The Academic Logic of Engels’ Study of Scientific Socialism

In the course of his study of scientific socialism, Engels, while adhering to the basic research methods of Marxism, constructed specific methodological principles based on the research object and content of scientific socialism as one of the three component parts of Marxism. This both upheld the core tenets of Marxism and advanced Marxism a significant step forward. From the perspective of Engels’ application of the research methods of scientific socialism, there is both a study of the content, relations, and position of scientific socialism in its theoretical form within the entire system of Marxism, and a study of the general laws, basic principles, and unfolding paths of scientific socialism in its forms as a practical movement and a real system within social development and historical evolution. In his study of scientific socialism, Engels achieved a high degree of unity between subjective dialectics and objective dialectics, revealing the objective reality of the contradictory movement of capital and the historical law of its progression towards self-negation.

恩格斯在对科学社会主义进行研究的过程中，在坚持马克思主义的基本研究方法的同时，又根据作为马克思主义三个组成部分的科学社会主义的研究对象、研究内容等，构建了具体的方法论原则，既坚持了马克思主义的核心要义，又把马克思主义向前推进了一大步。从恩格斯对科学社会主义研究方法的运用来看，既有对理论形态的科学社会主义在马克思主义整个体系中的内容、关系和地位的研究，又有对实践运动和现实制度形态的科学社会主义在社会发展与历史演进中的一般规律、基本原则和展开路径的研究。在科学社会主义的研究中，恩格斯实现了主观辩证法与客观辩证法的高度统一，揭示出资本矛盾运动及其走向自我否定的历史规律的客观现实。

Regarding the research methods for the theory of scientific socialism, Engels, standing at the height of the unity of dialectics, epistemology, and logic, elucidated the methods for grasping the generation and study of the theoretical system of scientific socialism. Engels adhered to the basic viewpoint from *Capital* that “the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind and translated into forms of thought,” emphasizing the need, on the basis of fully possessing various concrete materials, to analyze the forms of development and trends of change of these materials, and to find the inner connections within these forms and trends. Starting from this basic research method, when we engage in logical thinking moving from the abstract to the concrete—that is, when conducting purely theoretical research on scientific socialism—we must pay attention to the interconnectedness, motility, and transformability of concepts, categories, laws, and so forth. It is precisely based on this methodology that Engels, when discussing the specific issue of studying classic works, clearly pointed out the need to avoid taking passages out of context and artificially fragmenting them under the influence of subjectivism, and to grasp the general theories and basic viewpoints of scientific socialism through a complete understanding and systematic reading of the context.

在科学社会主义理论的研究方法方面，恩格斯站在宏观的辩证法、认识论和逻辑学三者相同一的高度，对把握科学社会主义理论体系的生成与研究方法进行了阐释。恩格斯坚持了《资本论》中“观念的东西不外是移入人的头脑并在人的头脑中改造过的物质的东西”这一基本观点，强调要在充分占有各种具体材料的基础上分析这些材料的发展形式和变化趋势，并找寻到这些形式与趋势中的内在联系。从这一基本的研究方法出发，我们在进行从抽象到具体的逻辑思维时，亦即在对科学社会主义进行纯粹的理论研究时，要注意到概念、范畴、规律等内容的关联性、运动性和转化性。正是基于这一方法论，恩格斯在论及经典著作学习这一具体问题时明确指出，要避免主观主义作用下的断章取义和人为割裂，要在对上下文的完整理解和系统阅读中把握科学社会主义的一般理论和基本观点。

At the same time, Engels emphasized that the entire Marxist theory, including scientific socialism, should be regarded as a theoretical explanation of successive concrete historical stages of development and the unified overall process of actual development, serving as the starting point for general research and the method to be used in such research. Specifically, this means being able to understand each principle of scientific socialism historically, in connection with other principles and concrete historical experience, thereby thoroughly implementing the most essential aspect of dialectics—concrete analysis of concrete conditions—and avoiding a dogmatic approach to the basic principles of scientific socialism. Only in this way can we truly apply the principles of scientific socialism based on specific historical conditions, thereby achieving the unity of continuous innovation in scientific theory and continuous progress in revolutionary practice.

