On The Question Of Subjectivity In Marx's Philosophy

In Late Heidegger's three-day seminar, Heidegger had three comments about the nature of the Marx's philosophy. The logic ideas indicate Heidegger's overall understanding of Marx's philosophy. Marx's philosophy is a simple reversal of Hegel's philosophy, and it does not break the basic framework of metaphysics. Practice concept is a metaphysical concept. Therefore, the concept of practice is subordinated to subjectivity. In this sense, explanation to the world is equivalent to the transformation of the world.Immanence of consciousness is the basic framework of metaphysics. There are two difficult points of this basic framework of metaphysics which are difficult to overcome. Firstly, objects lost their nature of existence, and consequently the material field has not been run through. Secondly, no matter how large the metaphysics systems have developed, immanence of consciousness and its own legitimacy have not been explained. They have indicated that immanence of consciousness is the reason causing metaphysical puzzles. Therefore, we have to establish the fundamental basement from a horizon which is different from immanence of consciousness.Marx has clearly criticized metaphysics, and its philosophy starts from a new horizon which distinguishes itself from immanence of consciousness. Marx's criticism to Hegel's philosophy is quite representative. Hegel's philosophy is based on logic and pure thinking. Obviously, the relationship between thinking and being has been reversed by Hegel. Marx criticized Hegel on "overcoming" and "intermediate" issue. Self-consciousness just sets the abstract material properties, and the material is not practical. Reality has not been run through. Marx pointed out that self-consciousness is just a natural feature, but not human nature or the people themselves. Marx and Hegel's differences lies in the fact that Hegel's philosophy starts from ruminative thinking and he definitely could not get out of the immanence of consciousness, while Marx's philosophy starts with human's practical activities.Human being in Marx's philosophy is realistic and specific people. All of the people and their activities conceive the historical premise. The fundamental difference between humans and animals is that human beings are engaged in production and establish a series of other social relationships on production basis. Therefore, Human history started on the point that people got into the engagement of production activities. Human being in Marxism philosophy is social and historical people. Production is restricted by certain historical conditions. Every generation's production level is defined by productivity, capital and environment created and left by predecessors. On the other hand, our production also define next generation's material level and production situation. Therefore, Marx's subjectivity is integration of object and subject which formed in the development of nature and history. Object and subject can only be comparatively distinguished. In practical and definite activity, human being are subject, while world is object. However, in the development of history, subject is defined by history which means subject turns into object. In the horizon of historical materialism, the thinking mode, in which object and subject conflict with each other, has been broken through.However, the problem is still that what the relationship between consciousness and practical activity is. Heidegger's criticism to Marx suggests that the problem is related to the nature of the Marxism philosophy. Marx believes that language is only generated on the basis of a certain degree of production practice. As the practical medium of consciousness, the generation of language proves that consciousness is the result of practical activity. Consciousness'content is also defined by reality. As the subjectivity of practical activity, consciousness is only the subjective side of practical activity and it proves the power of human being which is in the horizon of practical activity. Therefore, the concept of consciousness is rooted in the concept of practical activity.Heidegger's criticism to Marx strongly indicates their different philosophical positions. His misunderstanding of Marxism is attributed to this. In late Heidegger's thought, human beings are called by thinking. Thinking is not human's tool, planning and functions. Human is subordinated to being and listen to the land in the sense of poetry. In this way, Heidegger replaced logic and rational thinking with poetic thinking. Marx's thinking mode is critically inherited from Hegel. Marx uses specific reasoning to investigate reality. Therefore, Marx and Hegel are closer in the level of reasoning than Heidegger. Heidegger rejects reasoning, so he places Marx and Hegel in the same category which is the category of metaphysics. We can not conclude that the nature of Marxism philosophy is the same with that of Hegel's.