A Study Of Engels' Ideological Thought In His Later Years

After Marx's death in 1883,Engels entered his later years.In Engels' s later years,Marxism won a great victory in guiding the workers' movement and became the target of bourgeois thinkers.Bourgeois ideologues interpret and misinterpret Marxism at will,regardless of Marx's original meaning.Therefore,Engels launched a systematic criticism of various schools of Classical German philosophy,Engels defended and developed Marxist theory about ideology in the process of criticism,which formed a series of works including Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of the German Classical Philosophy;The Origin of the Family,Private Property and the State,as well as the five letters about historical materialism.In these documents,Engels systematically discussed the relative independence of ideology,and believed that ideology could form a complex reaction to the economic base;Engels summarized the basic law of the reaction of ideology in the specific field and its overall historical law,deeply explores the way of combining ideology with ideological materials,and refutes the very fashionable "ideological theory of the supremacy of ideology" in the European workers' movement.Then,he deeply analyzed the causes and modes of action of ideology as "false consciousness",and holds that the generation and action of ideology are inseparable from its falsity.But in these two different links,the way of manifestation and the form of function of the falsity of ideology are different.Because of various complicated reasons,Marxist theory about ideology has been entangled with fuzziness for a long time.Engels' thought in his later years had done a lot of theoretical interpretation for the clarification and systemization of this theory.The most typical theoretical characteristics of Engels' thoughts about ideology problems in his later years are: defending,criticizing and constructing,and combining the three well.Engels never deviated from Marxism in terms of method,but comprehensively adhered to the tradition of Marxist theoretical criticism.On this basis,Engels constructed and developed the critical theory of Marxist ideology.Engels made further extensions to supplement the insufficient and undetailed parts of the ideas in the early years when Marx and Engels wrote together.Engels made a constructive supplement to the problems in the field of ideology that Marx intended to write books in his later years but failed to complete.Engels' thoughts in his later years countered the arguments of bourgeois ideologues' attack and distortion of historical materialism.Engels responded positively and defused the enemy's attack,defended and developed the Marxist theory of ideology,and pointed out the direction for the European workers' movement.Engels also provided valuable inspiration for the work in the field of ideology of contemporary China.Engels' thoughts in his later years help us maintain the guiding position of Marxism in the field of ideology and win the great victory of the struggle in the field of ideology in the new era.