同时，恩格斯强调要把包括科学社会主义在内的整个马克思主义理论，看作对相互衔接的具体历史发展阶段与整体统一的现实发展过程的理论说明，是开展一般研究的出发点和供这种研究所使用的方法。具体来说，就是要能够将科学社会主义的每一个原理历史地同其他原理和具体历史经验联系起来进行理解，从而将辩证法最本质的东西——具体问题具体分析——加以彻底贯彻，避免教条地对待科学社会主义的基本原理。也只有这样，我们才能真正做到基于具体的历史条件对科学社会主义原理进行运用，从而实现科学理论不断创新与革命实践不断进步的统一。

Regarding the research methods for applying the theory of scientific socialism to practical issues such as the workers’ movement, the rule of capital, and the laws of socialist development, Engels emphasized the need to take historical materialism as the methodological foundation for conducting research work, and to deepen the grasp of the basic characteristics and developmental laws of capitalism through the mediating role of dialectical materialism. Engels stressed that in grasping the laws of the emergence and development of capitalism, the basic principles of materialism must be strictly applied to the field of historical research, considering the development of the entire society from the mode of production of the specific social formation and the economic structure arising from it. At the same time, Engels pointed out that “the materialist conception of history and its specific application to the class struggle between the modern proletariat and the bourgeoisie was only possible with the aid of dialectics.” [1]1 Engels’s formulation, from his 1882 preface to the German edition of *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific* (or a related text), emphasizing the necessity of dialectics for applying historical materialism to class analysis. Therefore, through the mediating role of dialectics, it is possible to reveal the endogenous process, manifested through class struggle, in which capitalist private property relations, unable to accommodate the productive forces, ultimately move towards self-negation.

在将科学社会主义理论运用于工人运动、资本统治及社会主义发展规律等实践问题的研究方法方面，恩格斯强调要能够将唯物史观作为展开研究工作的方法论基础，并通过唯物辩证法的中介作用来深化对资本主义基本特征和发展规律的把握。恩格斯强调，在对于资本主义发生发展规律的把握中，必须将唯物主义的基本原理严格运用于历史研究领域，从具体社会形态的生产方式及由此产生的经济结构出发，考量整个社会的发展。同时，恩格斯指出，“唯物主义历史观及其在现代的无产阶级和资产阶级之间的阶级斗争上的特别应用，只有借助于辩证法才有可能”。因此，通过辩证法的中介作用，能够揭示出资本主义私有制无法容纳生产力而最终走向自我否定的、通过阶级斗争表现出来的内生性过程。

At the same time, Engels emphasized the need to consistently adhere to the basic standpoint of class analysis, recognizing the driving force of social progress through the concrete study of the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Class struggle is the concrete manifestation of the fundamental contradiction of capitalism in the sphere of classes. Only by concretely elucidating the social positions occupied by different classes and the interests they respectively represent can we grasp, at the level of historical subjects, the tendency of capitalism towards self-negation and the conditions for achieving socialism. Based on this, Engels called the highest form of the proletariat’s class struggle—the act of seizing political rule through violent revolution—“the only door to the new society.” [2]2 Engels’s characterization of violent proletarian revolution as the necessary path to a new society, found in works such as *The Principles of Communism* or *Anti-Dühring*. Therefore, the method of class analysis, especially taking class struggle as a main clue for observing class society, is a basic methodological principle that Engels consistently upheld. Even in his later years, Engels never abandoned the basic viewpoint of class struggle and continuously emphasized it as one of the basic methods of Marxism.

同时，恩格斯强调要始终坚持阶级分析的基本立场，通过对资产阶级与无产阶级间斗争的具体研究，认识社会进步的动力。阶级斗争是资本主义基本矛盾在阶级领域的具体表现，只有具体阐明不同阶级所处的社会地位和各自代表的利益，才能够在历史主体的层面把握资本主义自我否定的趋势和实现社会主义的条件。基于此，恩格斯将无产阶级进行阶级斗争的最高形式——通过暴力革命夺取政治统治的行为——称为“通往新社会的唯一大门”。因此，阶级分析法尤其是以阶级斗争作为观察阶级社会的一条主要线索，是恩格斯始终坚持的基本方法论原则。即使是到了晚年，恩格斯也从未放弃阶级斗争的基本观点，并将其作为马克思主义的基本方法之一不断加以强调。

