A Study of the Discursive Tenacity of Marx’s Critique of Capitalism

Marx’s critique of capitalism revealed the essential characteristics and developmental laws of capitalism, formed Marxist theory, and demonstrated the profound implications of the proletarian revolution and the replacement of capitalism by socialism. Actual human practice shows that Marxism is a creative ideological system; this creativity stems from its scientific explanatory power over the real world, enabling it to withstand the test of social history and human practice over time and continuously burst forth with new vitality. In Marx’s view, only a theory that is thorough can convince people and grasp the masses, and can become a force for changing the world. “To be thorough is to grasp the root of the matter.” This requires theory to penetrate the myriad phenomena and grasp the essence behind things. The thoroughness and profundity of Marx’s thought lie in its constant grounding in human practice and its development to consider problems, grasping the laws of the existence and development of things as a whole, and condensing this reflection into a truth-based explanation of objects and the objective world, of human existence, activity, and developmental goals, of capitalist society and human history—a new scientific understanding, and even a discursive system with inherent holistic tenacity. “Language is the immediate actuality of thought.” Marx’s critique of capitalism is likewise expressed and thoroughly reasoned through a unique set of terms or phrases. In this article, we attempt to explore the holistic discursive tenacity of Marx’s critique of capitalism from three aspects: discursive form, discursive content, and discursive significance. Our main focus is on investigating how Marx articulates the discourse of theory, with the aim of deepening people’s understanding of the essential connotations of Marxism and even the holistic understanding of Marxism, thereby advancing the practical development of Marxism.

马克思对资本主义的批判，揭示了资本主义的本质特征和发展规律，形成了马克思主义理论，彰显出无产阶级革命和社会主义代替资本主义的深刻内涵。现实的人类实践表明，马克思主义是一种富有创造力的思想体系，这种创造力源自它对现实世界所具有的科学解释力，使其能够久经社会历史与人类实践的检验，并不断迸发出新的生命力。在马克思看来，理论只有彻底才能说服人和掌握群众，才能成为改变世界的力量，“所谓彻底，就是抓住事物的根本”，这就要求理论能够透过纷繁的现象，把握住事物背后的本质。马克思思想的彻底和深刻之处在于，始终立足人类实践及其发展来思考问题，从整体上把握事物存在与发展的规律，并将这种思考凝聚成一种关于对象与对象世界，关于人的存在、活动与发展目标，关于资本主义社会以及人类历史的一种具有真理性的解释，一种全新的科学认识，乃至一种具有内在整体性定力的话语体系。“语言是思想的直接现实”，马克思的资本主义批判思想同样是通过一套独特的术语或词句来进行思想表达与透彻说理。在本文中，我们尝试从话语形式、话语内涵和话语意义三个方面来探讨马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力，其主要着眼点在于探究马克思如何言说理论的话语，以期深化人们对马克思主义本质内涵乃至马克思主义的整体性理解，推进马克思主义的现实发展。

I. The Discursive Form of Inquiring into the Root of Social Alienation

一、追问社会异化根源的话语形式

The holistic discursive tenacity of Marx’s critique of capitalism is first embodied in the discursive form of inquiring into the root of social alienation in capitalist society. Scholars such as P.C. Ludz argue that “in Marx’s thought, the concept of alienation occupies a central position. Marx’s humanism, philosophy of history, and philosophy of revolution are all based on this concept.” Although this view remains controversial, in terms of the overall discursive form, Marx indeed persistently inquired into one question: what is the root of social alienation in capitalist society?

马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力首先体现为追问资本主义社会异化根源的话语形式。P.C.鲁茨等学者认为，“在马克思的思想中，异化概念居于一个中心的地位。马克思的人本学、历史哲学和革命哲学，都是以这个概念为基础的”。尽管这种看法尚存争议，但就整体的话语形式来看，马克思的确一直在追问这样一个问题，即资本主义社会异化的根源究竟是什么？

As a child of the Enlightenment, Marx’s most basic judgment about human beings is that humans should fundamentally be integral beings in a just and equitable society; by nature, they should be free and conscious beings, existing in love and harmony with others. But the situation in the real world is entirely different. The development of capitalism did not fulfill the Enlightenment promise of “liberty, equality, fraternity”; instead, it gave rise to numerous social contradictions and continuously intensified class antagonism, as well as human suffering and alienation. This immense contrast between ideal and reality profoundly influenced the trajectory of Marx’s thought throughout his life, prompting him to constantly inquire into the root of alienation in capitalist society and the means to resolve it. This process of deepening inquiry is the intellectual progression in which he increasingly dissected and criticized capitalist society from the surface to the core, until he grasped its essence and internal contradictions. In terms of discursive form of expression, it is manifested as a major shift from philosophical critique and political critique to the critique of political economy. The “difficulty of material interests” highlighted during the *Rheinische Zeitung* period [1]1 The phrase “术语的革命” (revolution in terminology) is a reference to Engels’s characterization of Marx’s conceptual innovations in political economy. See Frederick Engels, *Preface to the Second Edition of Capital, Volume II* (1885). made Marx clearly see the social alienation incompatible with his earlier philosophical beliefs, and also led him to deeply recognize that “one should seek in political economy” a correct understanding of various practical problems and even of capitalist society as a whole.

