Civil Society's Criticism And The Transcendence Of Modernity's Dilemma

There is a heated discussion on Modernity in academic arena around end of 20 th century.It becomes a popular academic topic since then and still captures lots of attention.Reflection and Criticism on Modernity issues started from the very beginning of modern society,as the pioneer theorists,Marx conduct a diagnostic analysis on Modernity based upon his capitalism criticism.Different from the other modern critics who hold the single criticism,Marx holds an “anti-modernity of modernity” dialectical stance in the reflection and criticism of modernity.On the basis of inheriting the Value Norms of Enlightenment Modernity,Marx reveals the inherent contradictions of modern capitalist society from the unique path of civil society critics.And based on it,he abandons and surpasses the capitalist modernity to explore a realistic path.Thus he could overcome and transcend the plight of modernity of capitalism.Inheriting Hegel's critique of modernity in part,Marx realizes the inherent “split” issue of modernity and sets a final goal to achieve a comprehensive “reconciliation” of human relations.But it is fundamentally different from Hegel that Marx believes the root of modernity lies in the inherent contradiction of civil society.The only way to move out of the plight of modernity is to go deep into the civil society,to examine its basic principles and operational mechanism and to reveal its inherent contradictions.Therefore,Marx has developed a new modern criticism method of a civil society criticism.In the critique and reflection of modernity,to expose the deep plight of modern people,Marx changes the traditional way of thinking in the history of philosophy to achieve the transformation from the “substantive way of thinking” to “relational thinking mode”.Marx believes that the essence of man is the sum of all social relations.So he examines and reflects on the living conditions of modern people from the perspective of human and social relations.Civil society is the most fundamental manifestation of the social relations between man and man in modern society.Marx's criticism of modernity based on criticism of civil society has always been carried out around the social relations between people.In Marx's view,individuals in the civil society follow the principle of selfishness,civil society becomes a private battlefield,which will inevitably lead to civil society “self-split” contradictions,highlighting the separation,split and confrontation of the people,individuals and the community.Marx is keenly aware t hat the self-division of civil society will eventually lead to a confrontational conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.Civil society itself is a place for class antagonism,thus it is directly with the political.The class division and the conflict of interest within the civil society are bound to be brought into law and the state,so that the law and the modern state lose justice and neutrality.Marx is soberly aware that the internal division of civil society hides a power relationship that the minority rule the majority.Therefore,when discussing the internal division of civil society,the focus is on the issue of class division and class struggle.Marx analyzes the mechanism of self-division of civil society in-depth,believing that class division and class antagonism in the capitalist society is the inevitable result of self-division of civil society.Meanwhile,in the private ownership of modern civil society,this is the inevitable result of the capital principle-oriented market mechanism and social relations.With the deepening of civil society criticism,Marx realizes that it is necessary to criticize it politically and economically in order to reveal the secrets of civil society fundamentally.Through the critique of the political economy of the capitalist mode of production,Marx reveals the essence of capitalist fetishism,commodity fetishism,money fetishism and capital fetishism,that is,the relationship between things and objects shrouded and reversed the truth between people social relationship.The modern society under the patriarchal rule is fundamentally a “first and foremost” world in which the individual is dominated by abstract power and thus in an alienated state of existence,which also constitutes the deepest dilemma of modernity.Marx further points out that there are two principles which play a fundamental role in modern civil society: “capital” and “reason”.It is the rational metaphysics and capital of the internal “marriage” constitutes a deep logic of modernity.And capital plays a fundamental role in becoming a fundamental pillar of modern capitalist society.The logic of infinite proliferation of capital makes the capital “dominant” position,this non-human abstract power to create a huge material wealth and dominate the nature,society and people.Capital has the essence of metaphysics.Capital logic is an essentially “identity” logic,it ignores,denies and suppresses the “other”.In the capital logic “identity” under the control of the power,it has the difference.The diversity of the world is a flattened,homogeneous world.Marx criticizes the political economy of civil society and modernity,exposing the alienation and survival of individuals in modern civil society by abstract rule,and points out the direction for the future abandonment and surpasses the modernity of civil society.Marx exposes the future path of modern predicament from the height of the historical form of human existence,that is,“human society” or “socialized human”.For this future social form,on the one hand,Marx will be understood as the abandonment of the internal division of the civil society from the existential form,based on the reconstruction of the real ethical community of life.O n the other hand,it is understood that on the basis of discarding the private property,the realization of the capital logic and rational metaphysics of the double collapse and subversion.Thus it breaks the abstraction of the rule of man,and then creates social conditions conducive to the free and comprehensive development of each person.Marx is exploring the path that transcends the inner dilemma of capitalist modernity for his whole life.Its reflection and criticism of the capitalism modernity have an important practical significance in our moder n society,which needs our further excavation and interpretation.At the same time,under the guidance of Marx's critical thinking of modernity,we will continue to promote the revolution of modern society,to abandon the factors that make people alienated in social production and life,to revolute social relations that are incompatible with the free and comprehensive development of human beings,to pursue and create a more humanistic social life.