The Criticism Of Subjective Metaphysics And "Subjectivity" Ideology Of Marx

The problem of"subjectivity"is an important problem in the history of philosophy. How to understand the problem of"subjectivity"concerns the understanding about some basic problems in the history of philosophy.From the history of philosophy, if we say ancient philosophy is"entity metaphysics", modern philosophy is"subjective metaphysics". Both possess the characteristics of seeking ultimate reality, seeking mono-polar unity and seeking eternal presence. Put"subjectivity"under such mode of thinking, the practice and generated essence are sure to be completely obliterated and become a kind of essentially pre-determined, transcendentally presupposed, closed and absolute super-historical existence."Subjectivity"in the view of subjective metaphysics refers to the philosophical idea that all the existences are regulated starting from"ego"of self-consciousness for which modern philosophy has laid foundation since Descartes. The"subject"in the view of"subjective metaphysics"is essentially the subject of uni-directivity, reality and historicity. Obviously, this"subjectivity"is not the true subjectivity. Therefore, when we review the concept of"subjectivity"and"subjective philosophy"on the foundation of the recognition that modern and contemporary philosophy have reached, we will recognized that their foundation is essentially unsteady and need further reflection and critical concept of philosophy. The abstractness, arbitrariness and illusiveness included in them make them suffer queries in many ways and face various crises and dilemmas in modern philosophy. But the criticism of modern and contemporary philosophy towards the problem of subjectivity appears to be somewhat childish and immature and includes the theoretical dilemma that it can not overcome by itself.In our opinion, if we only obstinately stick to the mode of thinking of subjective metaphysics, reading and arguing the problem of subjectivity, we can not counterattack the assertion of"the dusk of subjectivity"and the appeal of"banishing the subjectivity"by post-modernism. Still less can we solve the subjective perplexity of contemporary people themselves. Marxist philosophy provides new theoretical opportunities for the solution of the problem of subjectivity as the reform of one philosophical mode of thinking, coordinate and philosophical form. The time we"approach Marx"is also the course in which we probe into the problem of subjectivity. It seems to Marx that although"subjectivity"ideology of modern philosophy contains the dilemma that can not be solved, it does not mean the end of"subjectivity". What we want to end is that kind of one-sided, fictitious and narrow"abstract subjectivity", but not the whole"subjectivity".Marx transformed the research perspective on the basis of practice principles; through the transcendental understanding, transcendental generalization and the criticism of visual description towards the subjectivity of traditional philosophy; in the practical and historical mode of thinking. During this course, Marx established the historically generated practical essence of"subjectivity"in the social relationships and overcame the interior dilemma of"subjective metaphysics"radically. Till now, subjectivity returned to us humans from the heaven, from the field of consciousness to that of practice and found the realistic foundation truly. For Marx, the subject is not self-consciousness or ego any more, but the practical individuals who are engaged in the practical activities in the social relationships and the course of history. Subjectivity is not abstract, isolated and super-historical subjectivity any more, but"the concrete subjectivity"with the self-consciousness towards the life existence of practical individuals as the premise. This kind of subjectivity is the organic combination of absoluteness and relativity, ideal and reality, as well as metaphysics and its opposites. It overcame the abstraction and went towards the reality. The philosophical problem that has been perplexing the western philosophers for thousands of years gets a reasonable explanation here at last.Firstly, the subject owns an essence of innateness, predestination, invariability, eternity and identity. This essence decides the whole existence. This mode of thinking considers entity as the transcendental entity like nature, spirit and god etc; considers the essence and phenomenon, subjective nature and objective nature, spirit and material etc as completely opposite; and always grasp the absolute unitary nature from the opposite two poles. Its binary oppositions are only to cancel the opposition so as to affirm one and negate the other to find the primitive existence from it. Therefore, this mode of thinking is essentially that of"either the one or the other"; is contradiction disintegrating, unitary, and absolute mode of thinking. There, the subject became an existence of super contradictory relationship, of being eliminated of differences, rich uni-polarity and uni-direction.The"practical"activity of Marxist philosophy is a unitary activity of function, and transcends the way that traditional metaphysics grasp the world. Practice does not unify human beings and nature with one kind of ultimate entity, but seeks uni-polar and unitary positive unity of human beings and nature. Practice does not simply summarize that human beings are of the essence of the nature or the nature is of human beings'essence, but realizes the mutually complementary and mutually integrated unity of people and the world, he subject and the object in a dynamic and negative way during the course of creation. In people's practical activities, people contact with natural things in the way of animals and what people obtained from that is