On Marx’s "True Community" Thought

A community is the basic mode of existence for human beings.It is a union formed by people based on common life,common concept,common interests and common responsibility.The thinking about community issues is essentially a concern about the real living situation of men.Marx’s thought of "true community" is scientific research and judgment on the inevitable law of the development of human society from the dual dimensions of necessity and reality on the basis of the realistic criticism about capitalist society.A comprehensive and in-depth study of Marx’s community thought can not only provide scientific guidance for the socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics but also provide useful references for the world to overcome many difficulties brought by modernity.The thinkers with humanistic care before Marx expressed their indictment and reflection on the suffering of the real world and their yearning and pursuit for true community.But subject to the historical conditions,those idealistic community blueprints were groundless in reality.Nevertheless,as a value guide at the ideal level,they do provide a useful reference for Marx’s thought of "true community".A community,as the basic form of human society,has the basic characteristics of fact,history,equality and value,as well as integration and cohesion function,behavior regulation function and ideological function.It is both the specific form of individual existence and the actual content of individual life.The core problem of Marx’s community thought is how to change the organizational relationship between individuals and community to promote the formation of a "community of free individuals" and realize the free and all-round development of individuals on this basis.Marx’s thought of "true community" contains its vision and exploration about realizing the freedom and liberation of mankind and carries rich theoretical connotations and practical requirements.From the formal dimension,communities can be divided into three basic types with a successive relationship by the mode of social production: "naturally formed community","false community" and "true community".From the structural perspective,Marx proposes based on historical materialism that a community is composed of productive forces,productive relations,political superstructure,ideological superstructure,and other elements.From the roadmap perspective,political liberation is the historical premise,economic liberation is the material basis,labor liberation is the powerhouse,and cultural liberation is the spiritual support.From the value perspective,Marx’s "true community" sets out value provisions in three aspects: freedom,comprehensiveness,and development.The above four parts are progressive and mutually inclusive,altogether constituting the main content of Marx’s "true community" thought.The truthfulness of Marx’s "true community" thought lies in it that historical materialism deeply grasps the law of development of human society and reveals the inevitable trend of social development and human civilization progress.Historical materialism lays a scientific theoretical basis for the thought of "true community" at the level of necessity;meanwhile,Marx finds a material premise for the realization of "true community" by criticizing the realistic mode of production of capitalism at the level of reality.Marx detects the material basis and social relations needed to breed and form "true community" in capitalism so that his yearning for "true community" at the theoretical level obtains a realistic basis.The "new community factors" took root and sprouted in capitalism,especially giving birth to Marxism,which offers scientific theoretical guidance for mankind achieving "true community".The historical and actual lessons of giving free rein to capital logic and the objective need to eliminate the negative effects of capital logic in the new era both reflect a desperate yearning of the world and China for Marx’s "true community" thought.Grasping the basic principle of dialectical unity between ideality and reality,between process and stage,between inclusiveness and compatibility is helpful to ensuring the reasonable tension of theory and practice in the new historical context and under the coordinates of the new era,putting forward the theoretical consciousness to show the timeliness of Marx’s "true community" thought and its contemporary realistic scheme,and effectively matching the current development situation of the world with Marx’s vision of "true community".By establishing realistic but incomplete true communities,like a community with a shared future for mankind,a community of the Chinese nation,a life community of human and nature,and a community of shared future in cyberspace,as intermediate products,China will further prove to the world the realistic possibility that human society will eventually become "true community".Marx’s thought of "true community" has had a sustained and profound impact on China and the world in the past more than one hundred years.For China,"true community" points out a direction of development,and defines the historical mission of contemporary China in the process of combining with China’s concrete development practices;reshapes the relationship between individuals and community,and solves the alienation,opposition and division between individuals and community under the influence of capital modernity;reveals the objective law of historical development and contributes to self-improvement in the primary stage of socialism.For the world,Marx’s thought of "true community" is not only a theoretical transcendence over Western liberalism,utilitarianism and communitarianism,but also offers community wisdom to highlight the "new form of human civilization" for solving the problems of modernity,and provides a practical guide to action for building a community with a shared future for mankind.