On the Realization of Historical Materialism

Historical materialism, within its continuously expanding fields of research—including philosophical transformation, political reflection, economic critique, and other multidimensional studies—has opened up a new practical philosophy for changing the old world, and possesses a vitality of realization and a mode of self-verification. We must grasp the theoretical status of historical materialism holistically from the thought of Marx and Engels, delineating how historical materialism transcends the rational shackles of speculative philosophy, engages in dialogue with and critique of the capitalist world, and thereby demonstrates its powerful vitality of realization.

历史唯物主义在不断开放的研究领域，包括哲学变革、政治反思、经济批判等多维研究中，开辟出变革旧世界的新实践哲学，并具有现实化的生命力和自证方式。我们须从马克思恩格斯思想中整体性把握历史唯物主义的理论地位，勾勒出历史唯物主义超越观念性哲学的理性桎梏，以对话与批判资本主义世界，展现出强大的现实化生命力。

The Implication of Realization in the Dimension of Philosophical Transformation

哲学变革向度的现实化意蕴

As is well known, Marx and Engels completed their philosophical revolution around 1845. The most important theoretical significance of this philosophical revolution lies in dismantling traditional metaphysics, which is grounded in speculative philosophy, and establishing a theory rooted in practice or sensuous activity, thereby completing the argument for the realization of historical materialism. The opening of *Theses on Feuerbach* takes materialism as its topic of discussion, framing the direction of realization for historical materialism and criticizing Feuerbach for not understanding "the significance of 'revolutionary,' of 'practical-critical,' activity." [1]1 Karl Marx, "Theses on Feuerbach," in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *Collected Works*, vol. 5 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), p. 3. At the same time, in *The German Ideology*, it is emphasized that "real individuals" are "individuals as they are at a definite stage of their historical development, and by no means any accidental individuals," [2]2 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, *The German Ideology*, in *Collected Works*, vol. 5, p. 83. and on this basis, it puts forward that "practical materialists are communists." [3]3 Ibid., p. 54. This means that historical materialism, unlike other philosophical forms, establishes for the first time a structure of investigation centered on changing the world through practice. This structure of investigation places greater emphasis on the movements of realization such as productive forces and forms of intercourse, the division of labor and private property, nature and history, and thereby re-examines the history of changes in ownership, the history of industry and commerce, the history of capital civilization, and the history of human emancipation, aiming to provide a philosophical explanation and practical orientation for the emancipation of humanity in a new society.

众所周知，马克思恩格斯于1845年前后完成自己的哲学革命。这场哲学革命最重要的理论意义在于，瓦解以思辨哲学为根基的传统形而上学，确立以实践或感性活动为根基的理论，完成历史唯物主义的现实化论证。《关于费尔巴哈的提纲》开篇就以唯物主义作为讨论议题，框定历史唯物主义的现实化走向，批判费尔巴哈不了解“‘革命的’、‘实践批判的’活动的意义”。同时，《德意志意识形态》一文中又强调，“现实的个人”是“一定历史发展阶段上的个人，而绝不是任何偶然的个人”，并在此基础上提出了“实践的唯物主义者即共产主义者”。这意味着，历史唯物主义不同于其他的哲学形态，第一次确立起以实践改变世界为内容的考察结构。这种考察结构更多地侧重生产力与交往方式、分工与私有制、自然与历史等现实化运动，进而重新梳理所有制变迁史、工业史与商业史、资本文明史及人类解放史等内容，意在为新社会的人类解放提供哲学说明与实践指向。

While dismantling the old worldview of classical economics concerning the rationality of private property, Marx and Engels also deeply undermined the old metaphysics of reason driving the world. Through this realization in the dimension of philosophical transformation, they activated a new critical imagination regarding the era of capital. That is, they engaged in dialogue with the era of capital through a historical practical paradigm, proposing new ideas for transcending capital and establishing a new world. From the reflection on the contradictory relationship between "alienated labor and private property," to the establishment of the contradictory relationship between "productive forces and forms of intercourse," and then to the critique of the contradictory relationship between modern "wage labor and capital," the evolution of research on these contradictory relationships precisely confirms that historical materialism, as a structure of investigation, possesses a high degree of determination for realization. This determination contains at least three implications: First, from the perspective of the narrative of human development, the history of human civilization is the history of the activities of real individuals. This is a history of activities based on civil society, including the dual production of social relations and human beings themselves, which constitute the entire content of the development of human society. On this basis, the contradictory relationship between productive forces and forms of intercourse shapes the history of changes in ownership that runs through history. Second, from the perspective of the narrative of human production, the history of human civilization is not the "theoretical shadow" of the movement of rational spirit, but rather the history of industry and commerce constructed by humans through various productive and intercourse activities. Marx believed that without modern industry and commerce in capitalist society, where would the natural sciences come from? [4]4 This is a paraphrase of Marx's argument in *The German Ideology* and the *Grundrisse* that modern natural science is a product of bourgeois industry and commerce. Industry represents the historical advancement of productive forces, while commerce implicitly refers to the social unfolding of forms of intercourse; together, they contribute to the productive construction of the history of capital civilization. Third, from the perspective of the narrative of capital history, within the dual framework of the narrative of human development and the narrative of production, historical materialism accurately predicts the developmental narrative of capitalism and its historical destiny: while critiquing capitalist relations of production, it points toward the communist history of emancipation, whose content is human freedom and liberation. In short, the implication of realization in historical materialism lies in revealing the historical process of human development through a grand narrative, critically reflecting on the history of capital's development, and thereby guiding a scientific prediction of the future society.

