Research On Bukharin 's Social Organism Theory

The thought of social organism goes back to ancient times when naive holistic view of society was formed in Hellenistic periods. During modern times, some philosophers and sociologists have made it a theory as well as a system and made an analogy between human society and living organism, therefore, they put forward the thought of "social organism". However, this thought is defective in its historical idealism and mechanism which cannot accurately explain the connotation and essence of social organism. On the basis of criticizing the defects of bourgeois social organism theory, Marx truly revealed scientific connotation and essence of social organism from the perspective of holistic generation of human society. Following Marx, Russian marxists, Bukharin being one of them, have made new demonstration on this thought by integrating new features in new phases of the development of proletarian revolution. Following the path of social organism put forward by Marx, Bukharin, by combining actual conditions of Russia and temper of times when engaging in the socialist revolution and construction, made in-depth elaboration on social organism in the aspect of its formation, existing premise, basis, connotation, structure and law of development, which greatly enriched and developed the thought of Marxist social organism. Therefore, thorough and systematic discussion of Bukharin’s social organism thought will help us better grasp Bukharin’s important contribution to spreading, inheriting and developing Marxist historical materialism, which will reveal its historical status in developing history of Marxism and at the same time greatly broaden the research domain of Bukharin’s thoughts.Bukharin’s social organism thought goes back to naive holistic view of society in Hellenistic periods, theological social organism in middle ages, social organism thought in German classical philosophy and modern social scientists’social organism thought. It took its root mainly in Marx and Engels’s social organism thought and at the same time was affected by other ideologists in their social orgaism theory, like contemporary Plekhanov, Lenin.The formation of Bukharin’s social organism thought is closely related to historical environment of Russian socialist revolution and construction as well as his life opportunities and character. The formation path of Bukharin’s social organism thought shows clear historical periods:going from infancy stage (1911-1917), exploration stage (1918-1920) to forming stage (1921-1924) and maturity stage (1925-1937).Bukharin approached the social organism thought from four aspects:its forming and existing foundation, connotation, integrant part and type, its structure as well as its law of development. In his point of view, the world of nature is the media for social organism and labor relation is the basis for its existence. Social organism is a real system where three elements, object, human and concept, exert influence on each other. It can be divided into different parts and two levels, namely, social technology and equipment as well as social economic structure and superstructure, which interact with each other. Revolution and reform is the direct force pushing the development of social organism which is the process where social equilibrium is constantly broke down and recovers on a new basis and then broke down and recover again and so on back and forth. Equilibrium is the guarantee for the development of social organism.Bukharin’s social organism theory is of important ideological value and practical significance. On the one hand, this theory is positioned in the heart of Bukharin’s ideological system as well as an important part of Marxism social organism; on the other hand, this theory enlights the great practice of socialism with Chinese charateristics.