The Study Of Marx’s Concept Of "Social Relations"

"Social relations" is one of the most common concepts in Marx’s philosophy;however,it is also a concept that lacks specialized and systematic exploration.In fact,this concept plays a key role in the formation,application,development of Marxist philosophy,and even in the philosophical changes that Marx achieved,it is at the core.At the same time,the ideas contained in this concept also have important implications and guiding significance for overcoming the predicament of modernity.Therefore,it is extremely necessary to conduct a comprehensive and thorough study of Marx’s concept of social relations.When Marx graduated from University,he had an idealistic world view,then the problem of material interest relationship has shaken his world view,and prompted him to turn to materialism,thus it provides the most basic precondition for the establishment of historical materialism.After upgrading the material life relationship to the "social relations",Marx clearly viewed the problem of human liberation from the perspective of "social relations".In the outline of Marx’s new world view that he first drafted,"social relations" is taken as the core goal,and "practice" is the real weapon to realize this goal.For Marx,"changing the world" is changing the social relations of reality.In the full expression of the new world view: historical materialism,Marx identified the production relations that determined all social relations,and finally made his concept of "social relations" established.The establishment of the concept of "social relations" in synch with the establishment of the new world view means that "social relations" is the core concept of historical materialism.In Marx’s view,the starting point for changing social relations is production relations;therefore,he needs to prove the existing relations of production are historical and temporary from a scientific perspective,only in this way he can provide legitimacy for the transformation of existing social relations.But the classical political economics just eternalized the capitalist relations of production;therefore,the historical proof of capitalist production relations is a critique of classical political economy,this is the essence of Marx’s critique of the political economy of the bourgeoisie.In this regard,leading the Marx’s critique of political economy is the concept of "social relations".Marx’s acceptance of socialism began after seeing social relations as the essence of man;in his view,the philosophical foundation of socialism is "the unity of people and people based on the people’s reality differences".The mature Marx did not give up the foothold of "social relations",on the contrary,he criticized the former socialist theory from this point of view.Engels pointed out that the historical materialism and surplus value theory made socialism becomes science.The core of historical materialism and surplus value theory is precisely "social relations".The connotation of Marx’s concept of "social relations" is "the physical and historical relationship between people and people in the productive practice".Marx had criticized Hegel for considering the spiritual relationship as a fundamental social relationship,at the same time,he also opposed Feuerbach’s non-historical understanding of social relations;this means that he unifies materiality and historicity into the understanding of social relations.And the reason he can do it is that he realizes that the relationship between people is fundamentally formed in p productive practice.That is,social relations and production practice are inherent in one.At the same time,in his view,production practice is a material,historical activity.Therefore,on the basis of production practice,Marx unifies materiality and historicity to the understanding of social relations,in this way,a complete grasp of social relations is achieved,and the concept of "social relations" has an overall and profound connotation.The traditional metaphysics follows the essentialism way of thinking to understand people and attribute people to a certain abstract and universal nature,this understanding has obliterated the rich and diverse personalities and obscured the vivid image of life.Marx comprehended the sum of social relations as the real nature of human beings.On this basis,it revealed the generation,specificity and diversity of human’s real life that achieved a change in people’s understanding.In traditional metaphysics,philosophy is understood as grasping the ultimate truth that captures the supreme essence of the world through concepts.This understanding makes philosophy surpass the real life and lost the ability to criticize reality.Marx set out from the concept of "social relations" and pointed out that philosophy is a theoretical reflection of social relations in reality,thus breaking the philosophy of "god headed illusion" that transcends the world outside of the world,and returning philosophy to reality and becoming an internal factor in advancing social relations.The ideological power of life has brought about the transformation of philosophy’s self-understanding.In the traditional metaphysical view of history,history is either seen as outside the objective spirit lies in the process of self realization,or as determined by the development process of the individual character of thought,the two forms of the concept of history all considered concept as the decider of history,that distorted and obscured the real process of social development.Marx revealed that realistic social relations are the basis of ideological concepts,and pointed out that the history is fundamentally the history of social relations changes,thus dispelling the wrong historical view in traditional metaphysics and realizing the transformation of the view of history.The opposition between individual and individual,individual and community caused by the "substantiation" of individuals is the fundamental dilemma of modernity.Marx’s concept of "social relations" reveals that individuals are fundamentally social beings.No individual can exist independently from other people.The level of happiness of a person depends on the reasonableness of social relations,which inspires people to surpass the tendency of "substantiation" of individuality.From this point of view,understanding the "human destiny community" will show the significance of "human destiny community" surpassing the tendency of individuals to "substantiate." Ecological crisis is an important manifestation of modern dilemmas.How to resolve ecological crisis is related to the continuation of human survival.The concept of Marx’s "social relations" pointed out that the control of nature by man is ultimately to control others,thus revealing that the prerequisite for reconciliation between man and nature is reconciliation among his fellow humans.Based on this perspective,we will realize the ecological significance of the "human destiny community" and the "One Belt and One Road".In addition to the ecological crisis,the dilemma of modernity is also manifested in the phenomenon of fetishism: people in modern society pay homage to goods,money,and capital,and humans have fallen into the situation being ruled by abstract.Starting from the concept of "social relations",Marx revealed that the essence of fetishism is the materialization and misrecognition of social relations,and its roots are the production relations based on private ownership,that is,the social relations that people split and confront in the production field.So,Marx has pointed out the way for people to overcome fetishism.The reflection on fetishism is conducive to further standardizing the socialist market economic system.