On The Theorical Relationship Between Marx And Epicurus

Lenin points out: “Marxism is the most excellent achievement that human has ever made in the 19 th century – a heir apparent of German philosophy, British political economy and the French socialism.” It should be admitted that Lenin’s viewpoints are insightful and far-reaching. As a matter of fact, Lenin’s analytic logic reversely deduced the “origin” of Marxism through the “components”. All the time, the origin of Marxist philosophy has been the focus of disputes in academic circle. For some time, domestic scholars basically came to an agreement that Marxist philosophy originated from “object activity” mentioned in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844. They stated that“object activity” was the authentic origin where Marx revealed his philosophical creation and the original modality of “practical” concepts. After studying earlier works of Marx,for example, Doctoral Dissertation and the preparatory works such as Berlin Notes and Epicurean PhilosophicalNotes, we can easily find that Marx had profound mastery of philosophy when he was young. Marx’s pondering over and knowledges of philosophy in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts in 1844 showed he had gone far from the“starting point”. Therefore, most domestic and foreign scholars engaged in the study of Marx at present, focus on more authentic “origin” of Marxist Philosophy so as to boost the studies on original Marxism and expand the dimension of Marxism.Based on ancient Greek philosophy and making use of the earlier important texts and documents of Marx, the paper made innovative studies of Marx’s previous philosophical thoughts, especially it’s origin of ancient Greek Epicurean Philosopy. The paper focuson the connections between Marx and Epicurus, the reasons that Marx choosed Epicurean philosophy when he was at his beginning spot of philosophical career, and how Epicurean philosophy was reflected in the later works of Marx. These studies have verified an important viewpoint: although Marx’s research interests constantly changed during his life time for various reasons, his “special preference” to Epicurus never faded. He always blended Epicurean philosophical elements into his important works. This paper opens a distinguishing perspective and length of Marxist Philosophy. Thus the richness and integrality of Marxist Philosophy are revealed.