Thinking Mode Of Practical Viewpoints

There have been disputes over the essence of the revolutionary reform of Marxist Philosophy in the academic community and different scholars give their different opinions. The attention was focused upon the viewpoint that"the meaning of philosophy lies in that of the thinking mode and the essence of the reform of Marxist Philosophy lies in the establishment of the thinking mode of practical ideas"presented by Professor Gao Qinghai of Jilin University, famous philosopher in Chinese domestic academic community in 1980s. The viewpoint provides a new theoretical angle and rethinking path for people to re-understand and grasp the essence of Marxist Philosophy, persist in and develop Marxism. Taking the relations between Marxist Philosophy and Feuerbach's Philosophy as the study object, this paper, using such a viewpoint of Professor Gao Qinghai, re-interprets and re-analyzes their relations on the one hand and re-explains such a viewpoint on the other one.We think that the theoretical meaning of philosophy as a theory of world view is mainly represented in the meaning of thinking mode, and the history of philosophy, in fact, is the changing of thinking mode. A philosophy, occurring as a new theory of world view different from that in the past, has its fundamental meaning lying in providing people with a visual angle of observing the things in the world different from those of other philosophies, that is, a new understanding mode of the world. The division of philosophical schools is rooted in it; the value of philosophical theories and the reform of philosophical views are also represented in it. As the outstanding representative of German classical philosophy and the highest form of development of materialism at that time, Feuerbach's greatest contribution to philosophy does not lie in the determination of the general principles of materialism that people generally think but provide people with a thinking mode of"humanism"that analyzes and resolves problems from human beings.In 1940s when Feuerbach came to the stage of philosophy, the traditional philosophy with a history of over 2000 years has developed to such a situation: influenced by the thinking mode of"ontology", no matter what is atomism, idealism, empiricism, rationalism, subjective philosophy or objective philosophy, which cannot resolve the problems of dialectical unity of thinking and being as well as spirit and material. Philosophers study the two different aspects respectively, but cannot truly unify them, of which each proposition is established on the premise of denying the other. In arguing a proposition, the other must be denied. All the old ideas of materialism emphasize the originality of natural materials and all the ideas of idealism emphasize the initiative of subjective awareness. The activity of subjective awareness cannot be explained from the natural world; the materiality of natural world cannot be explained from the human world. These two worlds contradict each other and cannot be unified. This is the contradiction that the philosophy at that time focused on. Feuerbach realized such a point very clearly. He thinks that it must be started from human beings to resolve such a problem because only human beings have the characteristics of unifying thinking and being as well as spirit and material. Only the relations between thinking and being as well as spirit and material are explained from the starting of human beings can it be meaningful. Feuerbach is the first person to relate human beings to the basic problems of philosophy. Starting from human beings to think over and resolve the basic problems of philosophy, Feuerbach's philosophy gives the correct research direction for the development of the future philosophy.However, Feuerbach can only be said to the subverter of the traditional philosophy but not the terminator. Because he thinks human beings only as the"perceptual being"but not as"perceptual activity", so the"human beings"he provides for us cannot produce the predicted effects. He began this revolution but did not finish it. Other persons will finally take the step that Feuerbach did not take. The worship for the abstract human being must be replaced by the science on the realistic human being and its historical development. Such work is completed by Marx.We think that the profound mystery of philosophy lies in human being's secret in practice. The fundamental reason that the traditional philosophies including Feuerbach's philosophy cannot scientifically resolve the basic problems of philosophy lies in that they cannot find the basis of truly unifying thinking and being as well as material and spirit. In fact, the root for contradiction of thinking and being as well as spirit and material is the basis of realizing the unity of both of them, which is the human production and practice. Because they know nothing about the meanings of practice and revolution, all the old ideas of materialism grasp the materiality of practical activity, one-sidedly emphasize the originality of material in the world and neglect the initiative of human practical activity. The result is"no material in the heart". As a matter of fact,"all those mysteries