Marxism And Humanism

The relationship between Marxism and humanism is an essential theoretical issue when one tries to understand Marxism. It has a long history, so it can be called an old problem, but this old problem has never been solved completely; there's argument all the time. Now, this problem is drawing significant attention again during the reforming and opening-up practice in China and needs solving in a brand-new theoretical way, thus it can also be called a new problem. The solution to this problem will help to understand the essence of the transformation of Marxist's philosophy and Marxism correctly, and guide practice with right theory.This paper generalizes the understanding of"humanism"in Marxism and introduces humanism as well as its historical development. The general concept of humanism falls into three basic theses: (1) human is human, which expresses what human is; (2) for human's sake, which shows the purpose of human activity; and (3) love for human—the basic opinion of the moral principle handling human's inter-relationship.This paper also recalls the relationship between Marxism and humanism. Before 1845, humanism, especially Feuerbachan humanism, had a deep influence upon Marx. Then in early 1845, Marx turned to criticize and transcend Feuerbach.The paper, hereafter, analyzes the three basic theses respectively and manages to reveal the distinctions between Marxism and humanism. The first is about the answer to what human is. Humanism comes up an abstract understanding—human is human and tries to understand the social history from the viewpoint of abstract human, whereas human in Marxists'understanding is real human, which constitutes Marxism's starting point. The second is about what the purpose of human activity is. Humanists think it is for human's sake, while Marxists think that since people live in different economic relations and have different interest pursuits, what they struggle for are all related to their interests. The third is about the moral principle of handling human's inter-relationship. Humanists think it should be love for human, but Marxists think moral concept is the embodiment of certain economic relations. Without such relations, the unilateral requirement of"love for human"is impossible.