Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 4, 2023

 

A Historical Meditation on the Marxist Philosophical System

(Abstract)

 

Yang Geng

 

The philosophical system of Soviet Marxism-the dichotomy of dialectical and historical materialism-initially took shape in Finger et al.’s Dialectical and Historical Materialism and was basically formed in Mitin et al.’s Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism. Among other theoreticians, Frolov sought to construct a Soviet-style humanistic Marxist philosophical system in his Introduction to Philosophy. Lukács strove to reconstruct materialist dialectics with “totality” as its fundamental principle; Habermas tried to reconstruct historical materialism with “social interaction” as its central axis; Yugoslavia’s dialectical materialism school attempted to construct a Marxist philosophical system in which science and humanism were united; and Kosin, of East Germany, tried to construct a Marxist system in which dialectical materialism and historical materialism were “integrated” based on a practical perspective. In China, Li Da’s Outline of Sociology contains Chinese scholars’ unique understanding of the Marxist philosophical system and puts forward the proposition of “regarding materialistic dialectics as practical materialism”; Ai Siqi’s Dialectical Materialism, Historical Materialism constructs a dialectical and historical materialism system with “Chinese connotations”; The Relationship between Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism by Liu Danyan and Gao Qinghai opens a new exploration of the Marxist philosophical system by Chinese scholars; and Xiao Qian’s Principles of Marxist Philosophy attempts to reconstruct the Marxist philosophical system using a practical viewpoint as the theoretical basis and constructive principle.