Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2015

Enlightenment Reason and Modernity: The Critical Reconstruction of Marx

(Abstract)

Liu Tongfang

Rethinking and critique of enlightenment reason are an indispensable part of enlightenment, an important force enabling modern humans to balance enlightenment myths and the crisis of modernity, and a major theoretical topic in the development of political philosophy in a global era. We should grasp and examine the rethinking and critique of enlightenment reason externally from the perspective of the development of social history and internally from the perspective of intellectual history; affirm the achievements of enlightenment reason and modernity; face up to its inner contradictions; reveal the social crisis it brought about; tease out, reflect on and learn from post-modernity’s negative critique of enlightenment reason and modernity; and make this the route to a solution to the crises of enlightenment reason and modernity. Marx transformed the critique of enlightenment and modernity into a critical reconstruction of the logic of capital and the capitalist production mode, transforming the conquest of the ills of enlightenment reason and modernity into the transcendence of private ownership under capitalism, raising the issue of enlightenment reason to the commanding heights and finding the direction and path for modern society’s elevation to a higher form.