马克思恩格斯在破解古典经济学中私有财产合理性的旧世界观的同时，深度瓦解了理性驱动世界的旧形而上学，并通过这种哲学变革向度的现实化，激活了对资本时代的新批判想象。即以历史性的实践范式对话资本时代，提出超越资本与建立新世界的新主张。从“异化劳动与私有财产”的矛盾关系反思，到“生产力与交往方式”的矛盾关系确立，再转换至现代“雇佣劳动和资本”的矛盾关系批判，这些矛盾关系的研究演进恰恰证实，历史唯物主义作为考察结构具有高度的现实化规定。这种规定至少蕴含三重意蕴：一是从人类发展叙事来谈，人类文明史是现实个人的活动史，这是以市民社会为基础的活动史，包括社会关系与人的双重生产，它们构成人类社会发展的全部内容。在此基础上，生产力与交往形式的矛盾关系塑造出历史延续的所有制变迁史。二是就人类生产叙事来讲，人类文明史不是理性精神运动的“理论阴影”，而是人类通过各种生产交往活动而建构起的工业史与商业史。马克思认为，资本主义社会若没有现代工业和商业，哪里有自然科学。工业表现为生产力的历史推进，商业暗指着交往方式的社会展开，两者共同促成资本文明史的生产性建构。三是就资本历史叙事而言，历史唯物主义在人类发展叙事与生产叙事的双重图景中，精准预判出资本主义的发展叙事及其历史命运：在对资本主义生产关系进行批判的同时，指向以人类自由解放为内容的共产主义解放史。简言之，历史唯物主义的现实化意蕴在于，以宏大叙事揭示出人类发展的历史进程，对资本发展史的批判反思，以导向对未来社会的科学预测。

The Direction of Realization in the Dimension of Political Reflection

政治反思向度的现实化指向

Engels believed that German politics was a thorny field, where thinkers mainly focused their critique on religion and religious life. Nevertheless, for historical materialism to have an effect of realization, it had to engage in dialogue with the political realm of "the cunning of capital." Marx and Engels studied various conditions of political revolution, extensively covering peasant uprisings, joint struggles of the bourgeoisie, social changes among various strata, and violent resistance by the proletariat, in order to analyze the contradictory relations of interest behind the capitalist political structure. In political texts such as *The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850*, *The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte*, the series of commentary articles in the *New-York Daily Tribune*, and *The Civil War in France*, Marx and Engels studied political versions including those of Germany, France, and the United States, analyzing and judging the economic interest relations of various social strata, and critiquing the contradictory relations of interest behind class struggles... These discussions fully demonstrate the direction of realization of historical materialism in analyzing political interest relations.

恩格斯认为，德国政治是一个荆棘丛生的领域，思想家们主要集中对宗教及其生活加以批判。尽管如此，历史唯物主义若要具有现实化效应，必须对话“资本的狡计”的政治领域。马克思恩格斯研究各种政治革命状况，广泛涉及农民起义、资产阶级联合斗争、各阶层社会变革与无产阶级暴力反抗等研究，以剖析资本主义政治结构背后的利益矛盾关系。在《1848年至1850年的法兰西阶级斗争》《路易·波拿巴的雾月十八日》《纽约每日论坛报》（系列评论文章）《法兰西内战》等政论性文本中，马克思恩格斯通过对包括德国、法国与美国等政治版本进行研究，分析研判社会各个阶层的经济利益关系，批判阶级斗争背后的利益矛盾关系……这些讨论充分彰显出历史唯物主义在剖析政治利益关系中的现实化指向。

