Marx’s Critical Study Of Proudhon Petty Bourgeois Socialism

Proudhon’s socialist theory is a typical petty-bourgeois socialism.He opposes the big bourgeoisie and believes that the capitalist economic system is the root of poverty.He criticizes the capitalist society while standing on the petty-bourgeois stand and following Hegel’s philosophical philosophy,proposing that the petty-bourgeoisie must assume the historical task of "burning private property with a fire" in order to eliminate ownership and build an absolutely fair and free society.Proudhon’s political position is petty-bourgeois,his political views are reformism and anarchy,and his political goal is petty-bourgeois socialism based on petty private ownership.This is the product of Proudhon’s idealist historical view and vulgar Hegelian dialectics.His theory reflects the concern for the living conditions of the poor people,and it has also attracted some people in the struggle and played a certain positive role.However,this illusion of hoping to abandon all modern industry and progress and return to the old manual labor is fundamentally contrary to the laws of historical development.This theory eventually caused a very bad impact on the workers’ movement and socialist practice.Therefore,Marx criticized Proudhon’s petty-bourgeois theory relentlessly.First of all,Proudhon ’s vision of future social and economic organizations has the characteristics of petty-bourgeoisie and the characteristics of utopian socialism.He advocates the modest improvement measures relying on petty-bourgeoisie to represent the petty-bourgeois political strategy,which should be followed for future society.Value principles such as justice,equality,and freedom did not exceed the bourgeois legal thought.Therefore,Marx named his socialist theory as a petty-bourgeois socialist theory.Secondly,Proudhon’s petty-bourgeois socialist ideology has had a wide-ranging influence in both the ideological system and the workers ’movement.Therefore,Marx criticized his research methods,economic ideas,ways of realization,and value principles for petty-bourgeois socialism.Marx criticized Proudhon idealism and the philosophical basis of metaphysics.The categories and concepts are by no means eternal,but the embodiment of the socialrelationship formed by the development of productive forces to a certain stage.It is material determination of consciousness,not the opposite.Similarly,the future society is not the realization of ideas and concepts.Material power requires material power to destroy.The freedom and equality realized in the category are also abstract freedom and equality.Marx criticized Proudhon’s delusion to eliminate currency and exploitation through "products exchange products",simple exchange of labor and labor,and "People’s Bank" based on "interest-free credit".Marx analyzed that money is an inevitable result of the development of the form of commodities,due to the refinement of the social division of labor,the frequent exchange of goods,and the development of productive forces not shifted by the will of man.Proudhon’s desire to retain credit and eliminate interest has become a kind of fantasy.In the end,Marx’s critique of Proudhon’s petty-bourgeois socialist thought cleared away its bad influence on the workers’ movement and deepened the socialist theory of Marx and Engels.This article will briefly describe the basic content of Proudhon’s petty-bourgeois socialist ideology,focusing on the analysis of Marx ’s philosophical principles,basic ideas of political economy and scientific socialism in the process of criticizing Proudhon ’s petty-bourgeois socialist thought.