leading theories to the mysterious aspects can be rationally resolved in human practice and explanation to the practice". It is starting from practice to resolve all the philosophical problems that Marx thoroughly gets rid of his own"previous philosophical belief"and finally completes the surpassing of Feuerbach's philosophy.First, Marx regards the human being of perceptual activities as the starting point of his own philosophy, thus completing the surpassing of the logic starting point of Feuerbach's philosophy. The logic starting point of philosophy is the basic standing point and starting point of philosophers observing, explaining and resolving various problems. The choice of a field as the logic starting point, to some extent, reflects a philosopher's viewpoints on things and the different thinking modes of philosophers. The pre-Feuerbach philosophy provides people with the logic starting point of"ultimate being"and thinking mode of"ontology"; Feuerbach's philosophy provides people with the logic starting point of"perceptual being"of human beings and thinking mode of"humanism"; Marxist philosophy provides people with the logic starting point of"perceptual activities"of human beings and thinking mode of"practical viewpoints".Second, the comprehensive study of living world of capitalist society is made to present the alienation theory of labor. Starting from the perceptual activities of human beings, Marx comprehensively analyzes the social material producing activities in the capitalist system, thinking that the perceptual activity that people carry out in the capitalist system is an alienation one. The products made by workers cannot become their own objects of consumption but become their own"God"and human labor thoroughly become alien, and moreover the"alienation theory of labor". The theory seems to be the upgrading of a thought level, compared to Feuerbach's theory of"religious alienation", that is, Marx involves in the field of material production that Feuerbach is not engaged in and it is the big leap of thinking mode in the deep level. Feuerbach's religious alienation is, in fact, the human spiritual alienation and is ultimately an evolution of thoughts, reflecting the intuitive thinking. Marxist theory of labor alienation is, in fact, the alienation of practical activities, reflecting a practical thinking. The presentation of the theory of labor alienation marks that the visual angle of research on Marxist theory finally goes out of the mistake of"thinking test"of the traditional philosophy and truly comes to the human living world.Finally, Marx defines his own philosophy as the one of"changing the world", marking the ultimate completion of Marxism beyond Feuerbach's philosophy. If people understand"explaining the world"and"changing the world"only from the perspective of functions and roles of philosophy, it is said that the scientific connotation of the Marxist idea that"philosophers only use the different modes to explain the world but the problem lies in changing the world". Therefore, viewed from this sense, the philosophy of"explaining the world"and the one of"changing the world"do not exist. Any philosophy is necessary to have the two properties and functions of"explaining the world"and"changing the world". All the old philosophies can be the ones of"explaining the world", but it exists the strong impulse of"changing the world"contained in their ideas. Marxist philosophy is the one of"changing the world, but it must also take"changing the world"as the premise; otherwise, nothing can be talked about"changing the world". In fact, from the philosophy of"explaining the world"to the one of"changing the world", the profound reform of explaining principles and significant transfer of thinking mode are understood in the deep level. The philosophy of"changing the world"reflects how to find a true and absolute"identity"under the world of phenomena and explain the thinking mode of"ontology"of the kaleidoscopic world of phenomena, starting from the true"identity". The philosophy of"changing the world"reflects the starting from the interactions of human beings and nature, subjects and objects as well as subjectivity and objectivity in the realistic activities and depending on the uniform relations of original being and surpassing form in the realistic activities, that is, the thinking mode of "practical viewpoints"starting from practice to observe various things, understand the real world and answer the twofold contradictions.The determination of the thinking mode of"practical viewpoints"makes Marx find the road from the abstract human being to the concrete human being, disclosing the true root for the world to become the imaginary world and the real world in two folds, pointing out the realistic methods to rationally resolve all the theoretical contradictions, realizing the dialectical unity of essence and phenomenon, content and form, freedom and necessity, subjectivity and objectivity, materialism and dialectic as well as natural outlook and historical outlook, completing the comprehensive surpassing of Feuerbach's philosophy, terminating the effectiveness of the traditional philosophy and starting the epoch of the modern philosophy.