In these political commentaries, Marx and Engels studied complex social contradictions and sharp class confrontations, scientifically grasping the following facts: how the interest issues and political tendencies of various classes and strata lead to political movements and social changes; how, amidst intricate social revolutions, political movements are strictly subordinated to the movement of modern capital; and how the social demands of modern political revolutions are reduced to the self-construction of capital civilization, and so on. Specifically, the direction of realization in the dimension of political reflection focuses on three major contents—they underpin the interest motives of bourgeois political revolutions, the political driving force for transforming the grid of traditional institutions, and the political demand for realizing capital's rule over society. In other words, bourgeois political revolutions endow historical materialism with a direction of realization for reflecting on and critiquing modern politics. For example: First, interest struggle became the political motive of the bourgeois revolution. The essence of European political struggles at the time should be attributed to safeguarding the core interests of the bourgeoisie—striving for self-rights and political interests became the core task of the entire bourgeois political revolution. Whether it was the class struggles in France, the revolution of Louis Bonaparte, or various other political struggles, they all reflected the issue of realizing and maintaining capital interests, to prevent other classes from coveting them. The interest relations of capital dominate political movements and social changes, serving as the motive for capitalist political revolutions, and such political revolutions originated and took shape amidst the magnificent class struggles. Second, class struggle is the political driving force for the bourgeoisie to establish its rule. Capital integrates various social strata in the form of class revolution, enabling the capitalist political structure to replace and dissolve the political grid of the traditional world. This is manifested in the bourgeoisie, while using all revolutionary means to destroy the old state apparatus, also suppressing the resistance of the proletariat, including the peasant stratum and the artisan stratum, thereby making political movements strictly subordinate to the movement of modern capital. The process of capitalist political revolution concentrates all scenes of class struggle: although there are different political versions, they all demonstrate capital's domination of political movements and the direction of class struggle. For instance, Germany, as an old feudal form, was reflected in the alliance of the emerging capitalists and the old aristocracy to brutally suppress peasant uprisings, hoping through this alliance to establish a political model belonging to themselves; France, as a new political form, displayed the class struggle relations of alliance and division between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, obtaining a political structure consistent with the interests of its own class. Third, class struggles centered on material interests reflect the political demand of capital to establish a structure of rule. For example, the multiple political movements of the French Revolution highlight how the power of capital shapes new political forms amidst social changes—capital, through various political revolutionary movements, overturns the traditional world and realizes the political demands serving its own rule, such as government systems, parliamentary systems, ideological systems, and cultural systems, and so on.

在这些政治评论中，马克思恩格斯研究复杂的社会矛盾与尖锐的阶级对峙，科学把握如下事实：各个阶级阶层的利益问题及其政治动向，如何导致政治运动与社会变革；在错综复杂的社会革命中，政治运动是如何严格从属于现代资本运动的；现代政治革命的社会诉求，如何归结为资本文明的自我建构，等等。具体而言，政治反思向度的现实化指向聚焦着三大内容——它们支撑起资产阶级政治革命的利益动因，以变革传统制度格栅的政治动力，实现资本统治社会的政治诉求。进言之，资产阶级政治革命使历史唯物主义具有反思与批判现代政治的现实化指向。如，一是利益斗争成为资产阶级革命的政治动因。当时欧洲政治斗争的实质应归结为维护资产阶级的核心利益——争取自我权益与政治利益成为整个资产阶级政治革命的核心要务。无论是法兰西阶级斗争，还是路易·波拿巴的革命，抑或是其他的各种政治斗争等，都体现出资本利益的实现与维护问题，以防止其他阶级觊觎。资本利益关系主导着政治运动与社会变革，是资本主义的政治革命动因，而这种政治革命缘起且成型于波澜壮阔的阶级斗争。二是阶级斗争是资产阶级确立其统治的政治动力。资本以阶级革命形式整合各个社会阶层，使得资本主义的政治结构能够取代与消解传统世界的政治格栅。这体现为，资产阶级在利用一切革命方式摧毁旧国家机器的同时，还要镇压包括农民阶层、手工业者阶层在内的无产阶级反抗，使政治运动严格从属于现代资本运动。资本主义的政治革命过程，聚焦了全部的阶级斗争场景：尽管有不同的政治版本，但都彰显出资本支配政治运动及其阶级斗争走向。如，作为旧封建形态的德国，体现于新兴资本家与旧贵族联合起来残酷镇压农民起义，以联合形式期冀建立属于自己的政治模式；作为新政治形态的法国，展示出资产阶级与无产阶级联合与分歧之间的阶级斗争关系，获得与本阶级利益相符合的政治结构。三是围绕物质利益的阶级斗争体现出资本建立统治结构的政治诉求。如，法国大革命的多次政治运动，凸显出资本力量如何在社会变革中塑造新政治形式——资本通过各种政治革命运动颠覆传统世界，实现服务自己统治的政治诉求，如政府制度、议会制度、意识形态制度与文化制度，等等。

The Transcendence of Realization in the Dimension of Economic Critique

经济批判向度的现实化超越

Through various political critiques, Marx and Engels pointed out that the social structure of modern capitalism and its ideological system are formed by social practices dominated by capital. Political movements are dependent on the internal shaping of capital's contradictions, hence it is urgently necessary to transcend the ideological illusions of political operations and directly confront the internal contradictions of capitalism. Marx and Engels' principled critique of the internal contradictions of capitalism endows historical materialism with a transcendent quality of realization.

