Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 10, 2023

Exploring Marx’s Establishment of Historical Materialism from the Genetic Perspective

(Abstract)

Yang Hongyuan

Based on new research and literature discovered in recent years, re-examining the intellectual course of how Marx established historical materialism from the genetic perspective is conducive to highlighting the fundamental reformative significance of Marxist philosophy. The early Hegelian school serves as an important frame of reference for Marx to develop his early thought. “Restoring” the three intellectual polemics between the two sides depicts the formation of historical materialism. In his continuous controversy with Powell on the “Jewish question,” Marx initially established the theory of human emancipation and the view of mass history in which the masses were the main actors in history. At the time, Marx took the stand of realistic humanism. In his polemics with the dialectical idealism represented by Powell and his associates, Marx preliminarily investigated the history of materialism and took the individual as the starting point of his research. Subsequently, he once again criticized the new views of the main supporters of early Hegelian thought and explicitly interpreted the dynamic mechanism of society and history, the relationship between the individual and the community, the transformation of history into world history, the consequences and prospects of the division of labor, and the materialist basis of communism. This move completed the creation of historical materialism.