Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.10, 2019

 

The Interpretative Principles of Historical Materialism and their Concrete Application

(Abstract)

 

Wu Xiaoming

 

The interpretative principles of historical materialism represent an unprecedented transfer of the essential nature of society’s historical process from the realms of thought, concept, and spirit to the field of real life, and thus reveal the dominance of the conceptual world as an ideological mythology. Moreover, the interpretative principle of historical materialism draws simultaneously on true sociality and historicity, for it simply cannot pass through the vast realm of social history and form a true view of materialism without a philosophical grasp of sociality and historicity. This shows the essential characteristics of the interpretative principle of historical materialism and its substantive connection with Hegelian philosophy. However, to a large extent the widespread influence of historical materialism still remains as the superficies of a principle or axiom, even for many of its supporters. The crucial point here is the concrete application of the dialectical aspect of the interpretative principle. The interpretative principle of historical materialism cannot for an instant be separated from its concrete application, an application that means studying and grasping the self-acting character of a given society. This essential nature not only positively inspires the construction of the academic system, disciplinary system, and discourse system for philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, but will also produce a strong and lasting impetus.