Marx's Theory Of Needs And Its Contemporary Value

Marx is not the first person to use the category of “need”, nor is he the first to set upneed theory. Before him,“need” has been used as a philosophical category, and the needtheory established by Hegel. However, from Plato to Marx, the theory has never formedits own course of independent development, but always studied together with othercrucial issues concerning humans in philosophy. The seeking of human's value has beenthe fundamental force for the discovery of “need” and the development of need theory.As a philosophical category, the connotation of “need” is a continuous process ofenrichment and generation. Until modern times,“need” is gradually separated fromhuman desires with the deepening of the understanding of human beings. However, it isnot until German classical philosophy that “need” means the interrelations between theimplementation of human's value and other things and conditions. In other words,“need”has been discovered.Marx does not deliberately construct the need theory whereas it is only an organicpart of his overall plan to resolve issues towards human beings. Marx is not satisfied withthe German classical philosophy, especially the arrangement of real man made by youngHegelians who are successors of Hegel's philosophy. Therefore, he proposes the supremegoal of human liberation. To achieve this goal, on the one hand, Marx educates andorganizes revolutionary forces practically. On the other hand, he seeks direction and basisfor this goal theoretically. Based on his criticism on German classical philosophy, Marxhas discovered the real man who lives in certain social relations and can work on someactive and practical activities under some impetus, namely, the real man who can beobserved through experience during the process of development under certain conditions.“Real man” is neither human's spirit or self-consciousness abstracted by Hegel, nor thesensitive and intuitional single person approved by Feuerbach, but the man with the unityof natural quality, social quality as well as spiritual quality. Regarding such “real man” asthe reliable starting point, Marx establishes historical materialism, in which Marxconnects the humans' needs with some vital issues towards humans such as thedissimilation, essence, nature, development, value, and liberation of humans to form a need theory system.Marx's need theory is not only the key to understand the historical materialism, butalso the effective fulcrum to scientifically understand and cognize humans. It is not onlyof significant and theoretical meaning, but also of outstanding contemporary value.Caring about the real man as well as their survival and development, Marx's need theorymakes the scientific angle of view and method to analyze and resolve the vital survivaland development issues that contemporary Chinese are faced with. Marx's need theoryconnects humans' needs with some eternally practical issues like humans' survival anddevelopment, which makes it always practically meaningful and shows its immortalvitality.The specific structure and contents of this dissertation are as follows:In chapter one, the topic basis, status quo of the related research abroad and at home,as well as the research methods, key points, difficult points and innovation points areintroduced, trying to argue for the meaning and value of this research.In chapter two, guided by the discovery of the “need”, the researcher studies thescope of the “need” and the connotation of “discovering need”, and then clarifying thelogic clues and conditions of “discovering need”, and finally summarize the historicalprocess of “discovering need” in the history of western philosophy, which form thetheoretical prerequisite of Marx's need theory.In chapter three, undertaking the enlightenment and problems brought to Marx byGerman classic philosophy, the researcher analyzes the motivation of Marx'sconstructing need theory, presents the social historical background, reality basis, andlogic process of the formation of Marx's need theory, and finally makes certain theorganic connection between Marx's need theory and his comprehensive theory system.In chapter four, after arguing that Marx's need theory is a theoretical system, theresearcher describes the frame and structure of Marx's theoretical system, with the corecontents humans' need, namely, the nature of human beings, and the main contents thedissimilation, levels, development and meaning of humans' need, which make clearerMarx's need theory as a theoretical system.In chapter five, the researcher makes a summary about the theoretical significanceof Marx's need theory. On the one hand, the researcher clarifies the basic rules of social development based on Marx's need theory, expressing the prominent value of it on thescientificity of historical materialism. On the other hand, the researcher summarizes thebreakthroughs of the theory on the cognition of human beings, arguing for the historicalcontributions of the theory.In chapter six, combining the important survival and development issues thatcontemporary Chinese are encountered with, the researcher analyzes and explains issueslike ecological problems and the origin for the production of consumerism, providescountermeasures of Marx's need theory, and presents the vital contemporary value of thetheory.