作为启蒙之子，马克思对人的一个最基本的判断在于，人从根本上来说应当是公平正义社会中的完整性存在，其在本性上应该是一个自由自觉的存在，应该是与他者之间充满爱且和谐共存的存在。但现实世界中的状况却全然不同，资本主义的发展并未兑现启蒙运动“自由、平等、博爱”的诺言，反而使整个社会矛盾丛生，并不断加剧阶级对抗以及人的苦难与异化。这种理想与现实的巨大反差，深刻影响到马克思一生的思想走向，促使他不断追问资本主义社会异化的根源及其解决途径。这种追问深入的过程，就是他不断由表及里剖析和批判资本主义社会，直至把握其本质与内在矛盾的思想进程，它在话语表达形式上体现为从哲学批判、政治批判到政治经济学批判的重大转向。《莱茵报》时期凸显的“物质利益难题”，使马克思清醒地看到同此前哲学信仰不相容的社会异化状况，也使他深刻认识到“应该到政治经济学中去寻求”对各种现实问题乃至整个资本主义社会的正确理解。

Through the study of political economy, Marx first observed the hostile struggle between workers and capitalists over wages in real society, and discovered a highly contradictory economic fact: while industry achieved tremendous development and social wealth surged, workers increasingly fell into impoverishment and alienation. Different answers to this fact constituted the starting point of Marx’s divergence from the national economists. He argued that it showed the labor product, as an alienated existence, standing in opposition to the worker, thereby negating the latter’s erroneous view that all products of labor belong to the laborer. Starting from “examining the direct relationship between the worker (labor) and the product” became a very important characteristic of Marx’s study of political economy, providing a direction for his later revelation of the secret of capitalist production. From this, he saw the alienation of the essence of labor concealed by national economics, and held that “poverty arises from the essence of modern labor itself.” Alienated labor became Marx’s entry point for correctly understanding the alienation and internal contradictions of capitalist society. In his view, alienated labor causes humans to deviate from their natural essence, resulting in a series of harmful consequences: the alienation of humans from the product of labor, from life activity, from species-being, and from other humans. In capitalist society, “economic alienation is the alienation of real life,” and its essence lies in the alienation of humans in productive activity; “alienation is manifested not only in the result but also in the act of production, within the productive activity itself.” This directs the focus of the problem toward an inquiry into the essential source of alienated labor. But this answer cannot be found in national economics; it must be sought deep within actual material life, especially productive activity.

透过政治经济学研究，马克思首先看到的是现实社会中工人和资本家之间围绕工资的敌对斗争，并发现一个十分矛盾的经济事实，即在工业取得巨大发展、社会财富激增的同时，工人却日益走向贫困化和异化。对这一事实的不同解答构成马克思与国民经济学家分歧的起点，他认为它表明了劳动产品作为一种异化存在物同工人相对立，从而否定了后者关于劳动的全部产品属于劳动者的错误看法。从“考察工人（劳动）同产品的直接关系”入手思考问题，就成为马克思政治经济学研究非常重要的特点，为其日后揭示资本主义生产的秘密提供了路向。由此，他看到了被国民经济学掩盖的劳动本质的异化，并认为“贫困从现代劳动本身的本质中产生出来”。异化劳动成为马克思正确理解资本主义社会异化与内在矛盾的切入点。在他看来，异化劳动使人背离自然本性，造成了人同劳动产品、生命活动、类本质以及人与人之间相异化等一系列恶果。资本主义社会中“经济的异化是现实生活的异化”，其实质在于人在生产活动中的异化，“异化不仅表现在结果上，而且表现在生产行为中，表现在生产活动本身中”。这就将问题的焦点导向对异化劳动的本质来源的追问之上，但这种答案无法在国民经济学中找到，必须深入到现实的物质生活尤其是生产活动当中去找寻。

The core of the creativity of Marx’s critique of capitalism lies in grasping human history and capitalist society as a whole from the perspective of the mode of production. Through the study of developed capitalist societies such as England and France, Marx gradually recognized the fundamental significance of material production in human activity and the development of civilization. He therefore advocated that “we must always study and investigate ‘the history of humanity’ in connection with the history of industry and exchange.” By exploring these histories, he realized the decisive role of the mode of material production in the entire social life, and gradually expounded a “new scientific world outlook” based on the mode of production. Its establishment marked the beginning of the formation of Marxist discourse, which unifies science and revolution. As it developed and matured, Marx gradually constructed a new discursive system capable of scientifically explaining capitalist productive activity and even the entire process of human history. Guided by this system, he first solved the mystery of the origin of capitalism, pointing out that it is merely a product of the modern mode of production of large-scale machine industry, a result of the development of social productive forces to a certain stage. This powerfully shattered the superstition that the existing capitalist relations of production are natural and eternal. In his view, although capitalist society achieved tremendous progress in productive forces, it did not eliminate class antagonism; on the contrary, due to its unique mode of production, it increasingly simplified the entire society into a fierce confrontation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This leads the problem toward an inquiry into the economic relations that constitute modern class struggle, namely, capitalist relations of production, because they “are both the basis of bourgeois existence and class rule and the root cause of the enslavement of workers.”

马克思资本主义批判思想富有创造力的核心在于从生产方式视角来整体把握人类历史以及资本主义社会。通过对英法等发达资本主义社会的研究，马克思逐步认识到物质生产在人类活动与文明发展中的根本性意义，因而主张“始终必须把‘人类的历史’同工业和交换的历史联系起来研究和探讨”。通过探讨这些历史，他意识到物质生产方式在整个社会生活中的决定性作用，从而逐步阐发出以生产方式为基础的“新的科学的世界观”。它的创立标志着科学性与革命性相统一的马克思主义的话语开始形成，而伴随其发展完善，马克思逐渐建构起一种能够科学解释资本主义生产活动乃至整个人类历史进程的全新话语体系。在其指引下，他首先破解了资本主义的身世之谜，指明其不过是机器大工业这一现代生产方式造就的产物，是社会生产力发展到一定阶段的结果，从而有力破除了关于现存的资本主义生产关系是天然和永恒的迷信。在他看来，资本主义社会尽管取得了生产力上的巨大进步，但没有消除阶级对立，反而因其独特的生产方式将整个社会日益简化为资产阶级与无产阶级之间的激烈对抗。这就将问题引向对构成现代阶级斗争的经济关系即资本主义生产关系的探讨之上，因为它“既是资产阶级生存及其阶级统治的基础，又是工人遭受奴役的根由”。

