Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.8, 2015

Cutting into Reality: Marx’s Critique and Transcendence of Early German Romanticism

(Abstract)

Liu Senlin

In studying the historical development of Marx’s philosophy and views, we should consider the influence that early German romanticism exerted on his thought. Marx’s philosophy is clearly evident in his view of the philosophical reality of his inheritance, critique and transcendence of early German romanticism. On the basis of early German romanticism’s valuing of individuality and particularity and consequent highlighting of immediate reality, Marx employed a scientific method to grasp a higher essential reality, thus arriving at the unity of immediate reality and essential reality. From the perspective of the latter, the critique of capitalism in romantic irony was an external critique that could truly grasp and improve reality only after it was raised to the level of an internal critique. Marx further revealed the social and economic foundations of modern nihilism in relation to the problematic nihilist tendency arising from early German romanticism’s critique of modern society. While early German romanticism stressed the importance of the local and national character that was becoming increasingly marginalized in modernization, Marx included them in a global field of vision and viewed them in terms of a broader and more fundamental reality, stopping them from going to extremes. In rethinking the questions it raised, Marx completed his critique and transcendence of early German romanticism, thus constructing a rational philosophical view of reality.