Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.9, 2019

 

The Concept of Dasein: Historical Clues in Marx’s Early Situating of Thought

(Abstract)

 

Zhang Yibing

 

The crucial concept of Dasein (being there) in Heidegger’s ontology is actually the Dasein in the sense of “existence” of the philosophy of Kant and Hegel. In his early writings, the young Marx frequently used such concepts as Dasein (existence), gesellschaftliche Dasein (social existence), and Existenzweise (the mode of existence), but during the period 1845-1847, when historical materialism was formulated, he deliberately avoided using terms tinged with the hue of speculative philosophy, including gesellschaftliche Dasein, just as he no longer used the concepts of Entfremdung (alienation) and Gattungswesen (species-being). However, he made use of certain concrete historical realities in social life to represent the special qualities of historical materialism. It was not until 1848 that he returned to using the concepts of gesellschaftliche Dasein, Existenzweise, etc. in such economic manuscripts as The Communist Manifesto and Capital. One could say that it is not abstract social existence that determines social consciousness; rather, social existence regulates all human concepts. It is this that is the most important principle of historical materialism.