Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2015

Critique of Political Economy: Pursuing the “Political and Philosophical Realization” of the Economy

(Abstract)

Zhang Xiong

Political economy is a branch of learning concerned with social wealth, and critiques of political economy are programs of philosophical critique that make political economy the subject of their reflection. Such critiques represent not only speculative political economy, but also a deeper inquiry into the theory of social existence. Their main point lies in pursuing the “political and philosophical realization” of the economy. In Marx’s words, “political economy” is “the anatomy of civil society,” and he made “A Critique of Political Economy” the subtitle of Capital. The reason critiques of political economy have a powerful action-oriented intellectual tradition is that they stress the interaction of the philosophical dimension, the political dimension and the dimension of historical values as they relate to the economy, thus shifting the unitary perspective of economic analysis to a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the ascendant academic resources of the philosophical and social sciences. Thus thinkers, theorists and politicians, besides examining the development of material production and the movement of social wealth, will attach great importance to pursuing historical progress and the liberation of mankind.