The Theory Of Intellectuals In The Concept Of Western Marxism

In the 20th century, due to the various social and historical conditions the countries and people are facing and the major change human beings are experiencing, Marxism has undergone significant differentiation, has formed a variety of different types of thoughts and factions. Among them, as the correspondence to the representative of the orthodox Marxism-Marxism Leninism, "western Marxism" became one of the most influential power in modern international trends. In the past research of western Marxism theory, people only notice the technical rational criticism, ideological criticism and the mass culture criticism in western Marxism, and ignore the theory of intellectuals which based on these theories and developed.The 21st century is the era of economic globalization, the industrial society and mass culture are formatting and developing. In this context, the intellectuals in the class and stratum and interest groups and the proportion of more and more obvious. But what kind of people can be called intellectuals, what kind of rights and obligations intellectuals must shoulder is always the hot debate. Today, the influence of rationalism is becoming more and more important. Human beings are facing how to select the difficult situation, science, technology, and knowledge. As the creator and "occupy" directly, intellectuals has a special kind of influence, but also has a special responsibility. Facing the reality, how should adjust our intellectual attitude, actively participate in the social transformation process and how to play their own roles in this process is an important problem. Facing the current theory of intellectuals, it is important to analyze the various western Marxists analysis. In the developing process of west Marxism, a lot of the intellectuals are worth our concern, Gramsci made the theory of the organic intellectuals which are different from the traditional intellectuals, the social function and responsibility of the intellectuals is to educate and to promote the consciousness of the working class, awakening them to criticize and resist. Horkheimer emphasized to maintain the critical nature of intellectuals and the consciousness of resistance, Marcuse makes the intellectuals together with the "New Left" movement, he figured that the consciousness of the resistance of the working class is gradually forgotten today, the real main body of the revolution is intellectuals., Habermas proposed the "public intellectuals" concept on the background of the establishment of the public sphere, he thinks that the biggest feature of the intellectuals is the concerning of the public affairs.Summary of Western Marxists' theory of the intellectuals provides a reference to establish responsibilities and status of intellectuals in China's social transition period. Intellectuals should always maintain its independence; intellectuals should play a role of communicating and intermediating, educate and enhance the overall quality of all levels of society. Always keep focus on the social and public affairs, play an important role of monitoring and promoting the healthy development of the society.