A Critical Research On Larrain's Reconstruction Of Historical Materialism

The historical materialism is the most original content in Marxist philosophy,after the founder of Marx and Engels died,this theory not only obtained the systematic explanation from the Soviet Marxists,but also was valued by the representatives of Western Marxism and other scholars,thus derived a variety of interpretation paths.In the process,a trend of rebuilding historical materialism has also taken place.In this trend of thought,the famous British scholar Jorge Larrain,whose book “Reconstruction of Historical Materialism” was introduced in 1986,which is characteristic and has attracted high attention and a lot of comments from scholars at home and abroad.Some people agree with his criticism of dogmatic orthodox historical materialism and reconstructing of historical materialism based on practical theories.Some people criticized the meaning of his concept of reconstruction as ambiguous and even conflicting.Others pointed out that because of his thinking mode of metaphysics led him to believe that Marx and Engels' s works contained “thought dilemmas”.These comments have merit,but there is also room for further expand.On this basis,the detailed explanation and deep analysis of Larrain' s attempt to reconstruct historical materialism has great theoretical and practical significance for restoring the original face of historical materialism,deepening the understanding of the principle of historical materialism and better adhering to and developing historical materialism in the current era.Larrain's reconstruction of historical materialism not only has many profound objective ideological backgrounds,but also has many subjective ideological motivations.The objective ideological background mainly includes three aspects.First,there are limitations in the way that Western Marxism and practice are combined.This limitation makes Western Marxist itself abstract and automated,so that it can't solve the contradictions encountered by the European working class in practice.Second,historical materialism is facing double crises in capitalist countries.On the one hand,historical materialism is regarded as history,and on the other hand,the emergence of historical determinism revives the rigid Soviet Marxist determinism.Third,there has been a trend of thought in reconstructing historical materialism in the Western Marxist camp.The subjective ideological motivation also includes three aspects.First,on the basis of criticizing the predecessors' understanding of themeaning of the concept of refactoring,Larrain tried to explain the meaning of the concept of reconstruction in a new way.In other words,it was to regard “getting away from the ideological dilemmas in Marx and Engels' s works” as a meaning of reconstruction.Second,he believed that there are “ideological dilemmas” in four aspects: dialectics,consciousness,social change mechanism and historical concepts in the works of Marx and Engels.It was also the theoretical presupposition of his reconstruction of historical materialism.Third,he also tried to transcend the attempts of Habermas and others to reconstruct historical materialism.Larrain's reconstruction of historical materialism is based on the following concent.First of all,before the formal reconstruction,he not only explained what is orthodox interpretation,but also criticized historical materialism based on orthodox interpretation.Here,he mainly elaborates the orthodox materialism theory based on Soviet Marxism,including four aspects of dialectics,consciousness,social change mechanism and historical concepts.He made a detailed criticism of these four aspects.Secondly,he proposed the main points of refactoring.The first was to determine the relationship between practice and historical materialism.That is to regard practice as the core element of historical materialism.The second,on the basis of practice,was to determine the nature,characteristics and scope of application of historical materialism.The third was to use the theory of practice to get rid of four “ideological dilemmas” in the works of Marx and Engels.Finally,through his own refactoring,he provided a new version of historical materialism,the thirty-two principles of society,consciousness,history and individual.Larrain's understanding of the meaning of the concept of reconstruction and his theoretical presupposition of reconstructing historical materialism are not valid.When he understood the meaning of the concept of reconstruction as “getting away from the ideological dilemmas in Marx and Engels' s works”,he actually presupposed that there are indeed “ideological dilemmas” in the works of Marx and Engels.But as long as we study it carefully,we will find that there are no four “ideological dilemmas” in the works of Marx and Engels.On the contrary,it is because of his misunderstanding and distortion of Marx and Engels' thoughts,and his own metaphysical thinking mode that led him to draw wrong conclusions.Obviously,these “ideological dilemmas” are made by himself.There are many defects and deficiencies in the model of Larrain's reconstruction of historical materialism.First of all,in the process of interpreting and criticizing the orthodox interpretation,he mistakenly believes that one-sidedness and dogmatizationof orthodox historical materialism is caused by the dilemma in the works of Marx and Engels.His understanding of the theory of orthodox historical materialism is also one-sided.Secondly,in the main points of reconstructing historical materialism,he neither elaborate on the meaning of practice and the relationship between practice and historical materialism,nor did he make a detailed and clear investigation of the nature and the scope of historical materialism.There are also serious logical contradictions in the use of Marx and Engels' theory of practice to get rid of “ideological dilemmas”in their works.Finally,in the new version of historical materialism he reconstructed,some refactoring principles are completely contrary to the thoughts of Marx and Engels.It should be acknowledged that some of Larrain's arguments have merit.He not only systematically explained the necessity of reconstruction,but also fully affirmed the practical significance of historical materialism,and carried out a critical study on the meaning of the reconstructed concept understood by predecessors.He not only made a concrete summary and rational criticism of orthodox historical materialism theory,but also made a positive response to the viewpoints of contemporary scholars who defended Marxism.He also refuted the non-Marxism view of criticizing historical materialism.He not only gave a reasonable explanation of the scope and the theoretical characteristics historical materialism,but also made a proper understanding of the central category of historical materialism-practice.However,from the meaning of the refactoring concept and theoretical presupposition he gave,his refactoring attempt is not true.Because in the works of Marx and Engels there is no dilemma of dialectics,consciousness,social change mechanism and historical concepts.Judging from many defects and the shortcomings exposed in his model of reconstructing historical materialism,his refactoring attempt must also be attributed to failure.In the face of Larrain's reconstruction of historical materialism and the whole ideological wave of reconstruction in Western Marxism,we should treat the theoretical innovation of historical materialism correctly and reasonably.On the one hand,the basic principles and methods of historical materialism cannot be arbitrarily changed in the name of reconstruction.On the other hand,theoretical innovation should be carried out based on practice development,scientific development and changes in the times.