Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2019

 

Marx on the Essence of Freedom of Ownership and Self-alienation

(Abstract)

 

Xiao Shimei and Xiao Chao

 

An examination of the sources and premises of Marx’s theory of ownership allows us to see, amid his denunciation of ownership, another side of his ownership theory; that is, his full affirmation and vigorous pursuit of the essential character of ownership. This gives Marx’s ownership theory the dual character of pursuing freedom and rejecting alienation. This dialectical and historical concept of ownership is not only different from the uncritical bourgeois concept of ownership, but also from the radical socialist proposal of rejecting all ownership. Although the dialectical and historical theory of ownership is undoubtedly a critical one, it does not simply reject all ownership; it merely critiques and rejects the alienation of ownership in order to realize the essential freedom of ownership.