Furthermore, Engels also particularly emphasized the volitional qualities that researchers must possess when studying the theory of scientific socialism. This volitional quality is the spiritual guarantee for realizing the application of scientific methods to theoretical research. In a letter to Joseph Weydemeyer, Engels pointed out that true Marxist researchers are a group of people who study very diligently, who can learn diligently and down-to-earthly in practice and from the works of Marxism, and are not people who hunt around for new phrases and thereby confuse themselves. [3]3 Joseph Weydemeyer (1818–1866) was a German-American Marxist and close comrade of Marx and Engels. The letter referenced is one of Engels’s critiques of superficial or dogmatic approaches to studying Marxism. It can be said that this is both an emphasis on research methods and an emphasis on the academic style of researchers.

此外，恩格斯还特别强调了在研究科学社会主义理论时，研究者必须具备的意志品。这种意志品质是实现科学方法运用于理论研究的精神保障。恩格斯在给约瑟夫·魏德迈的信中指出，真正的马克思主义研究者是学习相当刻苦的一群人，是能够勤奋踏实地到实践中、到马克思主义的著作中去学习的人，并非到处猎取新词句而使自己糊里糊涂的人。可以说，这既是对研究方法的强调，也是对研究者学风的强调。

Engels’ important expositions and ideological elaborations on the research methods of scientific socialism have significant enlightening significance for our theoretical research work. In deepening our related research work on adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, we should also take Engels’ important expositions as a guiding thread and strengthen our efforts in the following aspects. First, based on the objective reality of the change in our country’s principal social contradiction, while profoundly grasping the changes in the people’s needs, we should focus on the principal aspect of the contradiction—unbalanced and inadequate development—and grasp the objective historical trends of socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a New Era and the world undergoing changes unseen in a century. Second, we must always adhere to the basic people-centered stance, achieving a high degree of unity between the people’s sentiment and value orientation of the theoretical content and the people-centered practical requirements and value appeals. Third, from the perspective of the unity of dialectics, epistemology, and logic, we should deepen the study of the logical starting point of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context, clarifying the interrelationships and processes of transformation and elevation among the important categories contained within it, thereby achieving the unity of the contradictory movement of the reality of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the movement of concepts in logic, and elucidating the scientificity and systematicity of adapted Marxism in China. Fourth, we must focus on excavating and organizing the methodological content of adapted Marxism in China, deepening the understanding of its philosophical foundation, methodological significance, and universal applicability from both the aspects of thinking methods and practical methods. Fifth, we must possess the basic attitude of scientific research, seeking truth and being pragmatic, conducting systematic, in-depth, and interconnected study and research on Marxism and its adaptation to the Chinese context.

恩格斯关于科学社会主义研究方法的重要论述和思想阐发，对我们开展理论研究工作具有重要的启示意义。我们在深化马克思主义中国化的相关研究工作时，也应以恩格斯的重要论述为指导性线索，在以下几个方面着力加强。一是立足我国社会主要矛盾变化的客观现实，在深刻把握人民需求变化的同时，发力于矛盾的主要方面——不平衡不充分的发展，并把握中国特色社会主义进入新时代和世界百年未有之大变局的客观历史趋势。二是要始终坚持以人民为中心的基本立场，能够将理论内容的人民情怀与价值取向同实践要求人民中心与价值诉求高度统一起来。三是从辩证法、认识论和逻辑学的三者同一的角度，深化对马克思主义中国化的逻辑起点的研究，搞清楚其中蕴含的重要范畴间的相互关系及转化上升过程，从而实现中国特色社会主义发展现实的矛盾运动与概念在逻辑中的运动的同一，阐明中国化的马克思主义的科学性和系统性。四是要注重对中国化的马克思主义的方法论内容的挖掘与整理，从思维方法和实践方法两方面深化对其哲学基础、方法论意义和普遍适用性的认识。五是要具有科学研究、求真求实的基本态度，对马克思主义及其中国化进行系统、深入、联系的学习与研究。

Online Editor: Paul

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