A Study Of Morality And Contemporary Value In The Anti-DüHring Theory

The Anti-Dühring Theory is a polemic work written by Engels in order to eliminate the ideological harm of Dühring in the German social democracy Party,defend the orthodox status of Marxism,and maintain the unity of the German Social Democratic Party.In the text,Engels conducted a profound theoretical analysis of morality from the perspectives of philosophical speculation,instrumental rationality,and institutional framework,based on different contexts of philosophical,political and economic,and socialist editing.In general,no matter what dimension,Engels has always put historical materialism through it,realizing the organic unity of moral criticism and moral construction.In the process of exploring the source of morality and the law of its development,Engels criticized Dühring’s view that morality is the product of consciousness and that morality is eternal.At the same time,he revealed the philosophical origin of Dühring’s transcendental epistemology and eternal truth.Engels pointed out that morality belongs to the category of social ideology,and exploring the occurrence and development of morality should focus on the economic conditions of society.It should be recognized that the economic conditions of different historical periods are different,and morality inevitably develops with the development of history,thus exhibiting its own historicity.In the analysis of moral category,the essence of idealism and metaphysics of Dühring’s philosophy determines that he cannot treat good and evil,equality,freedom and other issues materialistically and dialectically.For example,he views political violence as an absolute evil,equality as absolute equality,freedom as absolute freedom,and so on.Engels believed that these views of Dühring completely exposed the narrowness of Dühring’s thinking as a spokesperson for the bourgeoisie.Therefore,Engels,based on the perspective of historical materialism,expounded the scientific cognition of Marxism on good and evil,equality,freedom and other issues,and maintained the authority and dignity of proletarian morality.In dealing with human issues,Dühring lacks practical thinking.He attempts to frame the model of human moral development by transforming human genes based on "abstract human nature".On the contrary,Engels was based on "real people" and analyzed the moral possibilities of future "real people" from the perspectives of real conditions and revolutionary forces.The process of criticism and construction is also a process of inheritance and development.Engels further improved the moral system of Marxism on the basis of sublating Hegel’s dialectical moral outlook,Feuerbach’s materialistic moral outlook and Utopian socialism’s moral outlook.At the same time,it thoroughly cleared up the harmfulness of Dühring’s idealism morality,objectively promoted the proletarian revolutionary movement at that time,and thus had an important impact on the history of the international communist movement.Currently,our society is also facing various moral problems,such as the lack of moral personality among citizens leading to moral misconduct;Disorderly expansion of capital disrupts the order of the market economy;Western "universal value" impact the moral confidence of socialism,and so on.Studying Engels’ moral views in the Anti-Dühring Theory and drawing on his paradigm of thinking about morality from three different dimensions is beneficial for solving the moral problems faced by current society.In summary,to enhance moral personality and reduce moral misconduct;Building a moral defense line and standardizing the order of the market economy;to adhere to the core socialist values,enhance moral confidence and resist the infiltration of "universal value",is the natural choice for us.