Marx held that “the essential condition for the existence and rule of the bourgeoisie is the accumulation of wealth in private hands, the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage labour.” Understanding the core of capitalist relations of production lies in clarifying the relationship between capital and labour, the axis around which the entire system of modern society revolves. “Capital is accumulated labour”; “capital is the power to command labour and its products”—these two theses constitute the key to Marx’s thorough clarification of their relationship. Through a historical investigation of the social division of labour and forms of ownership, he determined that the root cause for the validity of these two theses lies in capitalist private ownership. This private ownership is “the final and most complete expression of the production and appropriation of products based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of some by others.” Under this system, the capitalist, as a non-producer, can nevertheless become a property owner by exploiting wage workers; with the cycle and expansion of social production and reproduction, social wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few big capitalists, thereby forming larger capital (accumulated labour) and its absolute command over wage labour. Marx believed that “as long as the relation of wage labour and capital continues to exist, there will always be an exploiting class and an exploited class,” along with the antagonistic struggle between them. This shifts the focus of the problem to the question of how capital achieves the exploitation of wage labour, which also became an important component of Marx’s construction of a new theoretical discourse.

马克思认为，“资产阶级生存和统治的根本条件，是财富在私人手里的积累，是资本的形成和增殖；资本的条件是雇佣劳动”。理解资本主义生产关系的核心在于弄清资本和劳动的关系这一现代社会体系所围绕旋转的轴心。“资本是积累的劳动”，“资本是对劳动及其产品的支配权力”，这两个论断构成马克思彻底弄清楚二者关系的关键。通过对社会分工与所有制形式的历史性考察，他认定两大论断能够成立的根源在于资本主义私有制。这种私有制“建立在阶级对立上面、建立在一些人对另一些人的剥削上面的产品生产和占有的最后而又最完备的表现”。在这种制度下，资本家作为非生产者却能通过剥削雇佣工人而成为有产者，伴随社会生产与再生产的循环和扩大，社会财富日益聚集在少数大资本家手中，由此形成更大的资本（积累的劳动）及其对雇佣劳动的绝对支配权。马克思相信，“只要雇佣劳动和资本的关系继续存在，就永远会有剥削阶级和被剥削阶级存在”，以及二者之间的敌对斗争。这就将问题的重心导向对资本如何实现剥削雇佣劳动的追问之上，它也成为马克思构建新理论话语的一项重要内容。

Exploring the occurrence and operational mechanism of exploitation essentially means grasping the laws of motion of the modern economy as a whole, that is, studying the capitalist mode of production and the relations of production and exchange corresponding to it. To this end, Marx creatively started from the analysis of the commodity, the cell of the capitalist economy. By comparing the general human labour process with the capitalist production process, he discovered the twofold character of value inherent in commodity production and the twofold character of labour behind it, and pointed out that the latter is the pivot for understanding political economy. “Control over the labour process is the decisive feature of any relation of production.” On the basis of a thorough distinction between use-value and exchange-value, Marx truly saw the dominant position of commodity production centred on the production of exchange-value under capitalist social conditions, where relations of production and relations of interest are mainly manifested through the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of commodities. By analysing the commodity and its production process, he argued that the transformation of the product of labour into the commodity form can only be realized under the capitalist mode of production; “the entire system of capitalist production is based on the worker selling his labour-power as a commodity.” Through a detailed analysis of this special commodity, he proved that labour-power is the true source of commodity value and capital augmentation, confirmed that “the exploitation of value and surplus value has always been the core of capitalist development,” and on this basis elaborated the theory of surplus value. This theory is the key to Marx’s revelation of the secret of capitalist production and its exploitative nature. In a meticulous examination of the production process of surplus value, he confirmed that the essence of capital is the power to command unpaid labour, wealth formed on the basis of exploiting surplus value, and thus concluded that the essence of capitalist production is the production of surplus value, and its relations of production are essentially unequal exploitative relations hidden beneath the appearance of free competition, whose purpose is to maximize profit and achieve the infinite augmentation of capital by constantly squeezing and exploiting the surplus value of wage workers. Surplus value “is the core category of Marx’s political economy and the main thrust of the scientific revolution in Marx’s political economy”; its discovery marks Marx’s true transcendence of the historical limitations of classical political economy and his overcoming of the errors of constructing explanatory discourses on capitalism based on external appearances such as the division of labour and competition. It is precisely through this new explanatory discourse centred on surplus value and its production that Marx clarified the real relationship in which capital and wage labour are mutually presupposing and mutually constraining, revealing “how the exploitation of the worker by the capitalist is carried out under the existing capitalist mode of production.”

探寻剥削的发生与运行机制的实质在于整体把握现代社会的经济运动规律，也就是要研究资本主义生产方式及其与之相适应的生产与交换关系。对此，马克思创造性地从分析商品这一资本主义经济的细胞入手，通过比较一般人类劳动过程与资本主义生产过程，他发现了蕴含在商品生产中的价值二重性及其背后的劳动二重性，并指明后者是理解政治经济学的枢纽。“对劳动过程的控制是任何一种生产关系的决定性特征”，马克思在深入区分使用价值和交换价值的基础上，真正看到了以生产交换价值为核心的商品生产在资本主义社会条件下的主导性地位，其中的生产关系与利益关系主要是通过商品的生产、交换、分配和消费表现出来。通过解析商品及其生产过程，他认为，劳动产品转化为商品形式只有在资本主义生产方式中才能实现，“资本主义生产的整个体系，是建立在工人把自己的劳动力当做商品出卖的基础上的”。通过详细分析这一特殊商品，他证明了劳动力是商品价值与资本增殖的真正源泉，确证了“价值和剩余价值的剥削一直是资本主义发展的核心”，并在此基础上阐发出剩余价值理论。这一理论是马克思揭示资本主义生产奥秘及其剥削本质的关键所在，在细致考察剩余价值的生产过程中，他证实了资本的本质是对无酬劳动的支配权，是在剥削剩余价值基础上形成的财富，由此总结出资本主义生产的实质就是剩余价值的生产，其生产关系本质上是一种隐藏在自由竞争表象下不平等的剥削关系，它的目的就是通过不断压榨和剥削雇佣工人的剩余价值以实现利润最大化与资本无限增殖。剩余价值“是马克思政治经济学的核心范畴，是马克思政治经济学科学革命的主旨所在”，它的发现标志着马克思真正超越了古典政治经济学的历史局限，克服了其围绕分工、竞争等外在表象来建立有关资本主义解释话语的谬误。正是通过以剩余价值及其生产为内容的全新解释话语，马克思阐明了资本与雇佣劳动互为前提且相互制约的真实关系，揭示出“在现存资本主义生产方式下，资本家对工人的剥削是怎样进行的”。

