On The Ethical Thought Of German Ideology

The relationship between historical materialism and morality is the core of understanding Marx's ethical thoughts.In German Ideology,Marx and Engels founded historical materialism,more systematically elucidated their understanding of moral issues,and clearly indicated the realistic path of human liberation and individual development.Therefore,German Ideology provides a window for us to understand Marx's ethical thoughts.In German Ideology,young Hegelians and "true socialists" believed that social issues were regarded as moral issues,and moral improvements were used instead of real revolutions.Marx and Engels systematically represented the origin and essence of morality,its functions and limitations,and then rejected the abstract humanism,egoism,religion of love and other moral values of idealists.They pointed out that morality was ultimately an ideology.Human freedom and liberation could not be realized through moral criticism and moral redemption.Instead,it must go deep into the study of the political economy of society.They found that the alienation labor state of workers was caused by the labor division.The labor division was the root of private ownership and alienation.Marx and Engels pointed out that people did not have a pre-existing “class essence”,and then completely bid farewell to the Feuerbach's historical view of alienation.The starting point of history is the real individual,whose development is driven by the contradictory movement between the productivity and the form of communication,and whose independent activities promote and change the productivity and form of communication.Human freedom and liberation should be sought in the course of historical progress and social development.Only by eliminating labour division in a "true community" and only in a communist society where the external and alien material forces generated by individuals are placed under the common control of the United individual could the liberation of the human be truly realized.Individuals could develop themselves freely and comprehensively.As mentioned above,it could be seen that ethical thoughts in German Ideology have dual focuses,that is,the use of historical materialism to examine the microscopic perspective of moral issues and the macroscopic perspective of thinking about the freedom of human beings in the process of history.In the microscopic perspective,Marx discussed the origin,nature,and moral function of morality,and criticized the moral theory and moral claims of the young Hegelians and "true socialism";In the macroscopic perspective,Marx explored the path of human liberation in the progress of history.It could be found that historical materialism was closely related to Marx's thinking on ethical and moral issues from both the microscopic and macroscopic perspectives.The "realistic individual" is the starting point of history,and it is also the starting point for thinking about ethical issues,and to realize the historical goal of individual freedom and human liberation in the community,is also the ultimate value of ethics,from which,we can see that historical materialism is not a cold scientific law,but is full of humanitarian concerns.Under the guidance of Marxism,China's political,economic and cultural construction has achieved great accomplishments.In the new era,we must strengthen the guiding role of Marxism.On the one hand,we must adhere to the methodology of historical materialism to examine varied moral problems that occur in the current society.Morality has a specific social adjustment function,but it has some limitations.Pan-moralization criticism doesn't often help solve actual social problems,but encourages people to worry about the current social moral situation.Therefore,we should go out of the misunderstanding of pan-moralization criticism.Social problems couldn't simply be reduced to moral problems,and the real solution to moral problems should go deep into the political and economic aspects of society.On the other hand,at the beginning of the new era,we must continue to adhere to and develop collectivism morality.We must not only use moral principles of collectivism to regulate social life of individuals,but also transforming society on the basis of individual freedom and all-round development,to make society a "true community" that can truly achieve human liberation and the full development of individual freedom.