On Marx's Criticism Of Modern Rationalism And Its Contemporary Valu

Rationalism is the essential feature of Western traditional culture.The term"rationalism" appeared around the 18th century.Before the modern times,it did not deliberately play the banner of "rationalism" because of the publicity of human subjectivity.Rationalism once contributed magical power,it highlighted human subjectivity and creativity,and promoted social fairness and justice.With the development of the French Revolution,rationality won a victory,and rationalism went all the way,and even became a landmark feature of normal thought.However,when people are complacent for the great achievements created by their own subjectivity,a series of contradictions and conflicts that threaten social development and human survival come one after another.Ecological crisis,nuclear crisis,survival crisis,terrorist threat,food crisis and so on are not unrelated to the abuse and misuse of reason.One can’t help but wonder:Rationalism,once seen as a versatile being,may be failing.The reason why we say that Marxist philosophy has triggered a truly revolutionary change in the history of human philosophy is closely related to the different understandings between Marxist philosophy and the western rational philosophical tradition on such basic issues as what is "philosophy" and what is"reality".This different understanding is reflected in Marx’s reflection and criticism of the the modern rationalism.Marx’s criticism of the the modern rationalism was not accomplished overnight.From his middle school days to "Rheinische Zeitung",Marx basically observed and criticized the social reality based on the principle of rationality.However,when confronted with the confusion of material interests,Marx’s position on the principle of rationality was shaken,but at this time Marx only reduced the rational logic from the center to the edge.With the beginning of Marx’s study of economic and social relations in modern bourgeois reality,Marx tried to find the realistic root of abstract rational logic,thus advancing his criticism of abstract rational logic to the level of philosophical ontology.After the establishment of Marx’s practical view and new world view,Marx reshaped the substance connotation and value pursuit of abstract rational logic based on practice.With Marx’s deep exploration of the social function and social historical root of the modern rationalism,Marx’s criticism of abstract rational logic has been promoted to the field of social history.It can be seen that Marx’s criticism of the the modern rationalism went through a process from criticizing social reality in the perspective of the principle of reason to criticizing the principle of reason in the perspective of the social reality.Marx’s criticism of the modern rationalism is different from the questioning of rationality by empiricism and skepticism,that is to say,while questioning,he still attempts to rebuild the authority of rationality by establishing a scientific rational metaphysical system.Marx’s criticism of the modern rationalism is also different from the Irrationalism and the Postmodernism’s Negation of Rationality,that is,either directly to the opposite of rationality,or completely dissolving rationality in order to liberate the real social life from the domination of abstract rational logic.Marx’s criticism of the modern rationalism not only criticizes the domination of social reality by abstract rational logic,but also digs deeply into the social function and social historical root of the modern rationalism,and exposes and criticizes the alienation of human caused by the alienation of technical rationality.Of course,"criticism" in Marx was never meant to criticize for the sake of criticizing.Marx’s critical theory had a practical dimension,that is,"discover the new world by criticizing the old world".While criticizing the modern rationalism,Marx also pointed out the solution to the logical contradiction between abstract reason and real society,that is,to replace the necessity of absolute spirit and the dialectics of concept through the necessity of perceptual practical activities and practical dialectics of "real man".In this way,Marx pulled reason from the abstract speculative field back to the real life field,thus realizing the unity of freedom of thought and freedom of practice.The Modern Western Philosophy also carried on the reflection and critique of the modern rationalism in different ways.The Irrationalism reveals that rationality and logical necessity dominate all life existence,which leads to the loss of humanistic spirit.However,the Irrationalism elevates irrational factors to the dominant position,which undoubtedly goes from one extreme to another.The Frankfurt School accurately pointed out the characteristics of metaphysics of philosophy,and deeply revealed that instrumental rationality had stylized people’s thinking and thus destroyed people’s autonomy and innovation.However,The Frankfurt School placed the road to realize people’s liberation and freedom on religion,instinct and other unrealistic utopias.The Postmodernism exposes the contradictions in the traditional way of viewing the world of western rational philosophy and the possible disadvantages of modernity.It emphasizes the existence state of diversity,co-existence and space which is different from modernity.In particular,it deeply exposes the nature of alienation of reason covered by the marriage of knowledge and power.However,The Postmodernism is the subversion of abstract rational logic which only stays in theory rather than practice.In a word,these critical thoughts of the modern rationalism seem to be vigorous and critical,and there are many reasonable suggestions which can be regarded as a supplement to Marx’s view of reason.However,in general,their way of viewing the world can not be regarded as a revolutionary change to the western tradition of rational philosophy.After all,theoretical research should face the reality,and the ultimate goal of theoretical research is to provide better guidance for the development of social practice.As a positive response to the fundamental spirit of Marx’s philosophy,in the course of our current social development,we should return to the fundamental spirit of reason,the use of reason for the reality of human existence;We should set up a positive value ideal and use it to guide the use of rationality.The rational arrangement of formal system should be perfected,and the authority and irrationality of reason should be restrained by strengthening the construction of system.To follow the practical road of the modernization of China is mainly reflected in promoting the coordinated development of the "two kinds of civilization" and coordinating the harmonious relationship between the man and the nature.