A Study On Marx's Time Concept

Time is both a scientific question and a purely philosophical question. Because the time question has the fundamental importance, it became the premise to answer all the questions in science and philosophy and the origin of thinking. Moreover, a significant change of the time concept will bring about profound revolution in history of philosophy or science. The essence of Marx's time concept is social time, which understands time with human's practice and productive labor from a unified perspective of object and subject. It makes time concept a basic category of ontology. Not only this established a unique viewpoint in the history of time concept, but also has had the profoundly revolutionary influence.As many scholars have already pointed out, the present systems of Marxist philosphy textbook pay not enough attention to this dimension of time concept. Therefore, it is necessary for us to analysis systematically and explain comprehensively related thought in Marx's works. So we can better understand, develop and stick to historical materialism founded by Marx. Besides, studying and exploring deeply multiple meanings of Marx's time concept, such as the rule of saving time, and the instrinsic relation between time and human freedom, is beneficial for implementing and carring out Scientific Development Thought people-oriented.The body of this paper is divided into four chapters to discuss on Marx's time concept.The second chapter elaborates Marx's time concept in his early period. Marx preliminarily expounded his special understanding of time presented as perceptual time concept in his Doctoral Disseration and humanistic washback on time of alienated labour theory in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. At this stage, philosophy of self-consciousness held by Young Hegelians, Feuerbach's humanism, and critique of national economy became theoretical platform of forming of Marx's time concept. And this stage is an entrance to comprehending correctly Marx's time concept for later generations.The third to fifth chapter elaborates Marx's time concept in his mature period. Marx discussed systematically time concept after the mid-1840s when he constucted the theoretical system of the historical materialism. First he philosophically constructed connotation containd in time excellently, then deepening and perfecting it from the perspective of economics and anthropology. More specifically, Marx elaborated thesises, such as generation of subject of time(realistic man), formation mechanism and development trend of human's time concept within specific social time-space(capitalist society), and"fall"of time at different stages of social development, which highlight comprehensively multiple meanings contained in time concept. Time becomes the crucial key to comprehend his philosophical thought, such as practice, working, freedom, history, etc.