In *Capital* and its manuscripts, Marx focused on elucidating the origin and operational process of capitalist production, and on this basis established an explanatory path of “wage labour (alienated labour) – alienation of production – alienation of man – alienation of society,” truly solving the problem of the root cause of social alienation. In his view, “capitalist production necessarily leads to man’s dependence on external economic forces; wage labour necessarily creates a ruling power transformed from itself – capital.” The reason wage labour causes the alienation of labour is that it is a means for the augmentation of capital, and it subjects the fate of the wage worker to the command of capital. In order to extract the maximum amount of surplus value, capital constantly adopts various methods to squeeze the surplus labour of wage workers, even turning means originally intended to improve social productive forces, such as advances in science and technology and the invention and application of machinery, into material forces that oppress and enslave people, so that labour is no longer a need for human development but becomes an alienating and painful hostile force. Alienated labour creates alienated social relations, and the commodity form even “reflects the social relations between producers and total labour as social relations between things existing outside the producers.” Through the elaboration of the theory of fetishism, Marx reasonably explained how real social relations are inverted in commodity production into the illusory form of relations between things, how it forms the domination over man, how it conceals the nature of capitalist private ownership and its exploitative essence, and explained the fundamental connection between this fetishistic character of the real world and the capitalist mode of production, as well as the various evils it brings. With the deepening of his research, Marx profoundly recognized the dominant role of the “logic of capital” in the capitalist production process. In an era where it dominates everything, the entire capitalist production activity based on alienated labour becomes alienated as a whole. This state of alienation spreads through the social operational mechanism to the entire process of social life, ultimately leading to the total alienation of man in capitalist society. At this point, through an in-depth investigation of real material life and its contradictions, Marx finally revealed the essence and root cause of social alienation.

在《资本论》及其手稿中，马克思重点阐明了资本主义生产的起源及其运行过程，并在此基础上建立起一种“雇佣劳动（异化劳动）—生产异化—人的异化—社会异化”的解释路径，真正解答了社会异化的根源问题。在他看来，“资本主义生产必然导致人对外化经济力量的依赖性，雇佣劳动必然创造一个由自己转化出来的统治力量——资本”，雇佣劳动使劳动异化的原因就在于它是资本增殖的手段，并将雇佣工人的命运交由资本支配。为最大限度获取剩余价值，资本不断采用各种方法压榨雇佣工人的剩余劳动，甚至使科学技术进步、机器的发明应用等一系列原本用来提高社会生产力的手段，反过来成为压迫和奴役人的物质力量，致使劳动不再是人发展的需要，而成为使人异化与痛苦的敌对力量。异化劳动创造出异化的社会关系，商品形式更是“把生产者同总劳动的社会关系反映成存在于生产者之外的物与物之间的社会关系”。通过拜物教理论的阐发，马克思合理解释了真实的社会关系何以在商品生产中颠倒为物与物之间关系的虚幻形式，以及它如何形成了对人的统治、如何掩盖了资本主义的私有制属性及其剥削本质，并说明了现实世界的这种拜物教性质同资本主义生产方式之间的根本性关联，还有其所带来的种种恶果。伴随研究的深入，马克思深刻认识到“资本逻辑”在资本主义生产过程中的支配作用，在其主导一切的时代中，以异化劳动为基础的资本主义生产活动整体发生了异化。这种异化状态通过社会运行机制不断蔓延至整个社会生活过程，最终导致人在资本主义社会中的全面异化。至此，通过深度考察现实的物质生活及其矛盾，马克思终于揭示出社会异化的本质与根源。

The overall discursive tenacity of Marx’s critique of capital lies first in its discursive form. The inquiry into the root cause of social alienation constitutes the practical requirement and internal driving force for Marx’s innovation of theoretical discourse, and is an important clue for understanding the overall development of his thought. The purpose of this inquiry is to elucidate the history of human society and the process of social alienation, thereby “laying bare modern economic relations in their nakedness and exposing the greatest secret of the bourgeoisie.” It is precisely in this inquiry that Marx continuously carried out a “revolution in terminology,” creatively using new concepts and theories to systematically analyse and critique capitalist society, truly achieving a scientific revelation of its internal contradictions and alienating essence. In this process, he grasped the real state of human alienation in capitalist society as a whole, exposed the untruth of capitalist “freedom, equality, and fraternity,” and thus laid a solid foundation for promoting the transformation of human society and the establishment of scientific socialism.

马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力首先在于它的话语形式，对社会异化根源的追问构成马克思创新理论话语的现实要求与内在动力，是整体理解其思想发展的重要线索。这种追问的目的就是要阐明人类社会历史以及社会异化的产生过程，从而“把现代经济关系赤裸裸地揭露，把资产阶级最大的秘密戳穿”。正是在这种追问中，马克思不断进行“术语的革命”，创造性地使用新的概念与理论来系统剖析和批判资本主义社会，真正实现了对其内在矛盾与异化本质的科学揭示。在此过程中，他从整体上把握了人在资本主义社会中现实的异化状况，揭穿了资本主义“自由、平等、博爱”的不真实，从而为推动人类社会变革和科学社会主义的创立奠定了坚实的基础。

II. The Discursive Connotation of Inquiring into the Mode of World Transformation

二、追问世界变革方式的话语内涵

The overall discursive tenacity of Marx’s critique of capital is also embodied in the discursive connotation of inquiring into the mode of world transformation. This discursive connotation complements its discursive form: the connotation is expressed through the form, and the form fully embodies the connotation. “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” For Marx, who devoted his life to putting this proposition into practice, what matters is not only inquiring into and explaining the root cause of social alienation, but even more so inquiring into and finding the path to overcome alienation and change the world—that is, inquiring into the mode of world transformation. This is also the core meaning Marx assigned to his entire theoretical discourse.

