Western Marxist Critical Theory Of Modernity And Its Contemporary Significance

Modernity is the inherent character of modern society. There are two essentialelements of modernity: rationality and freedom. Rational is not only a modern spiritand soul but also the source of modern values. Western modernization process is theprocess of rationalization. Freedom is a basic human rights, it is also the prerequisitefor modern living. However, In the review of Western Marxist theorists, the seriousmodernity crisis appeared was just caused by the bias of rationality and freedomoccurred in the process of modernization.Western Marxism’s Critical Theory of Modernity is a theory of criticism andreflection rethinking to modernity. In theory, it represents as the development ofWestern modern rational introspection and criticism. In practice, it embodies theWestern modern development phase summary. From a content point of view, it startsfrom Lukacs’ Materialization Theory, expands into the Critical Theory and Dialecticof Enlightenment, and the social communication theory of Habermas as the turningpoint in the process of development of Western Marxism’s Critical Theory ofModernity. It includes analysis of modern society, modern culture, modern State andmodern life and psychological status. It represents as a critique on the social, political,economic, cultural and ideological field and almost covers all aspects of modernsociety. It is not only a reflection of theorists on Western modern civilization but alsoa critical review of the existing community. Therefore, for such a modernization indeveloping countries, studies of Western Marxism’s Critical Theory of Modernity isvery important. It will help us to correctly understanding modernity and accuratelygrasp the modernity.This paper is based on the establishment of Chinese modernity andmodernization development needs, a critique of modernity as the main line,systematically grooming the modernity of Marxist critical theory in the West. Basedon the basic judgment of the modern society and general understanding of moderncivilization, it aims to understand the Western Marxism’s Critical Theory ofModernity from the modern society’s economic, political and cultural aspectsrespectively. Its main contents include: Alienation, Technical rationality, Consumersociety, Modern State and Popular culture criticism and so on. And also by comparison with other modern critical theory, and combined with the practice ofChinese modernization construction, it highlights the contemporary significance ofthe theory.