The ideas of Marxism played an extremely important role in the European and world history of the XIX-XX centuries. Their influence on the socio-economic and spiritual life of the world, thoroughly undermined by the end of the XX century, cannot be denied even now. The current crisis of civilization has quite clearly highlighted the meaning of human history. This meaning is in the humanization of man, human relations, in the endless unfolding of human essence arising from people’s relationship with nature and each other. Marx’s philosophy is extremely modern because it is extremely humanistic and aimed at the man. Therefore, it is important to determine why the Marxist political economy is not a traditional economy but an independent philosophical branch of political economy.
In the middle of the XIX century, one of the most interesting trends of economic thought emerged – Marxism. The founder of this doctrine is the German economist and philosopher Karl Marx, with the direct participation of his friend and colleague Friedrich Engels. Marxism arises based on a critical revision of the achievements of classical German philosophy, English political economy, and French utopian socialism. Dialectical and historical materialism, political economy, and scientific communism are integral, internally interconnected parts of Marxism (Kirkpatrick et al., 2022).
The creation of Marxism was a genuine revolution in the history of human thought. Unlike previous social theories, Marxism scientifically explained the world and defined the conditions, ways, and means of its transformation, the merit of Marxism, first of all, is that it established the determining role of material factors in the life of society, singled out production relations as the economic basis of society, on which political, legal, ideological and other superstructures rise.
Research work on the above topic and its results may be of interest primarily to students of the polytechnic, economic, and philosophical faculties. Moreover, although there are many studies and scientific articles on a given topic, it will be useful to collect all the data and consider the problem from a different angle. Consequently, the research results make a broad contribution to expanding the knowledge base and the scientific progress of the subject area.
The main argument that Marx’s ideas relate to philosophy is that his propositions relate to man and his essence. Social injustice and ways to overcome it, to build a just society – these problems have been the focus of attention of thinkers and philosophers since ancient times. In Modern times, one after another, there are works specifically devoted to transforming society on socialist principles – the theory of utopian socialism. They enter Marxism as one of its three sources, along with the bourgeois political economy. Marx’s philosophical anthropology and social philosophy were formed in connection with an adequate interpretation of the practical activity of people, which is based on changing the form of what is given by nature.
In essence, the entire teaching of Marx, taken from a philosophical aspect, is a philosophy of human life, growing out of an understanding of people’s practical activity as the production and reproduction of their immediate life. Describing the long historical perspective of human development, Marx wrote: “If we discard the limited bourgeois form, what else is wealth but the universality of the needs, abilities, means of consumption, productive forces, etc. of individuals created by universal exchange?
What else is wealth but the absolute revelation of a person’s creative talents, without any other prerequisites than the previous historic development, which makes this integrity of development an end in itself, that is, the development of all human forces as such, regardless of any predetermined scale” (Xiaoping, 2022). Ultimately, the driving force of human and social development is the needs, and their various modifications generated by the totality of social relations. Only a person’s education will be successful, aiming at forming needs and equipping them with knowledge.
The essence of man, according to Marx, is formed in the relation of man to man and the relation of man to nature. Feuerbach’s brilliant ideas are being developed in connection with the discovery of the defining role of work and practice concerning society and man. The generic essence of a person as labor appears as a generic life, realizing the potential of human nature, a specific natural-social substrate. The generic life of a person turns out to be both substantial and relational. The analysis of the commodity as an intermediary in human relations, as a symbol embodying social meaning in the substratum-corporeal being, validly confirms the truth and justice of Marx’s philosophical anthropology.
Marx’s philosophy is based on the interpretation of social life as practical. This is the philosophy of human existence as an act. Its ontological aspect is the interpretation of reality as given to a person in the form of practical activity. This is an ontology of the incomplete human world and the man himself. The source of the ontological picture is in man and his practice. Therefore, Marx’s philosophy is both theoretical and axiological simultaneously. It closes on existential problems, the solution based on the practically grounded principle of materiality and the principle of development. They are derived from analyzing the interaction of subject and object, goal-setting, and goal-fulfilling activities.
In conclusion, Marx’s philosophy aims at the search for truth and meaning in the social liberation of man. This philosophy is the unity of social and humanitarian knowledge, for example, knowledge about the objective side of the functioning and development of society, knowledge about the subjective side, about the world of social and human subjectivity. This philosophy synthesizes cognitive and evaluative, theoretical and extra–theoretical knowledge.
References
Kirkpatrick, G., McMylor, P., & Fadaee, S. (2022). ‘Rethinking Marxism and religion for an emancipatory future’. In Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics, 1-16. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Web.
Xiaoping, W. (2022). ‘The logic of Marx’s view of emancipation’. In Karl Marx on Socialist Theory and Practice, 119-157. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Web.