Marx’s Concept Of Rationality And Its Contemporary Value

This paper argues that Marx abandoned the traditional Western concept of rationality, established rational view of the survival theory, to achieve a rational view of great change, which brings tremendous theoretical value to scientific and technological progress of human society to survive the crisis caused, which is Marxist philosophy theory of modernity and a major manifestation of the Age. Discussion is unfolded by centering on the following aspects:This paper firstly by illustrating the development process of traditional Western concept of rationality, the logical process of its formation, development, prosperity and final decline is introduced. The development characteristics of traditional Western concept of rationality at different stages are summarized. Then, explain the concept of Marx’s critique of the Western tradition of rational, philosophical view of practice was established, besides, revolution of existentialism was realized under the view of practice, which laid a solid theoretical premise and foundation for Marx’s concept of rationality. This paper then describes the formation of Marx’s concept of rationality. Exposed the ideological core of Marx’s concept of rationality, Marx’s concept of rationality considers that rationality is rooted in human vital activity; its essence is dialectical intuition for human vital activity and contains rich significance of existentialism, moreover, dialectical unity has been realized between rationality and non-rationality. In order to further manifest the essential difference between Marx’s concept of rationality and traditional concept of rationality in the past, three of its substantive characteristics are introduced:dialectics of existence, consciousness of practice and humanism. Meanwhile, discussion is carried out for similarities and differences between return of modern Western rationality based on life and Marx’s concept of rationality. Based on criticism against traditional concept of rationality, modern Western philosophers have realized return of rationality based on life. This has many similarities with Marx’s concept of rationality, but there are also some essential differences.Finally, by combining with the contemporary reality, the contemporary value of the great revolution of Marx’s concept of rationality is introduced. Specifically speaking, Marx’s concept of rationality can be used to solve practical problems from three aspects which are theoretical research on contemporary philosophy, solution for existence predicament of contemporary people and construction of Chinese socialist society at present.