The Evolution Of Marx’s And Engels’ Understanding Of The Concept Of Praxis

The concept of praxis is the nuclear and basal conception in Marxist philosophy. Based on the startingpoint and main clue of the concept of praxis, this thesis historically investigates Marx’s and Engels’different understanding and location of the concept of praxis in their youth, after1950s and in their laterlife, and clarifies the meaning, status and consequences of praxis in different periods. It also clearly showsthe ideological premise of the logic conversion of the concept of praxis between different periods. At thesame time, this thesis also makes an in-depth elucidation of the theoretical and practical effects caused byMarx’s and Engels’ different interpretation of praxis.Starting from Marx’s youth time when his thoughts experienced sharp changes, this thesis analyzes thewhole development of Marx’s thoughts during the young Hegelians movement. His thoughts was firstlyaffected by the idealism of Kant and Fichte, then under the influence of young Hegelian it was turned toHegel’s objective idealism, and then Feuerbach’s humanistic class, and eventually created the new theory ofhistorical materialism. During the development of his thoughts, Marx’s understanding of praxis also turnedfrom “action”“labor” under the premise of objective idealism to “activity in material production”“humannature” and other principles of world outlook and methodology under the premise of the historicalmaterialism. Through the establishment of the subject and object of practice, young Marx established hisoverall understanding of the concept of praxis, and it also helped him lay a premise to establish newhistorical materialism. This provides a theoretical principle for further guidance on the communistmovement, the liberation of the proletariat and the liberation of all mankind. By using the theoretical tool ofhistorical materialism which was founded on the basis of praxis by him and by making in-depth analysis ofcapitalist society under the premise of in-depth analysis of the study of political economy, Marx createdCapital. In Capital, Marx deeply grasps every aspect of the process of capitalist production, andspecifically established the status of material production and labor, thereby positioned the praxis at theopposed level of “understanding” and "theory". This is the inevitable process during Marx’s study of theparticular capitalism’s refinement of praxis. Young Engels’s life experiences and development of ideas was different from Marx’s. He didn’t gothrough the abstract philosophy of self-awareness stage; he embarked on the path of philosophy mainly byauditing, self-learning and participating in specific social reality. It was Strauss’ pantheism that affectedyoung Engel and led him turn Hegel’s philosophy and become a member of the Young HegeliansMovement. The Hegelian dialectics thoughts led him combine thought and action, theory and practiceperfectly to find theoretical guidance from social reality. Young Engels took praxis as material productionactivities and political revolutionary struggle. By writing The Holy Family, The German Ideology incollaboration with Marx, he reached a consensus with Marx on the understanding of praxis. This consensusestablishes their lifetime cooperation. With the communist movement carried out and capitalist society’snew development, Engels reiterated and redefined the status and content of praxis in Ludwig Feuerbachand the End of Classical German Philosophy in his later years, identifying praxis as an importantintermediary solving the problem between thought and existence. Praxis is embodied as labor and industrialproduction, which is the specific logical process of deep grasp of praxis by Engels.By clarifying the specific changes of Marx’s and Engels’ understanding of praxis, this thesis revealsdifferent meanings and status of praxis during the reform of Marxist philosophy in different periods. Thechanges of their understanding of praxis are inseparable from the Historical Materialism they founded. Atthe same time, the process of clarifying provides important theoretical support for the clear positioning ofMarx’ and Engels’ intellectual relationship, and eventually comes to the conclusion that their thoughts isalways consistent. Moreover, Marx and Engels’ continuous intensive and specific understanding of praxisprovides a world view and methodological principle for the socialist modernization in modern times.