Marx's Theory Of Social Conflict And Its Contemporary Significance

Marx's theory of social conflict is not only an important component of historical materialism,but also the specific application and embodiment of historical materialism.However,for a long time,people have paid little attention to Marx's theory of social conflict,the main reason lay in people's one-sided understanding or even misunderstanding on Marx's theory of social conflict.One of the most typical understandings is to equate Marx's theory of social conflict with his theory of class struggle.Based on this kind of understanding,a "consensus" formed by domestic and foreign scholars is that Marx's theory of social conflict is out of date and cannot explain contemporary social reality reasonably.This paper,based on historical materialism,tries to use the multidisciplinary knowledge to sort out the origination,formation and development of Marx's theory of social conflict from the perspective of intellectual history.On this basis,this paper intends to abstract the basic content of Marx's theory of social conflict,find out the similarities and differences between Marx's theory of social conflict and the modern western theories of social conflict,elaborate the contemporary significance and value of Marx's theory of social conflict combining with the reality of contemporary China in order to clarify the one-sided understanding and misunderstanding on Marx's social conflict.Marx's theory of social conflict formed by absorbing and inheriting the relative thoughts of predecessors.Before Marx,the German classical philosopher,the British classical political economist and the British and French fantasy socialists,aiming at the various social conflicts in capitalist society,put forward a variety of thoughts on social conflict,which became the direct theoretical sources of Marx's theory of social conflict.On the basis of criticizing these thinkers,Marx absorbed,inherited and developed their ideas about conflict,and finally built the scientific theory of social conflict of his own.Marx's theory of social conflict has undergone a process of budding,forming and developing to a perfect degree.In general,Marx's theory of social conflict has experienced the continuous process from the abstract theory of reason conflict to the humanism thought of conflict and then to the historical materialism thought of conflict.During the period of working for Rheinische Zeitung,holding the standpoint of Hegelian idealist philosophy,based on abstract principles of reason and freedom,Marx understood andanalyzed the phenomenon of social conflict at that time from the perspective of rational state and law.but the confusion on practical material interests caused Marx cast doubt on Hegel's rational state and abstract law.During the period in Croznach,Marx made a profound critique on Hegel's view of state,analyzed the relationship between state and civil society,and put forward the conclusion that the latter determined the former,which strode a firm step towards historical materialism.During the period of working in German-French Yearbooks,on the basis of criticizing Powell and Hegel,Marx analyzed the relationship between religious conflict and political conflict,and put forward the ultimate way to eliminate the conflict from the philosophical perspective-the complete liberation of mankind.However,during this period,Marx's confined his focus on social conflict to the state,law,politics,religion and other superstructure levels.In the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844,Marx analyzed and studied the social conflict of capitalist societies from the perspective of economic base and explored the economic roots of social conflict.In the Holy Family,Marx initially combines materialism and dialectics to analyze the formation of capitalist social conflicts,the opposing relationship between the two sides of the conflict and the essence of social conflict.In the German Ideology,Marx expounded the main performance of social conflict,the root of social conflict,the function of social conflict and the way to eliminate social conflict on the basis of elaborating the historical materialism.In the subsequent Communist Manifesto,Marx used the class analysis approach to analyze the characteristics,methods and results of the social conflict in the class societies,especially in the capitalist society.The publication of German ideology and Communist Manifesto indicated the formation of Marx's theory of social conflict.Capital demonstrated Marx's theory of social conflict in a economic approach,so as to further develop and improve Marx's theory of social conflict.Marx's theory of social conflict is based on the scientific theory of historical materialism.Its basic contents are mainly composed of the main manifestations of social conflict,the root of social conflict,the function of social conflict,the ultimate way to eliminate social conflict,and so on.Applying analytical approach of social structure,Marx divided social conflicts into economic conflict in the field of economic base,political conflict and ideological and cultural conflict in the field of social superstructure.Marx also pointed out that in the class society,the social conflict mainly manifests the class conflict,especially the struggles between classes.Marx used the theory of social basic contradiction to analyze the root of social conflict,pointing out that the ultimate source of social conflict was the contradiction between productivity and production relations.In theclass society,the function of social conflict is mainly manifested in promoting social development and changes.Marx's ultimate goal of studying social conflict was to eventually eliminate social conflicts and build a harmonious and free society.Since the twentieth century,facing with the reality of capitalist social contradictions and conflicts,Western thinkers have turned to Marx in succession,on the basis of "criticizing" and "correcting" Marx's theory of social conflict,put forward various distinctive theories of conflict.Although these theories had different traces of Marx's theory of social conflict and even showed a certain degree of similarity,they were fundamentally different from Marx's theory of social conflict,which mainly reflected great differences in such aspects: the root of social conflict,the function of social conflict and the elimination of social conflict.In contrast,Marx's theory of social conflict was more thorough,explanatory and revolutionary.Marx's theory of social conflict has a methodological guiding significance for us to correctly understand and analyze all kinds of conflicts in contemporary Chinese society.From the perspective of Marx's conflict theory,contemporary Chinese social conflict present various forms,but in essence,it is still a conflict of interest.As for the reasons,the ultimate source is still the basic contradiction of society,namely the contradiction between productivity and production relations.The main reason is the contradiction between the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backward social productive forces.The direct cause is the shortcoming and deficiency of various institutional arrangements.Therefore,the ultimate way to resolve and control all kinds of social conflicts in contemporary China is to coordinate the basic social contradictions and vigorously develop the productive forces.Relying on the establishment,improvement of various institutions,we will eventually eliminate the polarization between the rich and the poor and achieve common prosperity to lay a solid foundation of completing the process of building a moderately well-off society in all aspects.