On The Existential Turn Of Marx's Practical Philosophy

The philosophers before Marx have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point however is to change it. That is to say, the traditional philosophy is the philosophy of "theory of knowledge", in which the truth of knowledge is prior to the truth of existence and the former is justified for the latter in general. The existential turn of Marx's practical philosophy transcends the philosophy of "theory of knowledge". In Marx's view, it is not the consciousness of men that determines their social being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness; the mode of production of material life conditions the original world of men's existence and their consciousness theorizes the process of their real life; the significance of men's existence is not in the transcendent world of ideas but in the realization of communism. The dissertation intends to explore: the process and the meaning of Marx's shift, the main content of Marx's existential ideas and the comparison between Marx's existential ideas and Heidegger's existential ideas.This dissertation includes an introduction and the four chapters. The introduction is to explain: what are the existential philosophy and the philosophy of "theory of knowledge"; two different routes of the existential philosophy; the reason for the study of Marx's existential ideas and the condition of its study at present. Chapter 1 is to explain: the development of the philosophy of "theory of knowledge" and its main characteristics; the crisis of the philosophy of "theory of knowledge" and the birth of the existential philosophy. Chapter 2 indicates that the process of Marx's criticisms of Hegel's and Feuerbach's philosophy is the process of the existential philosophy's transcendence over the philosophy of "theory of knowledge", after which the main content of Marx's existential ideas are emphasized. Chapter 3 is the comparison ofexistential ideas between Marx's practical philosophy and Heidegger's Dasein philosophy, indicating that the key differences in the origin of alienation and in the rout of overcoming alienation show the main differences between Marx's realm of thoughts and Heidegger's: focus on existential conditions of the people and focus on inner feelings of the individual. Chapter 4 is the theoretical and realistic meaning of Marx's shift. Finally, this dissertation concludes that practice is the key to understand two types of transcendences of traditional philosophy and that the practice of the people with the guide of Marxism itself is metaphysical (as far as realistic and historical transcendence is concerned).