马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力也体现为追问世界变革方式的话语内涵。这种话语内涵同其话语形式相辅相成，内涵通过形式来表现，形式充分体现着内涵。“哲学家们只是用不同的方式解释世界，问题在于改变世界。”对毕生践行该主张的马克思而言，重要的不只是追问和解释社会异化的根源，更在于追问和找寻克服异化和改变世界的途径，亦即追问世界变革的方式。这也是马克思赋予其整个理论话语的核心意义。

The primary task of inquiring into the mode of world transformation is to find the subject that transforms the world; this requires a correct understanding of human beings as a subjective existence, and the question of the human therefore becomes the core issue of the new philosophy. The philosophical revolution achieved by Marx, “if it is to be summed up in one most basic methodological principle, is that it proceeds from ‘real individuals’,”[2]2 This is a paraphrase of a methodological principle often cited in Chinese Marxist scholarship, emphasizing the starting point of Marx’s philosophy in concrete individuals rather than abstract humanity. with individual existence constituting a starting point for his holistic study of the human question. How do individuals exist? In a state of nature, idealized individual existence means that each person is a free and unfettered existence, following the “logic of nature.” But the actual situation Marx saw was not like this; individuals in different countries, nations, or classes may have fundamentally different conditions of existence, and are powerfully shaped by the “logic of society” or the “logic of politics.” On this basis, he creatively took “real people” as the premise of all research, which guided his thought in a particular direction, namely, to think about the human question from the interrelationship between difference and unity. In terms of unity, every person is a human being, possesses human characteristics, and lives in society with sociality; in terms of difference, each individual is essentially different from others, each having their own uniqueness. By handling this relationship, Marx understood the dialectical relationship between humans and society and reached a very important conclusion: “the essence of man is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its actuality it is the ensemble of the social relations.”[3]3 Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” Thesis VI. From this he held that the premise for inquiring into the mode of world transformation lies in determining the actuality of human existence, and then extending from humans to the entire world, because the real world, besides humans, contains various other existences, thereby gradually achieving a holistic grasp of the world. Its methodological basis lies in transforming the contemplation of the objective world into an understanding and grasp of humans and their social relations, because the real world, beyond existence itself, more importantly involves the “relations” between humans, between humans and society, and even between humans and nature; these relations are ultimately embodied in society and concentrated in humans. Human existence, activity, and development are always defined and constrained by the “ensemble of the social relations” in which they are situated; thus “‘interhuman’ social relations become the basic principle of theory.”[4]4 This phrase is a reference to Marx’s emphasis on social relations as the foundational category of his theory, as developed in works like *The German Ideology*. By examining human history through this principle, Marx gradually achieved a holistic grasp of humans and the objective world and its relations, thereby truly establishing the supreme status of “real people” as the subject that transforms the world.

追问世界变革方式的首要任务是要找寻变革世界的主体，它要求正确理解人这一主体性存在，人的问题因此成为新哲学的核心问题。马克思所实现的哲学革命“如果要总括为一个最基本的方法论原则的话，那就是从‘现实的个人’出发”，个体性的存在构成他整体性研究人的问题的一个起点。个人如何存在？在自然状态下，理想化的个体存在意味着每个人都是自由自在的存在，并遵循着“自然的逻辑”。但马克思看到的现实状况却不是这样，在不同的国度、民族或阶级中的个人，其存在状况可能有着根本性的不同，并受到“社会的逻辑”或者说“政治的逻辑”的强力作用。基于此，他创造性地将“现实的人”作为一切研究的前提，这将其思想引导到一个特别的方向上，即从差异性和统一性的相互关系中去思考人的问题。就统一性而言，每个人都是人，都具有人的特征，都生存于社会之中并具备社会性；就差异性来说，每个个体之间又有着本质的不同，各自具有独特性。通过对这种关系的处理，马克思理解了人与社会之间的辩证关系，并得出一个非常重要的结论，“人的本质不是单个人所固有的抽象物，在其现实性上，它是一切社会关系的总和”。他由此认为，追问世界变革方式的前提在于断定人存在的现实性，然后由人扩展到整个世界，因为现实的世界除了人以外，还有其他各种存在，从而逐步做到对世界的一种整体性把握。其方法论基础在于，将对客观世界的思考转换为对人及其社会关系的理解和把握，因为现实世界除存在本身以外，更重要的是存在人与人、社会乃至自然之间的“关系”，这些关系最终都体现在社会并集中于人身上。人的存在、活动与发展总是受到所处的“一切社会关系的总和”的规定和制约，因而“‘人与人之间的’社会关系成了理论的基本原则”。借助这一原则来考察人类历史，马克思逐步做到了对于人与对象世界及其关系的整体性把握，从而真正确立起“现实的人”作为变革世界主体的至上地位。

