophical ontological realm, the paper distinguishes the freedom of thinking by which man know the necessity from the freedom of mind rooted in the meaning-world, and puts forward understanding 'the development of man's ability as the purpose itself', as an important dimension of the development and construction of history, and as social purpose close to actual life itself. Because it puts the realization of the social purpose into the entire historical process of human material life, Marx's theory about development is neither economic determinism of positivism without critique, nor an abstract presupposition of value in the direction of Romanism. The paper insists that we should understand the nuclear of Marx's theory of development as a value direction based on the principle of history-practice, analyzes the meaning and limits of modern western development theories in the direction, and discusses the far-reaching significance of 'the view of scientific development', the latest result of the sinicination of Marxism. The paper concludes, Marx's development theory gains its deciding foundation in the ontological realm of historical materialism, and is acritique of modernity with high principle level as well. In this way, the development theory and its embodiment under different historical conditions can always be a guiding lamp leading contemporary human beings to develop further and get out from development predicament.