The Philosophical Implication Of Marx's Thoughts On Happiness

The problem of happiness is important in philosophical ethics. Social development and progress of human being have in their every phase cited happiness as what needs to be pursued. As Engels has revealed,"In everyone's awareness and emotions, principles are as bases in function, and are results of the whole historical development of society, which is self-evident". And one of the principles is"Everyone is pursuing happiness". However, the concept of happiness is not clear and hard for people to explain in simple words. In the history of human thoughts, people define happiness in various ways. From different definitions of happiness, I choose two for analysis: one that happiness is psychological needs and major joy in life. This view has not differentiated joy from happiness and sees only quantity difference between the two. There are differences in terms of time and extension, and joy is often an outer look of happiness. As analyzed by rational people, happiness is made up with joys but higher. Another view is that happiness is what defined by morale, and more like virtues. Morals are an important aspect of social value system that influences people's values. Happiness is after all not morals, which are social standards on values and behavioral rules that constrains people's pursue of happiness through their bounding mechanism. It is instrumental with aims, but the aimed morals are not all of happiness.Marx analyzed from his basic view of historical materialism the nature of human being and social life. He believes that happiness is not the fulfillment of flesh wills, neither is the pure rational calculation for basic surviving. It is rooted in human being's real life world, in which through creative activities human being gets rid of alienation of labor and human essence and pursue happiness. Therefore, happiness is in social life and spread throughout human nature in a free style manner. It is not only the fulfillment of social needs, but also the ultimate ends for any human being.In traditional philosophy, happiness is explained and pursued outside of human nature, which means a state of alienation. Rationalists look up happiness in deep human souls and emphasize spiritual completeness. They do not care for material fulfillment and believe that rationality is the essential difference between human being and animals. Rationality is used for obtaining happiness and by nature, while others see happiness as the fulfillment of natural needs and the avoidance of misery. Christianity pursues happiness in other worlds, the subject of happiness changes from human being to God. Western irrationalists saw the limits of rationalists that happiness is not the results of logics, neither is the human being manipulated by rationality. This view goes to another extreme, in which the subject is abstract from the whole and individuals are nothing but a series of psychological events. Marx was aware of all of the above conflicts and turned to society for human nature and then freedom and happiness. Horizoned by life world, happiness is revealed in social developments and human practice.From early works by Marx, we see the path from spiritual happiness to social happiness, in which human beings are liberated. In his argument on free thoughts, Marx manifests his view on happiness. From doctorate dissertation to the criticism of Hegel's Law Philosophy, Marx's theory goes to maturity. In it, Marx criticized the German social life and mistakes of the Youthful Hegel School , and said that the religion shall be cleared for happiness in real life, and we should pursue happiness in social relationships.In Economic and Philosophyc Manuscripts of 1844, Marx explained the exploitation by capitalists in his analysis of alienation, in which people lose happiness of their own. To act as a human being, private ownership and the capitalist society should be abolished. In The German Ideology, Marx cites emotions as a basic way of life, and history as the real social life development in time. He also cites characterized individual and real collectives as an extreme possibility and best state of human being's happiness. While Marx believes human beings in real life are inhuman and criticized the world, the communist theories believes that the secret is the all around development of human being and pursuit of happiness.Based on overall understanding of Marx's historical view and his philosophy, we can see that the philosophy of Marx starts from real life world. He did not address problems in abstract spiritual worlds, nor in the way of mechanism of nature or absolute spirit to define human being's freedom. Meanwhile, Marx weighted on social reality and human history as the base of human happiness. Happiness is developed through practice and human creative activity. Real happiness is definitely not the flesh fulfillment of needs or fulfillment of pure minds, but a complete state of life and labor achievements towards the state. Therefore, Marx's thoughts on happiness cares for real life world and practices in it. His theory is completed in his arguments on human nature, human freedom and liberation, and in it, happiness will be accomplished in a communist society.Marx's thoughts on happiness are a revelation on modern human being. In modern times, science and technology help human being to control the nature and benefits from nature. However, human being has not obtained happiness in its triumph over nature and is misguided to a way of endless exploitation of natural resources. The real happiness is forgotten, anxiety and fear has widely felt by modern human. This is the new alienation of happiness. In summary, it comes to the following: technology has become the ruler on human being, people are supposedly pursue happiness through technology but find it as an end; the technological alienation means the spiritual alienation, technology becomes an ideology and people get lost in it. How can we be rid of alienation through our practice? How is real happiness pursued in reflection on real life? In Marx's view, we need to start from a real individual in real historical context and re-make environment and human being through free and creative efforts. Therefore, a scientific understanding of Marx's thoughts on happiness is not only way to explain Marx philosophy's historical importance and revolution, but also an understanding of modern life and an education of happiness for the young. It will not only helps to turn the over-emphasized subjectivity to real subjectivity, but also pull human being back from postmodern value void to a concern on real life.To summarize, a deeper reading on Marx's thoughts on happiness, not only helps us to understand happiness in terms of human nature and its ultimate meaning, but also provides us with a real way to happiness. Marx's thoughts on happiness are enriched with humanity and proved to be valuable in the contemporary and sustainable in life.