Research On Eric Hobsbawm's Socialist Thought Of Historical Reflection

Eric Hobsbawm is one of the representatives of the British New Left,who is a well-known Marxist historian,and a socialist thinker familiar with modern global history.Under the guidance of historical materialism,Hobsbawm looks at the historical phenomenon of socialism objectively,and carries out specific thinking on the historical background,historical conditions,historical circumstances,and historical characteristics of the development process of socialism,so as to obtain the contents that can reflect the essence and changing rules of socialism,and form his new value judgment of socialism.Hobsbawm's socialist thought is deeply rooted in the investigation of socialist history.In the process of historical research,with the conscious accumulation of spirit and thinking,he forms his own unique thought on the original meaning,structural elements,class composition,practical purpose,specific modes,and evolutionary laws of socialism,showing a profound historical consciousness.This thesis aims to conduct a holistic research of Hobsbawm's socialist thought.On the basis of sorting out,grasping and analyzing his thought and viewpoints,presenting the uniqueness,richness and value of its theoretical connotation,in order to form a more systematic and comprehensive understanding of Hobsbawm's socialist thought,thereby revealing its reality significance and inspiration for my country's socialist modernization.Following this basic framework,the logical structure of this thesis is divided into seven parts:The introduction part first sorts out and introduces Hobsbawm's life and academic history,and makes a detailed summary of his life experience,academic characteristics and writings,which is intended to reveal the connection between his life history and his thought.Secondly,it expounds the purpose,significance and necessity of the research about this thesis,and illustrates the value of the theme.Then it discusses the relevant domestic and foreign research status,presents the frontier views of domestic and foreign scholars on this theme,so as to has a clear understanding of their cognition,interest and thought,and forms the theme of this thesis based on the analysis.Finally,it clarifies the research methods and innovations of this thesis,strives to highlight the uniqueness of the theoretical vision,points out the gaps in the research field,and answers what innovative work has been done in this thesis in which areas,dimensions and levels.The first chapter analyzes the origins of Hobsbawm's socialist thought.First of all,as a Marxist historian,his understanding and historical analysis of socialism are directly derived from scientific socialism.The content expressed by the analytical approach and position of scientific socialism has become the main factor affecting the formation of its thought.Secondly,Hobsbawm's life is influenced by the development of Soviet socialism,and his thought is full of critical absorption of the Soviet model of socialism.Thirdly,as a historian who is good at analyzing,Hobsbawm not only uses historical materialism as the basis of his epistemology,but also draws on the historical analysis method of the French Almanac School of "Total History",which together constitute the basic characteristics of his research activities on the history of socialism.In addition,The Western Marxists Lukács and Gramsci provide him with new perspectives and new ideas of class analysis and political theory.Finally,the academic research atmosphere of British neo-Marxism and the changing practice of the British working class inspires Hobsbawm's new approach to socialist analysis and judgment,prompting him to revise his thinking according to the new concrete situation.The second chapter explains Hobsbawm's structural reflection on the ontology of socialism,that is,in Hobsbawm's perspective,it answers what level of content the ontology of socialism has,what are the relations between the contents and the logical structure,and what kind of reflection it needs.Starting from the term "socialism",Hobsbawm explores the history of the evolution of socialism and points out that socialism first existed as a critical consciousness of capitalist society,and later it was in contact with Marxism and Jacobins.Under the integration of political traditions,it has developed into a political force,and its ideology,material support and system requirements point to its practical purpose.This chapter logically summarizes the socialist ontology in Hobsbawm's vision and the structural reflections shown in the ontology expounding process,and clarifies the spiritual ontology of socialism—the original meaning,the material basis ontology—the masses of people and country represented by the proletariat,and the value ontology—the goal conversion of system practice,together constitute the ontological structure of Hobsbawm's socialist thought.At the same time,through his historical description of the connotation and evolution of the socialist ontology,he forms the concept and functional definition of the ontological structure of socialism,which then embody Hobsbawm's reflective process of the ontological structure of socialism.The third chapter discusses Hobsbawm's realistic reflection on the turn and trend of socialism starting from