A Study Of Engels’ Historical Materialism In His Later Letters

Since the party’ s 18th National Congress,Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that he must read Marxist classics,really establish a Marxist world outlook,and learn to think dialectically and historically.Marxist classics exude everlasting ideological charm.Reading classics,using classics,and studying classics are required lessons to improve the theoretical level and ability to work.Engels’ letter on historical materialism in his later years was an important classic of Marxism.They have important guiding significance for correctly understanding the nature,characteristics and ideological contents of historical materialism,for criticizing various non-Marxist ideological trends,and for scientifically using historical materialism to analyze social issues.But for a long time there has been much controversy over Engels’ historical materialism in his later letters.The most important issue is four.Is historical materialism an economic determinism?Is ideology sometimes decisive?Is the historical resultant theory correct?How to understand the relationship between the unity,inevitability,diversity,and chance of social development roads?This paper focuses on the above four issues and studies Engels’ historical materialism in his later letters.The first part defines Engels’s later years and reviews the writing background of Engels’ later letters,and systematically compiles the relevant expositions of Engels’s historical materialism in his major works from 1845 to 1886.This is of great significance for understanding and contrasting historical materialism in the letters of late years and understanding the consistency of their thoughts.The second part is the key point of this article.It analyzes the main content of Engels’ letter in his later years,including the nature of historical materialism;the decisive factors of historical process;the counteraction of superstructure and ideology;the problem of historical resultant theory and historical development.By reading and analyzing Engels’s letter in his later years,this article believes that Marxism should be recognized as an economic determinism in the overall sense(in the sense of "in the final analysis").It can neither be regarded as a direct determinism nor a comprehensive decision.Engels’s historical resultant theory is to illustrate that history is not a product of the subjective will of any individual,but a historical movement in which everyone participates,but Engels’ historical resultant theory cannot be understood mechanically.Regarding the problem of ideological reaction,we should attach importance to the role of ideology and culture,but we cannot think that ideology has a decisive role,like Western Marxists do.The last part of this article summarizes the theoretical and practical significance of Engels’s historical materialism in his later letters.We believe that Engels’ late letter includes his original understanding of historical materialism and is an important stage in the history of Marx’s theory development.It is also an important material for us to study historical materialism and improve the theoretical level.At the same time,Engels’ thoughts still have insight into reality.Since the reform and opening up,various western thoughts have had a significant impact on our academic community.They differ from us in their interpretation of Marxism and their analysis of reality.For example,Western Marxist theory of cultural hegemony,critical theory of culture,and contemporary popular theory of cultural soft power have all played a role in culture.In this regard,we must analyze Marxist positions.It is necessary to strengthen the Marxist view that economy is the foundation and is the decisive factor in the final analysis.It is not a barrier to the specific role of culture under special conditions,and it is sliding toward cultural determinism.