Research On Marx's Concept Of Civil Society

The concept of civil society is a vital clue to the development of Marx's theory.However,the indiscriminate uses of this concept in previous studies ignored the historical changes in its meaning.This thesis will indicate that Marx's philosophy is in accordance with the historical connotation and logic of the development of the real world by studying the historical origin of the concept of Marx's civil society,the similarities and differences between Marx and Hegel's comprehension of this concept,why the concept of Marx's civil society is a concrete process,and the historical reasons for the transformation of the connotation of this concept.What's more,reality-oriented criticism is the most profound quality of Marx's theory.Marx's concept of civil society is essentially a critical inheritance of Hegel's philosophy,and stems from the concept of civil society in the economic and social sense represented by Ferguson and Smith.This is qualitatively different from ancient concept of civil society.The ancient civil society is a community form dominated by ethical entities and controlled by political life.The modern concept of civil society is composed of two genealogies: one is the pedigree with Hobbes,Locke,Kant and others as representatives to emphasize the political and moral attributes of civil society;the other is the pedigree with Ferguson,Smith and others as representatives to lay stress on the economic attributes of civil society.Hegel's Comprehensive German Idealism and Classical Political Economy in England clearly points out the disjunction between the civil society and the state,and puts forward the way to solve the contradictions of civil society with the spirit of national ethics.All these provide the basis for the concept of Marx's civil society.The concept of Marx's civil society is a concrete process in the light of realistic history.Marx affirmed that Hegel indicated the contradiction between the state and civil society in the right way,but his solution was superficial formalism.Therefore,in accordance with Feuerbach's principle of subject-predicate reversal,Marx criticized it.In pace with the deepening of criticism,Marx pointed out the limits of politicalemancipation,then proposed the necessity of human emancipation,and paid attention to the revolutionary nature of the non-civil society class of civil society,that is,the proletariat.After analyzing Classical Political Economy in England,Marx realized that the historical transformation from workshop handicraft industry to mechanical industry went deep into the internal structure of civil society,so he defined the concept of civil society from production,division of labor,exchange and other factors,and marked that the concept of civil society has changed from the exchange of simple goods to the dominant relationship between capital and exploitation.On this basis,with an eye to realistic criticism,Marx consciously represented the concept of civil society more precisely as the concept of capitalist society,which revealed the internal structure of capitalist society.In addition,Marx also transformed the criticism of abstract reason in Hegel's philosophy into the criticism of abstract existence,and revealed the hidden relationship between people from the relationship between things,thus pointing out the realistic way to transform the independence and personality of capital into the human emancipation of human independence and personality.This development from ethical and moral criticism to objective historical criticism indicates that the concept of Marx's civil society is from abstract to concrete enrichment process.Therefore,the concept of Marx's civil society is a critical and logical process.The starting point of history makes up the starting point of Marx's theoretical thinking,and the criticism based on realistic history has become the conscious quality of the development of Marx's theory.This makes Marx transform Hegel's criticism of abstract ration into criticism of abstract existence,from ideological negation to realistic negation,thus truly realizing the positive comprehension of all existing things and comprising negative understanding at the same time,that is,the understanding of the inevitable demise of existing things.This critical logic in accordance with reality and theoretical interest dedicated to human emancipation enable Marx to surpass other contemporaries and become a great thinker.