The Reconstruction Of "Society" In The Context Of Modernity

This article is a comparative study of the sociopolitical thoughts of Hegel,Stirner,and Marx.The reconstruction of "society" under the exploration of "how society is possible" can be regarded as one of the most important topics left by modernity to philosophers in the 18 th to 19 th centuries.The answer to this question is related to whether modern people can cope with the challenges brought about by the development of the modern world and provide guidance for human freedom and liberation in terms of thought and action.In the context of modern enlightenment,the principle of subjective freedom has been greatly demonstrated,bringing great economic achievements to modern society and achieving political liberation,but also causing the separation of civil society and political state,leading to the division and universal alienation of human beings,leading to a modern moral crisis.The conceptual legal philosophy represented by Kant remains at the boundary between pure rationality and practical rationality,emphasizing a formal ethics without practical content;The early German romanticists expressed their nostalgia for antiquity and sought organic remedies in the glory of the Holy Roman Empire and the Middle Ages,neither of which helped to bridge the division of the world.In this context,Hegel resorted to the substantive state based on his rational theology,sublating various contradictions and problems of the current era in a unified ethical system,which is called Hegel’s social "reconciliation" plan.As a radical representative of the young Hegelian school,Stirner was dissatisfied with Hegelian universalism and believed that individual specific freedom could only be achieved through the disintegration and extinction of the social state and the rise of the "egoist alliance",which was called Stirner’s social "disintegration" plan.Based on his goal of human liberation and starting from historical materialism,Marx proposed a revolutionary requirement that transcends the entire capitalist era by pointing out that the essence of capitalism is the root cause of the duality of human beings,namely,to sublate bourgeois society with a proletarian social revolution,rebuild "human society",and realize the communist ideal.This is called Marx’s social "reconstruction" plan.In terms of the relationship between the three schemes,Stirner’s scheme can be seen as the antithesis of Hegel’s scheme,while Marx’s scheme is a "dialectical negation" of the former two.Hegel’s determination of civil society transcends the liberal theory of rights and advocates the restriction and guidance of civil society through the arrangement of "ethical life".However,he inverts the relationship between civil society and the political state,mistaking the state as the premise of civil society,and choosing to demonstrate the reality of his ethical state from the perspective of spiritual philosophy and logic,demonstrating a mystical and conservative perspective.Stirner saw the abstract essence of Enlightenment humanitarianism and Hegel’s theory of the state,eliminating universal objects such as society,the state,law,and morality as "fixed concepts",and treating the self realization of special individuals as the only true purpose.However,the image of "the Unique" he created did not exceed the egoistic individuals in civil society,and its alliance was only the ideological consequence of the individual principle of civil society.Stirner’s criticism of capitalist society is not thorough.He failed to reveal the essence of alienated labor under capitalist conditions,nor to put forward the requirements for changing the mode of production.Instead,he remained in the fantasy of the petty bourgeoisie wanting more rights and interests,as well as dealing with the relationship between individuals,themselves,and the world.Therefore,his pursuit of free individuals is doomed to be impossible to achieve.Although many concepts in Marx’s theory originate from Hegel,they have achieved criticism and transcendence of Hegel.The reason lies in that Marx neither eliminates alienation and opposition in society from the perspective of speculative philosophy and uses human self-consciousness,as Hegel did;Nor is it like Stirner,who abandons the individual’s pursuit of social community and only uses the individual’s internal self confirmation to eliminate alienation.By criticizing Hegel’s philosophy of law and state,Marx pointed out the mysterious identity of Hegel’s method of combining civil society with political state,clarified the fundamental position of civil society and shifted from political criticism to political economic criticism,advocating the elimination of alienation and opposition by sublating capitalism in the form of social revolution through the practical activities of the proletariat.By criticizing the individualism of Stirner’s philosophy,Marx realized the elucidation of historical materialism and established a communist social outlook with the ideals of "the union of free men" and "the morality of the real men".The innovation of this article lies in comparing the connections and differences of the social and political thoughts of Hegel,Stirner,and Marx from the perspective of social theory,and focusing on the modernity theme of "social" reconstruction,launching discussions on issues such as individual freedom,community pursuit,and ethical construction.The preliminary theoretical achievements of this article are shown as follows: Through this comparative study,it clarifies the characteristics and values of the solutions provided by Hegel,Stirner,and Marx to deal with the crisis of modernity,and reveals the historical inevitability of the transformation of social theory from Hegel,Stirner,to Marx,which further demonstrates that Marx’s social and political thoughts still have important practical significance in today’s era.