"life" Of The Discovery Of Historical Materialism

The concept of Leben occupies a focal position in The German Ideology as well as Marx' s historical materialism. To be more specific, it is at the same time the ontological foundation and the purpose of history in Marxism. A thorough exploration of Leben, therefore, may guide us toward a holistic understanding of Marx' s philosophy, and bridge the theoretical gap between the thoughts of the young and the aged Marx. The central point in Marx' s thoughts is after all "how to realize a free life" .This thesis therefore carries out an indepth study of the concept of Leben in the context of the first chapter "Feuerbach" of The German Ideology. In the first part, it sorts out and compares the concept of Leben and terms coined with the stem "Leben" , aimed at pinning down the theoretical impasse resulted from a biased understanding of Life. Based on a comparison between Leben and other concepts such as Beduerfnis, Materiale Produktion, Produktivkraft, Verkehrsform, Bewusstsein, Ideologie, and Kommunismus, etc., the second part makes an effort to establish the focal position of Leben in the text. The last part compares the text of "Feuerbach" with its Chinese translation and attempts at a reconstruction of the text from the perspective of argumentative logic and in the light of philological theories.