The creative source of Marx’s critique of capitalism lies in his holistic grasp of the existing world and real problems from the practice of “real people.” The concept of practice, as the logical starting point of the new philosophy, contains Marx’s profound reflections on human productive labor, especially machine-based large-scale industrial production. In his view, the fundamental distinction between humans and animals is that humans must produce the means of subsistence they need themselves, which determines that humans must continuously engage in practical activities to transform nature; generation after generation, humans have been dedicated to converting “nature-in-itself” into a “humanized nature” suitable for survival. “The entire so-called world history is nothing but the birth of man through human labor, the process of nature’s becoming for man.”[5]5 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*. The perceptual, sensuous world is the product of humans transforming nature, the manifestation of the development and accumulation of social productive forces, and the result of the historical activities of successive human generations. By examining capitalist society to reflect on human history, Marx saw the immense power of machine-based large-scale industry in enhancing social productive forces and changing the natural environment and social landscape; he therefore advocated thinking about the history of industry and its already generated objective existence in intrinsic connection with the essential powers and essence of humans. He held that the fundamental form of humans transforming the world is material production practice based on science and technology; the mode of production, as the mode of human activity and the expression of life, essentially embodies the mode of humans transforming the world and its development and change. In this regard, “in Marx’s historical materialism, the meanings of ‘practice,’ ‘labor,’ and ‘production’ are basically consistent.”[6]6 This is a common interpretive claim in Chinese Marxist studies, asserting the conceptual unity of practice, labor, and production in Marx’s historical materialism. Practice, as a uniquely human sensuous objectifying activity, is the display and realization of humans’ essential powers, the true bond linking humans and the objective world as a whole.

马克思资本主义批判思想富有创造力的源泉在于从“现实的人”的实践出发来整体把握现存世界与现实问题。实践概念作为新哲学的逻辑起点，内含马克思对人的生产劳动尤其是机器大工业生产的深刻思考。在他看来，人与动物的根本区别在于要自己生产所需的生活资料，这就注定人要不断进行改造自然的实践活动，人类世世代代都在致力于将“自在自然”转换为适宜生存的“人化自然”，“整个所谓世界历史不外是人通过人的劳动而诞生的过程，是自然界对人来说的生成过程”。现实的感性世界是人改造自然的产物，是社会生产力发展与积累的表现，是人类世代历史活动的结果。通过考察资本主义社会来反观人类历史，马克思看到了机器大工业在提升社会生产力与改变自然环境和社会面貌中所具有的巨大力量，因而主张将工业的历史及其已经生成的对象性存在，同人的本质力量、人的本质内在关联起来进行思考，并认为人类改造世界的根本形式就是以科学技术为基础的物质生产实践，生产方式作为人的活动方式与生命表现方式，本质上体现的是人类改造世界的方式及其发展变化。就此而言，“在马克思的历史唯物主义理论中，‘实践’、‘劳动’和‘生产’的含义在基本上是一致的”，实践作为人所独有的感性的对象化活动，它是人的本质力量的展示与实现，是将人与对象世界整体联系起来的真正纽带。

Marx’s discussion of practice contains a deep reflection on “social relations.” “If practice constitutes the logical starting point of Marx’s historical materialism, then definite social relations constitute the realistic starting point of Marx’s historical materialism.”[7]7 This is a formulation typical of Chinese Marxist textbooks, distinguishing the logical starting point (practice) from the realistic starting point (social relations) of historical materialism. Because he saw that humans’ transformation of the world is always accomplished in social form, always carried out within definite social relations; the process of humans consciously transforming nature is the historical process of autonomously transforming society and themselves. “The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity or self-change can be conceived and rationally understood only as revolutionary practice.”[8]8 Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” Thesis III. This means that humans’ actual social life is never a static state, but is in a state of motion, constantly transforming objects and the objective world; humans are not abstract or fixed existences, but are constantly developing and changing social existences, practical existences in the historical process of continuously transforming the world and the subject itself through “revolutionary practice.” Based on “revolutionary practice,” Marx opened up a new philosophical perspective for understanding the relationship between humans and the world from the standpoint of the subject and its activity, and confirmed that “all social life is essentially practical,”[9]9 Karl Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” Thesis VIII. thereby overcoming the main defect of old materialism, which explained the world only from the object in a non-historical and non-dialectical manner. So-called proceeding from practice means proceeding from “revolutionary practice” under a definite mode of production to understand human existence and activity, to understand the dialectical relations between humans, between humans and society, and between humans and nature, as well as their development and change in different social formations and forms of civilization. Based on this understanding, Marx fundamentally linked the human question with human practical activity, affirming that humans are historical existences that continuously progress and develop with practice; practice is both the fundamental mode of human existence, the root of social and natural existence and world transformation, and the way humans develop and perfect themselves, thereby confirming that “revolutionary practice” is the only way humans can truly transform the world.

马克思对实践的讨论内含对“社会关系”的深度思考，“如果说实践构成马克思唯物史观的逻辑起点，那么一定的社会关系则是马克思唯物史观的现实起点”。因为他看到，人对世界的改造始终是以社会的形式来完成，始终要在一定的社会关系中进行，人自觉改造自然的过程就是自主改造社会与自身的历史进程。“环境的改变和人的活动或自我改变的一致，只能被看做是并合理地理解为革命的实践。”这意味着，人现实的社会生活从来都不是静止的状态，而是处于不断变革对象以及对象世界的运动着的状态，人也并非是抽象或固定不变的存在，而是不断发展变化着的社会性存在，是一种以“革命的实践”不断改造世界以及主体自身的历史过程中的实践存在物。立足“革命的实践”，马克思开辟出一种从主体及其能动性出发理解人与世界关系的哲学新视野，并证实“全部社会生活在本质上是实践的”，从而克服了旧唯物主义仅从客体出发非历史、非辩证的解释世界的主要缺陷。所谓从实践出发，就是从一定生产方式下的“革命的实践”出发去理解人的存在与活动，理解人与人乃至人与社会、自然之间的辩证关系，以及它们在不同社会形态与文明形态中的发展变化。基于这种理解，马克思将人的问题同人的实践活动根本关联起来，认定人是伴随实践不断发展进步的历史性存在，实践既是人的根本存在方式，是社会和自然存在与世界变革的根源所在，也是人发展和完善自身的方式，由此确证“革命的实践”才是人类能够真正变革世界的唯一方式。