things exist in the way of people and realized people's purposes among things, embodied the power of human beings'essence. During this course, the natural nature and abstract subject both obtained reality. The realistic living world in which people live and make progress formed through this kind of negative unity of"realistic nature"and"realistic people".Secondly, the subjective ego is the absolute entity that can not question its origin and cause according to the mode of thinking of subjective metaphysics. For the subjects,"other people"do not exist;"ego"and"self-consciousness"are a lonely. At the same time,"ego"does not exist as an independent individual, but the incarnation of universal rationality, which means in the subjectivity principles,"ego"loses both other people and itself. Subjectivity principles digest themselves in the development. The subject ego can never go beyond itself to reach outer things and"other people"and make the originally active and free subjectivity become a set of fixed and unchanged transcendental frame. The conceptualization of subjectivity in the rational thinking made human beings become one link of the system of metaphysics losing flesh and blood - body. People's subjectivity and creativity are also digested into the system of absolute spirit. This kind of"individual subjectivity"principle is a kind of"violence"of control and conquest in essence. This kind of"violence"is embodied in the relationship with other people and looks on other people as"the object of being exerted oppression on". Thus metaphysics became a kind of ruling ideology which is full of right wills and a kind of controlling and oppressing power discourse. It is this that resulted in the nihility of people's existence.What Marxist philosophy is going to"discard"is just the isolated one-sided regulations insisted by the mode of thinking of subjective metaphysics. Marxist philosophy is going to overcome all the"exterior oppositions". The truth of dialectics is"the self-unified whole including these one-sided regulations". Marx emphasizes,"Only through the relationships with other people can people's relationships with themselves are object-oriented and realistic relationships for themselves."In other words,"Only through the relationships with other people can people's relationships with themselves be realized and manifested."People can be called people and people's relationships with themselves exist just because people's living in the natural world and the society gave rise to people's relationships with the nature and society. What Marx called"realistic individuals"are the individuals in the social relationships. People's activities are not uni-directional, but bi-directional interactive process of concrete people in all kinds of relationships with the surrounding world. Only this can eliminate the split and opposition between people and nature as well as among people. Only this can avoid the materialized and one-sided understanding towards people; can put an end to the possibility of people's materialization and abstraction. So we can conclude that only to understand the subjective consciousness from people's social relationships can really represent the profound awakening of human beings'subjective consciousness. Thus Marx transcended the mode of thinking of subjective metaphysics and its"object-oriented"principles radically. He overcame the object-oriented relationships among people in the frame of subject-object dichotomy and formed a new equal and interactive relationship.Finally, the subject possesses this super-historicity and became a eternal existence according to the mode of thinking of subjective metaphysics. Thus, the subject became a kind of"qualitative"existence losing historicity, transcendence and development. As the subject, human beings are sure to become a"qualitative"and transcendentally"completed"existence as well as a endowed"eternal"existence of super-historical nature.The ideas of Marx are just on the contrary. It seems to him that the reason why man is man and human beings are different from other existence is that they are not the existences"which are existing and just there", but that that are special existences of"survival"nature that continuously transcend"the existing nature". For the self-understanding of people, the key point is not to grasp a certain existing"substantial"knowledge, but to comprehend the"survival"nature owned by human beings. Therefore, the principles of explanation and ways of understanding about people in the traditional philosophy must be changed to grasp people in a way in accordance with human beings'nature. The greatness of Marx lies in his putting forward a kind of principles of explanation and ways of understanding in accordance with human beings'special survival nature with original creativity. According to Marx's understanding, practical individuals and the realistic living world they are living are concrete, experienced as well as connected with individuals'survival, so possess the authenticity. Marx introduced"historical"dimension into his ideas of subjectivity and endowed"subjectivity"with rich connotations generated by history.We can come to a conclusion that the understanding towards"subjectivity"in Marxist philosophy is not only different from subjective metaphysics but different from many schools of modern and contemporary philosophy. Starting from his unique theoretical perspective and ways of thinking, Marx reconstructed subjectivity during the course of deconstruction and endowed"subjectivity"with new contents. By reconstructing the problem of"subjectivity", Marx showed the transformation realized by Marxist philosophy from conscious philosophy to practical philosophy, from epistemology to existentialism, and from abstraction to concreteness from one side.