From Problem To Research Field

Engels said: "All kinds of philosophy's problem, especially the great basicproblem of modern philosophy, is the relationship between thinking and being."There are three respects mainly in the present discussion about this question: Isthere one basic problem run through about all philosophy studying all the time? Ifthere is, have the relationship between thinking and being is the basic problems ofphilosophy? If it is, are there only two respects of ontology and epistemology?Whether are there other respects?I don't think that had understood Engels' intention about this judgment.Because the modes of thinking is "not reviewed" and "not criticized",theyinterpreted the relationship between thinking and being only as a problem the sameas numerous philosophical problems, but this problem is more important, morebasically. Engels who put forward the relationship between thinking and being asthe basic problem of philosophy wanted to reveal that the relationship betweenthinking and being is the field that philosophy study, it is a "problem" of producingthe philosophy problem.It is a long course to conscientious "the relationship between thinking andbeing" as the basic problem of philosophy.The philosophy's aim was to establish an absolute foundation for humanbeing and gain the reasonable explanation of the world from it before Marx.In ancient Greek philosophy, people have not realized the contradictionbetween thinking and being yet. They wanted to look for one experience or beyondexperience entity as the absolute foundation for human being. The relationshipbetween thinking and being was shown as how to hold the being;the philosophersaffirm that there is an entity that can decide all things including people and histhinking.In Middle Ages, philosophy began to serve for the religion. The urgent task ofphilosophy is to prove the rationality that God exist. The relationship betweenthinking and being transforms for how to hold God by thinking.Modern epistemology of philosophy change direction. Philosophers not onlywant to realize that thinking hold being absolutely, but also try to investigate thelegitimacy. That means how to realize the unification between thinking and being.Empiricism philosophers attempted to reveal the source from the humanexperience activity, Rationalism philosophers attempt to realize the unificationbetween thinking and being through rational deduction. But the aim was also tointerpret the World;they couldn't really understand "the relationship betweenthinking and being" certainly.Kant investigated the ability of human being's thinking generally, anddistinguished the phenomenon from the essential. He pointed out that our thinkingis unable to hold the essence, but can only know the phenomenon. That's to say thelaw of our thinking only has a subjective logic, and has not objective logic. By thisway, Kant has not solved the relationship between thinking and being yet, but topoint out the antithesis between thinking and being can't overcome. Hegel'sphilosophy realized the unification between thinking and being according to hisdialectical method. But he regarded "explaining the world" as his own task, so hedemanded to set up the system of the absolute truth. He "requires one philosopherfinish the work which only can be finished during the development of wholemankind". The result is that the relationship between thinking and being becamethe moving of ration without human being.Marx and Engels have established the new world outlook "changing theworld" different from "explaining the world" of the past, they have dispelled allopinions with absolute truth, and describe people's existence and development as ahistorical course of changing and developing. During the practice activity ofchanging the world, they realized the relationship between thinking and beingconsciously, and considered it as the philosophy's research field. That means weshould review and critical the unification between thinking and being, and thenreveal the contradiction from them, so as to improve the mode of thinking,establish new foundation standard. This means we have surmounted various waysto cognition the world without criticized and entered the field of criticalphilosophy. The relationship between thinking and being indicate the limitlesslyinherent contradictory of human being's practice. To sum up, the relationshipbetween thinking and being are not a concrete realistic problem that we confront,but the research field that produced all kinds of philosophical problem. Theproblem must rise to the field which the relationship between thinking and beingcan it be a philosophy problem. This is the real purpose that Engels proposed "therelationship between thinking and being" as the basic problem of philosophy.