马克思恩格斯通过各种政治批判，指明现代资本主义社会结构及其意识形态系统，是由资本主导下的社会实践所形成的。政治运动依附于资本矛盾的内在塑造，故亟须超越政治运作的意识形态幻觉，直接面向资本主义的内在矛盾。马克思恩格斯对资本主义内在矛盾的原则性批判，使得历史唯物主义具有现实化的超越性特质。

If the realization of philosophical transformation is historical materialism's philosophical critique of civil society, and the realization of political critique is historical materialism's social critique of capitalist society, then the realization of the critique of political economy points to an economic critique of the modern capitalist production system. Historically, many thinkers have criticized modern capital in economic terms. Proudhon explicitly reflected on the problem of modern capital through economic philosophy, but this was merely a critique in the form of ethicalism, hoping to dissolve contradictions with a "serial dialectics," which was undoubtedly a critique of economic romanticism. Despite the radical critique that "property is theft," this advocacy of universalizing private property could not provide a reliable path toward a new world.

如果说，哲学变革的现实化是历史唯物主义对市民社会的哲学批判，政治批判的现实化是历史唯物主义对资本主义社会的社会批判。那么，政治经济学批判的现实化则指向对资本主义现代生产制度的经济批判。历史上有很多思想家以经济术语批判过现代资本。蒲鲁东明确以经济哲学的方式反思现代资本问题，但也只是伦理主义形式批判，期冀以“系列辩证法”消解矛盾，这无疑是经济浪漫主义批判。尽管有“所有权就是盗窃”的激进批判，但这种私有制普遍化主张不可能提供走向新世界的可靠途径。

While confronting economic facts, historical materialism also inquires into the mechanisms of social operation behind these facts. Taking Marx's *Capital* and his manuscripts as an example, they endow historical materialism with a transcendent quality of realization. First, the study of *Capital* and its manuscripts focuses on the internal contradictions of capitalism, enabling historical materialism to be realized as a theoretical weapon for critiquing the world, and also giving the revolutionary logic of historical materialism a new worldview orientation for transforming reality. Second, the study of *Capital* and its manuscripts makes historical materialism more critical. They re-examine the laws of capitalist economic operation, in order to break the dogmatism of Western economics that "private property is rational," provide a key path for eliminating capital, and endow the historical logic of historical materialism with the real content of capital critique. Third, the study of *Capital* and its manuscripts makes historical materialism more future-oriented. This future-orientation is embodied in the realization of the free and comprehensive development of human beings on the basis of eliminating capital, endowing the practical logic of historical materialism with a future purport that transcends reality.

历史唯物主义面向经济事实的同时，还追问这些事实背后的社会运行机制问题。以马克思的《资本论》及其手稿研究为例，它们赋予历史唯物主义现实化的超越性特质。一是《资本论》及其手稿的研究聚焦资本主义内在矛盾，使得历史唯物主义能够现实化为批判世界的理论武器，也使历史唯物主义的革命逻辑具有变革现实的新世界观指向。二是《资本论》及其手稿的研究使得历史唯物主义更有批判力。它们重新对资本主义的经济运行规律展开讨论，以破解西方经济学的“私有制合理”的独断论，给出消灭资本的关键路径，使历史唯物主义的历史逻辑具有资本批判的现实内容。三是《资本论》及其手稿的研究使得历史唯物主义更具未来化。这种未来化体现于，消灭资本的基础上实现人的自由全面发展，使得历史唯物主义的实践逻辑具有超越现实的未来旨趣。

In short, what distinguishes Marx from other thinkers is that Marx constantly externalized his own thought, thereby endowing it with a profound implication of realization—in terms of the depth and breadth of Marx and Engels' thinking, the realization of historical materialism is a critique of the modern world carried out through philosophical transformation, political reflection, and economic critique, ultimately pointing toward the realization of human liberation as its final destination.

总之，马克思与其他思想家不同的地方在于，马克思使自己的思想不断外在化，从而具有高度的现实化意蕴——就马克思恩格斯思考的纵深幅度而言，历史唯物主义的现实化是以哲学变革、政治反思与经济批判等方式，对现代世界加以现实化批判，最终指向人类解放之现实化归宿。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