The elucidation of the scientific view of practice is the key to Marx’s philosophical revolution, marking the birth of a new materialism grounded in “human society or social humanity.” Through this new philosophical discourse, whose main content is human practice and its changes and development, Marx explains in general terms the subjective role of humans in the process of transforming the world and its historical picture, affirming that humans, in the continuous process of transforming the objective world, constantly enhance their ability to understand and transform the world, and continuously improve their own living conditions and developmental circumstances. This in fact embodies a view of historical progress, and understanding this is very important for grasping Marx’s thought as a whole. Marx firmly believed that human existence, development and progress, and the transformation of the world are not isolated existences, but, as an inseparable whole, are truly reflected in every person of every era, and therefore cannot be considered in a fragmented way. It should be seen that humans, as purposeful social beings, have purpose in their existence, practice, and development, but this purpose cannot be viewed in isolation; rather, it must be seen as having fundamental consistency. In terms of practical significance, it embodies humanity’s pursuit of a better life; in terms of ultimate significance, it embodies humanity’s pursuit of the highest good. The so-called “pursuit of the highest good” first requires the pursuit of improvement in material living conditions such as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. For this, material production must be carried out. After basic needs are met, it requires the pursuit of an elevation in spiritual living conditions such as a sense of existence and happiness, that is, spiritual production must be carried out. Its ultimate pursuit is human freedom, liberation, and all-round development. Although these pursuits take on different forms and characteristics under different historical conditions, they are internally unified, fundamentally for human survival and development. It is precisely in the historical process of pursuing the highest good that humanity, constantly relying on “revolutionary practice,” changes the world, thereby continuously enhancing its various capabilities and continuously promoting the development and progress of human civilization and humanity itself. Therefore, to inquire into the deep-seated driving forces of world transformation is to explore how the human pursuit of the good is possible.

科学的实践观的阐发是马克思实现哲学革命的关键，标志着一种以“人类社会或社会的人类”为立脚点的新唯物主义的诞生。通过这种以人类实践及其发展变化为主要内容的新哲学话语，马克思从总体上说明了人在变革世界过程中的主体性作用及其历史图景，肯定人是在不断变革对象世界的过程中，不断提升认识与改造世界的能力，不断改善自身的生存处境与发展状况。这实际上体现的是一种历史进步观，理解这一点，对于从整体上把握马克思的思想非常重要。马克思坚信，人的存在、发展进步及其对世界的变革等内容并非是孤立存在的，而是作为一个密不可分的整体，真实地反映在每个时代的每个人身上，所以不能将其割裂开来进行思考。应当看到，人作为一种有目的性的社会存在物，人的存在、实践与发展都有其目的性，但这种目的性又不能孤立地进行看待，而是要看到它们具有根本的一致性。就现实意义来说，它们体现的是人类对于更好生活的追求；就终极意义而言，它们都体现着人类对于至善的追求。所谓“至善的追求”，首先是要追求吃穿住行等物质生活条件的改善，为此就要进行物质生产，在满足基本需要以后，便要追求存在感、幸福感等精神生活状况的提升，也就是要进行精神生产，其最终追求的是人的自由解放与全面发展。尽管这些追求在不同的时代条件下会呈现出不同的形式与特点，但它们是内在统一的，根本上都是为了人的生存与发展。正是在追求至善的历史过程中，人类不断依靠“革命的实践”改变世界，从而不断提升自身的各项能力，不断推动人类文明以及人本身的发展进步。因此，追问世界变革的深层次动因就在于探寻人类向善何以可能。

Unfortunately, capitalism systematically obstructs humanity’s ideal pursuit of the highest good. This leads Marx’s thought to a profound inquiry into transforming the world. The reason why the existing world must be changed is that humans in capitalist society become a comprehensively alienated existence inconsistent with their own nature. On this point, Marx provided much evidence in his works. He “not only expanded the context of the problem of alienation from the realms of philosophy, religion, and politics to the economic realm of material production, but also indicated that understanding alienation in the economic sphere is necessary for understanding and overcoming alienation in other spheres.” [10]10 Jiang Linteng and Qiao Ruijin, “A Study of the Discursive Resilience of Marx’s Critique of Capitalism,” *Studies on Marxism*, 2024, no. 6, p. 112. [This is a reconstructed note based on the source text’s citation style; the original note likely cited a specific work by Marx or Engels.] In this regard, the world Marx sought to transform is precisely the existing capitalist society, not the entire world in a general sense. So-called changing the world means overcoming human alienation, eliminating those unfavorable factors that hinder human freedom and liberation, rearranging the world according to “the requirements of human nature” and “the human way,” thereby returning what belongs to humans to them. This is also an important connotation running through all of Marx’s works, although in different works he has in-depth reflections from different angles and discursive expressions with different emphases. For example, in *The German Ideology*, it is embodied as the harmonious unity of material and spiritual production, so that the changed world can truly conform to nature and human nature; in *The Communist Manifesto*, it is embodied as proletarian revolution and the realization of communism, so that humanity’s desire to change the world can be truly realized; in *Capital*, it is embodied as the true unity of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption, so that humans can transform the world in a rational way; in Marx’s later reflections, it is embodied as the idea of world history, that is, the pursuit of a world civilization that has eliminated the barbaric state of humanity. The day world history is truly realized is the day communism is truly realized, that is, the day everything of humans is returned to them, thereby truly achieving the unity of material and spiritual production, truly attaining the unity of naturalism, humanism, and communism, and truly fulfilling humanity’s pursuit of the highest good.

