Freedom Based On History And Practice

If we want to accurately grasp Marx’s ethical thoughts,we will undoubtedly need to understand it in the context of the development of Western thought.Especially the ancient Greek thought,which is one of the "two Greeks" tradition of Western thought,not only occupies a pivotal position in Marx’s ethical thought,but more importantly,through the retrospection of ancient Greek thought as the source of Western ethical thought,It allows us to identify the original form of ethics and its true meaning.In turn,we can accurately understand and grasp the ethical dimension of Marx’s thought in the deep dialogue between Marx and ancient Greek ethics.Because ancient Greek intellectual wisdom is embedded in Marx’s ethical thoughts in a seemingly “fragmented” way.Then the rational way to explore this issue is based on the development clues and overall structure of Marx’s thought.So that highlighted the analysis of the ancient Greek dimension,and displayed in the way of starlight in the vast and profound thoughts of Marx.As the real starting point of the development of Marx’s whole thought,"Doctoral Thesis" undoubtedly occupies an extremely important position in Marx’s ethical thoughts.The core topic that Marx discussed in it is "self-awareness" and its freedom.Here,Marx preliminary established the "self-consciousness of subject " and its freedom through the interpretation of Epicurus thought,especially its "atomic deviation" thought.More importantly,Marx saw the initial integration of natural philosophy and ethics from the perspective of Epicurean ideology that the ultimate destination is ethics,and became a consistent clue to his entire future thoughts.This is manifested in the pursuit of the comprehensive and free development of human beings based on the ruthless critique of all alienation of human beings.Here at Marx,this pursuit is embodied in the personality dimension as the lofty ideal of the Prometheus style for human liberation,while in the aspect of reason it is embodied in the confirmation and highlight of human subjective self-consciousness and its freedom,and thoroughly criticize social reality in the perspective of religion and political economy.For Marx,the understanding and grasp of history,that is,the historical materialism thought constitutes the most core part of his thoughts.Therefore,only on the basis of his accurate grasp of this idea can he reasonably open the ancient Greek dimension in Marx’s ethical thought.In fact,through further explanation,we will see that for Marx’s historical materialism,Dialectics is of intrinsic critically that originated from ancient Greece constitutes a core part,while “discovery of a new world in the old world”that from the internal critical development of dialectics constitutes a consistent inner clue in Marx’s thought.In addition,we will reveal that,for Marx,“historical teleology” was severely criticized by him.However,the “purpose” thought that first systematically promoted by Aristotle.not only make Marx’s confirmation of the lofty status of man,but also is another basic characteristic of "practice" in Marx’s thought.More importantly,through the interpretation of the means-purpose logic,the intrinsic value appeal of Marx’s thought can be further revealed,that is,the pursuit of "comprehensive and free development" of the person as the "purpose itself".The practical thought was undoubtedly firstly expressed by Aristotle.He divided the human activities into three kinds of theoretical,practical and creative,based on whether the object is inevitable and whether it has its own purpose.He discussed the ethical practice as "the realization of the virtues",and thus constructs the whole practical philosophy with the ultimate goal of citizens gaining their own happiness in the ethical and political community through the practice of virtue.However,due to the limitations of the times,Aristotle only regards ethical and political activities as the field of practical activities,but does not see the inherent purpose and self-sufficiency of production labor itself.Marx is keenly aware that ethical and political practice needs to be based on productive labor practices.Only through perceptual object-oriented activities can people obtain emotional liberation,and all liberation and freedom can be possible.More importantly,the production labor practice itself as a perceptual object activity constitutes one of the most important aspects of human beings to prove their "essence" and achieve "comprehensive and free development." Marx will rise to the perspective of existence ontology as a practice of perceptual objectivity,thus realizing a revolutionary understanding of history,practice,and a series of major issues such as human freedom and liberation,thus realized the practical turn and philosophical revolution that from “knowing the world ”turned to "changing the world",and also broke through the traditional formalism tradition of Western ethics,and established the substantive ethics with labor liberation as the core content.In Marx’s view,individual freedom can only be realized in the community.On the other hand,the community is only a "true community" under the condition that everyone’s free development is the free development of all.Marx pointed out that history is nothing but the activities of those who pursue their own purposes,and the community is only a "true community" in the sense that the activities of those who pursue their own goals are fully realized.Through the investigation of history,Marx made a three-stage division of social and historical development based on the relationship between the individual and the community.Among them,the ancient society as the first stage is manifested as a kind of “personal attachment relationship”.However,the Greek city-states,especially the democratic city states of Athens,undoubtedly provide a “classic model” for the harmonious relationship between individuals and the community.In Aristotle’s thought,the ultimate goal of the ethical political community is that citizens realize their own happiness.Of course,there still appears to be the oppression of slaves by city-state citizens.The ethical and political community is only a community of city-state citizens.More importantly,individuals do not have sufficient “subject self-awareness” there.Only after experiencing the industrial revolution and the bourgeois revolution,people gained the “subject self-consciousness” in the sense of “independence of human beings based on the dependence of things”.However,this process is accompanied by the fragmentation of original community,and the birth of the "false community" with the state as the main form.Therefore,only in the critique of the capitalist mode of production can the individual’s freedom and liberation based on labor liberation be won,only in the critique of formalism or ideological ethics can people win true mutual recognition and respect,so that win a truly "ethical" world in which communism as a "combination of free people".