The Methodology Of Marx Social Organism Theory

The formation and development of Marx social organism theory have their ownhistorical and logical progress, which can be roughly divided into five stages：germinating, incubation, progress, consummation and supplement. According to Marx,social organism includes all fields of social life, which contains relation category ofhierarchy, systematicness and totality of multi-class elements, multiple fields andphenomenon. The social organism means an abstract cognition of all communities fromthe common and abstract perspective; it’s also a totality category which contains as wellas overtops all social communities in specific formation. From the common and abstractperspective, it means organism of different periods, areas and levels, which is theconcrete summarization of different forms of social organism.Theory and method are inherently linked. Any theory has been completed underthe guidance of relevant methodology and scientific theory possesses significance ofmethodology. Marx criticizes and negates metaphysical and idealistic methodology. Inhis social organism theory, he adopts common methodology, i.e. dialectical andhistorical materialism; on this premise, Marx also observes, analyzes and masters socialorganism with special and specific methods, which is the specific application ofmaterialistic and dialectical method in social organism theory. Those special andspecific methods constitute unique social organism method system.The totality method is the fundamental one to research on Marx social organismtheory. There is an essential difference between Marx and Western Marx doctrine. Marxobserves and analyzes society from the height of totality and he considers all things andphenomenon of social life as organic system which forms and develops on the basis ofpractice. He expounds that the society of human beings possesses integrity,systematicness, expansibility and dynamicness. The research method of totality mainly contains three meanings： firstly, it emphasizes that social organism has practicalnessand contradictoriness and society is the contradictory unity of subjective&objectivebodies on the base of practice; secondly, it stresses that social organism gets integrityand systematicness and it’s an organic unity consists of multiple elements,organizations, subsystems and complex social phenomenon which influences on andinteracts with each other; thirdly, it underlines that social organism possessesexpansibility and dynamicness and it has characteristics of self-replacement andself-growth, which always develops towards wholeness and completeness and tends toevolves to totality. The totality method includes principles of integrity, systematicness,practicalness, contradictoriness, dynamicness, expansibility and so on. Marx explainscomprehensively social organism theory from the perspective of specific totality, relatedtotality and historical totality.On the basis of organism thoughts of Kant, Hegel, Comte and so on, Marx andEngels innovates and develops social organism theory with the method of criticizingand inheriting. Marx applies the research method of comparison and contrast and hethoroughly masters the relationship of social organism and natural organism,individuality and generality of organism, one-sidedness and all-sidedness organism; hereveals features, development and evolution law of social organism. Contradictionanalysis method is one important research method in Marx social organism theory.From the perspective of common contradiction, the principal contradiction and specialcontradiction, Marx analyzes special contradiction and its motion in social organism,which overall reveals the dialectical nature of social organism. Besides, Marx uses themethod of structure analysis in his observation and study of social organism. He graspsfundamental relation and situation of element structure from different levels fromperspectives of relational structure, production structure and overall structure, whichreveals social structural forms and its law of transition. The last but not least, Marx’sresearch on social organism also vividly shows systematic research method. He studiesrelations between internal social systems as well as systems and external environmentand comprehensively explores the system characteristics from multiple views ofstructure, function, interaction, self-organization of system. The project researches on the methodology of Marx while it also explores thesocial organism theory in order to help us master methodological value of socialorganism theory for modern development of society. The methodology enlightenment ofMarx social organism theory is of prime importance for China’s carrying forwardharmonious society, scientific development and today’s construction of harmoniousworld.