Marx’s Criticism On Egoism And His Philosophical Revolution

Marx’s criticism on egoism reveals the emergence and development of Marx’s philosophical revolution,and it includes the criticism on abstract egoism,economic egoism and political egoism which have shown us the unity of historical materialism,proletarian political economy and scientific socialism.In addition,the criticism implies Marx’s thoughts of "social revolution" and "human revolution",it would be an important part of Marx’s civil society theory.In Marx’s view,it is not the idea egoism that determines the egoism of civil society,but the opposite.It is not the spiritual egoist who determines the realistic egoist,but the opposite.Therefore,it can be said that Hegel’s "thinking egoism",Powell’s "self-consciousness egoism",Feuerbach’s "human beings egoism" and Stirner’s "self-consistency egoism" which only spinning within the scope of abstract egoism.They try to use abstract ideas to determine the reality,but they have not affected their reality origin that the egoism of civil society at all.According to Marx,the old philosophy stays on the civil society and the private person,Marx’s philosophy pursues the human society and socialized human beings.Modern capitalist society is the highest stage of civil society and its "private".Only by facing the realistic economic activities of capitalist society can real knowledge about egoism be acquired.In reality,the realistic individuals are not only vulgar egoists representing the personal interests,but also self-sacrifice representing the common interests,they are producing and governed by the material relationships in the meantime.The economic self-interest activity of capital production relations which pursuing "surplus value" takes the manufacture,realization and distribution of "surplus value" as its main content.With the development of labor productivity,the conflicts of interests between laborers and capitalists,the conflicts of interests between laborers,capitalists,and the conflicts of interests between realistic individuals and capital relations have increasingly become the endogenous force to eliminate the existing society and the private person’s survival pattern.On the basis of respecting the economic laws,the proletariat fights against bourgeois political egoism in revolutionary practice,and it is also constantly tempering itself in revolutionary practice,throwing away all its old and dirty things,experiencing the process of completely transforming the environment and people,and establishing the foundation of a new society,especially the united personal connection in joint activities.Therefore,in the process of transforming the capitalist "false community" into the "real community" of human society,the unconscious self-sacrifice of workers serving the false community and the conscious self-sacrifice towards the realization of the communist society will coexist for a long time.Marx’s criticism of egoism not only surpasses and develops the relevant thoughts of modern political philosophy in theory,but also guides people to examine the origin,development law and historical trend of egoism in China in reality.Besides,the criticism points out the importance of cultivating and shaping communist values in socialist labor practice with Chinese characteristics.At the same time,Marx’s criticism provides an indispensable and important theoretical basis for people to correctly analyze the reality and possibility of the vision of a "community with a shared future for mankind".