Research On Engels’ Thought Of Human Civilization

The thought of Human Civilization exists as a grand narrative in the Marxist theoretical system,which runs through the research of Marx and Engels and answers the fundamental question of where human beings come from and where they go,from the field of philosophy and social sciences.The Origin of Family,Private Ownership and State plays an important role in Marxist civilization thought.In the process of creating Historical Materialism,Marx and Engels always paid attention to the development of Human Civilization thought.In important works such as Critical Outline of National Economics,Manifesto of the Communist Party,German Ideology and Anti-Duhring,Marx and Engels investigated the civilization form of human society from low-level to high-level,explained the rich content of human civilization,and laid the basic method of studying human civilization,which laid an ideological foundation for the study of the driving force of the development of human civilization,the evolution form of human civilization and the evaluation standard of human civilization in The Origin of Family,Private Ownership and State.In The Origin of Family,Private Ownership and State(including the preface to the fourth edition in 1891),Engels critically absorbed the theoretical achievements of the British prehistoric school on the study of family history,drew lessons from Morgan’s reasonable views on the development of social history and its stages,and systematically expounded the driving force of the development of human civilization with the help of Marx’s basic thought in Louis Heng Morgan’s Abstract of Ancient Society.Engels believed that "in the final analysis,the decisive factor in history is the production and reproduction of direct life".Material production labor is the fundamental driving force for the origin and development of human civilization.The social division of labor formed in material production labor is the symbol of the progress of human civilization,and communication is the only way for human civilization to prosper.Civilization is a historical category.It is not born accomplished,nor does it run through the history of human existence and development in an established form,but step by step.Every step forward of human civilization contains the development of the production of means of living,social relations,family form,social organization form and ownership system in a certain period.The means of living,social organization form and ownership system in different stages of civilization show different characteristics.To evaluate the progress of human civilization,we should not only investigate from the dimensions of the development of social productive forces,the transformation of production relations,the interaction and symbiosis between man and nature and the realization of human rights,but also compare the contribution of the later stage to the previous stage in different historical periods.The Origin of Family,Private Ownership and State plays an important role in the development history of Marxism.It puts forward the "two kinds of production theory",the theory of class origin and the essence of the state,which perfects the Marxist theory of class struggle.At the same time,the thought of civilization communication contained in The Origin of Family,Private Ownership and State provides an ideological weapon for us to advocate civilization exchange and mutual learning,oppose the conflict between civilizations and oppose hegemonism.The process of Engels writing this book also provides useful enlightenment for China to promote theoretical innovation at this stage.