the noumenon of socialism,and clarifies and analyzes his interpretation of the major changes in socialist thought and movement.In the mid to late 20 th century,the traditional material basis of socialism was reduced and the structural standard of socialism was weakened.Hobsbawm analyzes the reasons for this situation.At the same time,Hobsbawm has made dynamic and historical analysis about other social forms that contain socialist factors but are different from the Soviet state model—social democracy,the organic combination of Eastern and Western political civilizations,and the socialist model in Latin America.In addition,Hobsbawm explains the significance of economic integration,technological advancement and popular culture to the development of the international socialist movement with his global vision.Through research,this chapter has drawn Hobsbawm's reflective understanding of socialist changes and trends,and has basically formed an overall understanding of his socialist thought.The fourth chapter expounds Hobsbawm's thought on the value evaluation and reflection of socialism in the era of globalization during the new transformation and evolution.At the end of the 20 th century,the socialist movement suffered major setbacks worldwide,which caused Hobsbawm to re-evaluate the functions,mechanisms and actual performance of socialism in order to explore the explanatory power of the new era of socialism.Firstly,Hobsbawm believes that nation-states and national undertakings will eventually move toward socialism,the value of socialism is that it is the ultimate destination of the nation and other related objects.Secondly,in the new era,socialism has more persuasive and critical effects than ever before in terms of social alienation,ecological crisis and other capitalist modernity consequences.Thirdly,socialism is still the most important force in today's society in terms of resource allocation and eliminating the gap between the rich and the poor.In this chapter,Hobsbawm's analysis on the reassessment of the socialist value under the new situation,which highlight his extensive efforts on the current theoretical situation and application prospects of socialism.The fifth chapter mainly investigates the enlightenment of Hobsbawm's process analysis and reflection on socialism,and analyzes its enlightenment for the modernization of socialism with Chinese characteristics.At the turn of the century,Hobsbawm put forward his own unique insights and viewpoints on some of the focal issues related to the actual operation of socialism,and hope socialists should pay attention to these issues.Based on the analysis of these arguments and the specific national conditions of our country,this chapter aims to explore the enlightening effect of Hobsbawm's socialist thought on my country's socialist construction.The last part is the conclusion of the full thesis.Based on a summary of the main ideas and logical framework of the full text,this part summarizes the current hot issues of capitalism and socialism,which highlight the historical reflection and the vitality of caring for reality and the future of Hobsbawm's socialist thought.At the same time,it reiterates the spiritual core of Hobsbawm's socialist thought,evaluates Hobsbawm's philosophical heritage,states and analyzes his questions about socialism and the part leave for future generations to explore,showing the value of the times contained in his socialist thought.The full thesis is based on the two-way clues of logic and time,and by closely surrounding Hobsbawm's socialist theory,it explores Hobsbawm's true search in the context of his thoughts,socialist elements,content,structure and dynamic mechanism.The characteristics,logic and theoretical views have formed a more systematic and comprehensive socialist ideology under the consciousness of historical reflection.Hobsbawm's thinking mode guided by historical reflection makes him devote himself to looking at the connection of all complex things from the whole chain of the past,present and future,expresses his continuous historical attitude,and shows his historical macro understanding of socialist theory and realistic movement.For this reason,in our opinion,his socialist theory shows two distinct and unique core connotations: First,socialism is a historical understanding activity based on capitalist production relations,which interprets the development trend of human society.The way transcends the limitations of capitalism,and reflects the ability of mankind to grasp historical facts and the essence of the world.Second,mankind's historical reflection on socialism is not only a process of thinking and understanding,but also extends to the practical ability of mankind to inherit and create history with the consciousness of socialism.It is precisely under this ability that human beings confirm their own historical subjectivity,deepen their role in the objective world,and make historical understanding possess a macroscopic social significance.Hobsbawm's thought and analytical research methods on socialism embodies the new thinking and new characteristics of Hobsbawm's socialist thought research,which is the pursuit of his socialist value proposition and Marxist spiritual quality,and provides us with a dialectical and absorbing theory for advancing the cause of socialism.