A Study On Marx’s Thought Of The Relationship Between Individual And Community

The opposition between individual and community is a basic problem in modern society.Marx’s thought and analysis of the relationship between individual and community transcended the philosophers before him,and he puts forward a possible way on the basis of history and reality to solve the contradiction between individual and community.Marx paid attention to the contradiction between individual and community in modern society from Hegel’s philosophy of right.After criticizing the limitation of resorting to rational state to solve this contradiction in Hegel’s thought,Marx found that the key to solve this problem lies in civil society.The Young Hegelians opposed Hegel’s speculative philosophy which suppress individuality and formed two different approaches: Feuerbach’s emphasis on the abstract universality of human beings and Powell’s and Steiner’s emphasis on the abstract individuality.By criticizing the young Hegelian theory of abstract human nature,Marx not only reflected on the nature of human beings,but also formed historical materialism as a cognitive method.Hess’ thought has many influences on Marx’s study of the relationship between individual and community,and Marx obtained a more mature conception of the way of reconciliation between individual and community from his criticism of the socialist theory of Hess.Marx revealed the evolution of the relationship between the individual and the community in different stages by unveiling the correlation between the mode of production,the form of ownership and the form of communication in the three stages of historical development.In the pre capitalist era,the dependence of human on the objective conditions of labor determines the direct unity of the individual and the community;in the capitalist era,the development of the exchange system makes people’s communication based on the dependence on things,and the relationship between the individual and the community is abstract and non-unified;in the Communist era,every person can directly communicate and unite as a free and independent individual when all mankind overcomes the dependence of things,so as to realize the dialectical unity of individual and community.By clarifying that the essence of human is the sum of social relations,Marx revealed that human beings need community life in essence,and the realization of human liberation must be based on the unity of individual and community.The split of civil society and political state in the capitalist era results in the split and opposition between individual and community.The egoistic nature of civil society determines that individuals are in opposition to each other.Political state,as an illusory community,is neither the real representative of the general interests nor the guarantee of equality and freedom of all people,but aggravates the contradiction between individuals and communities in the protection of private interests.On the premise of "realistic individual",Marx conceived to realize the reconciliation between individual and community in the "free man’s Union",and he conceived the conditions: on the basis of the high development of productivity,when the existing communication relationship becomes the shackle hindering the development of productivity,the private ownership and division of labor will be eliminated through the proletarian revolution,and the liberation of all mankind will come true.Marx’s thought of individual and community has far-reaching theoretical value nowadays.On the theoretical level,Marx’s thought of individual and community has transcended both liberalism and communitarianism,and played an important role of connecting his historical materialism and political philosophy.On the practical level,Marx’s individual and community thought can instruct us to deal with the problem of the confusion of value that may appear on the road to modernization,and instruct us to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.