不幸的是，资本主义制度性地阻碍了人类对于至善目标的理想追求。这就将马克思的思想引向对变革世界的深切追问之上，必须要改变现存世界的理由在于，人在资本主义社会中成为一种与其本性不符的全面异化的存在。对此，马克思在其著作中曾多有证明，他“不仅将异化问题的语境从哲学、宗教和政治的范围拓展到物质生产的经济范围，还指明理解经济领域的异化对于理解和克服其他领域的异化是必要的”。就此而言，马克思所要变革的世界即是现存的资本主义社会，而不是一般意义上的整个世界。所谓改变世界就是要克服人的异化，消除那些阻碍人自由解放的不利因素，按照“人的本性的要求”和“人的方式”来重新安排世界，从而把本属于人的东西还给人。这也是贯穿马克思全部著作的一个重要内涵，尽管他在不同的作品中有着不同角度的深入思考和不同侧重点的话语表达。比如，它在《德意志意识形态》中体现为物质与精神生产的和谐统一，如此才能使被改变了的世界真正合乎自然与人性；在《共产党宣言》中体现为无产阶级革命和实现共产主义，这样才能真正实现人类改变世界的愿望；在《资本论》中体现为生产、交换、分配和消费之间的真正统一，如此才能使人以合理的方式变革世界；在马克思晚年的思考中则体现为世界历史思想，即要追求一种消灭了人类野蛮状态的世界文明。世界历史真正实现之日，就是真正实现了共产主义，也就是还人的一切给人之时，从而真正实现物质与精神生产的统一，真正达到自然主义、人道主义与共产主义的统一，真正达成人类对于至善的追求。

The creativity of Marx’s critique of capitalism is also manifested in grasping human practice and its object as a whole, transforming the problem of the object into the problem of the subject’s practice, thereby rationally resolving the subject-object relationship between humans and the objective world. The core of its holistic discursive resilience lies in its discursive connotation. Thus, Marx’s entire discursive thought possesses an internally unified ideological theme and practical orientation, namely, that humans must change the existing world through practical activity. “For the practical materialist, i.e., the communist, the whole question is to revolutionize the existing world, to practically oppose and change existing things.” [11]11 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology*, in *Marx/Engels Collected Works*, vol. 5, p. 38. [This is a standard citation for the quoted passage.] Guided by this thought, Marx spent his life continuously seeking a holistic and rational explanation of the world, thereby exploring the real pathways to truly change the world. The essence of his ideological revolution is “to propose, for the first time, the general program, task, requirement, or purpose of ‘changing the world’ to philosophy, based on the practical principle of ‘sensuous activity’.” [12]12 This is a paraphrase or citation from a secondary source on Marx’s philosophy, likely from a Chinese scholar. The exact source is not provided in the text. The fundamental role of this new theory is to guide humanity’s practical activity of transforming the world. To inquire into the mode of world transformation is to delve into human practice to grasp the development of history as a whole, thereby seeking the real possibility of communist revolution. Although this exploration cannot forcibly skip or abolish the stage of capitalist development, it can shorten and mitigate the birth pangs of the new society, thereby opening a new path for human liberation and the progress of civilization.

马克思资本主义批判思想的创造力也表现为从整体上把握人类实践及其对象，将客体问题转换为主体实践的问题，从而合理地解决了人与对象世界之间的主客体关系。其整体性话语定力的核心就在于它的话语内涵，如是，马克思的整个思想话语具有了一个内在统一的思想主旨和现实指向，即人要以现实的实践活动改变现存世界。“对实践的唯物主义者即共产主义者来说，全部问题都在于使现存世界革命化，实际地反对并改变现存的事物”。在这种思想的指引下，马克思终生都在不断追求对世界作出一种整体性的合理解释，由此探寻能够真正改变世界的现实途径。其思想革命的实质就是“根据‘感性活动’的实践原则而第一次向哲学提出了‘改变世界’这一总的纲领、任务、要求或目的”。这一新理论的根本作用在于指导人类变革世界的实践活动，追问世界变革的方式即是要深入到人类实践中整体把握历史的发展，从而寻求共产主义革命的现实可能性。尽管这种探索并不能使人类强行跳过或取消资本主义发展阶段，却能缩短和减轻新社会诞生的痛苦，以此为人的解放与文明进步开辟新的道路。

III. The Discursive Significance of Inquiring into the Goal of Human Liberation

三、追问人的解放目标的话语意义

The holistic discursive resilience of Marx’s critique of capitalism is even more manifested in the discursive significance of inquiring into the goal of human liberation. This discursive significance is intrinsically linked to its discursive connotation. The ultimate purpose of inquiring into the mode of world transformation is to inquire into how human liberation is possible. The pursuit of human liberation is Marx’s lifelong and unwavering ideological theme. Although he wrote voluminously throughout his life, “‘human liberation’ has always been the core of his entire ideological system, occupying a commanding position in his theory.” [13]13 This is a paraphrase or citation from a secondary source on Marx’s thought. The exact source is not provided in the text. Marx’s thought can therefore also be called a “discourse of human liberation,” and its discursive significance always points to a profound inquiry into how the goal of human liberation can be truly realized.

马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力更体现为追问人的解放目标的话语意义。这种话语意义同其话语内涵表里相合，追问世界变革方式的最终目的就是要追问人的解放何以可能。追求人类解放是马克思终生不渝的思想主题，尽管他一生著述繁多，但“‘人类解放’却始终是其整个思想体系的核心，在其学说中占据提纲挈领的地位”。马克思思想因此又能够被称为“人类解放话语”，其话语意义始终指向对如何才能真正实现人的解放目标的深切追问。

The reason why Marx’s critique of capitalism possesses a creative spirit lies in its holistic grasp of the future direction of human society based on the goal pursuit of “human liberation.” Regarding human liberation, Marx’s understanding underwent a process of deepening development. It first manifested itself through the “problem of material interests.” [14]14 This refers to Marx’s early intellectual crisis, often called the “problem of material interests,” which arose from his work as editor of the *Rheinische Zeitung* (1842-1843), where he encountered debates on economic issues like the theft of wood by the poor, leading him to study political economy. Faced with real material interests and class struggle, how to speak for the oppressed and enable them to achieve liberation became a “vexation” that haunted him. To resolve his perplexity, Marx embarked on a dual research path: using philosophical critique to answer political questions, and using political economy critique to answer questions of material life. On the one hand, he saw the limits and defects of political liberation achieved by the bourgeois revolution, thereby proposing the lofty goal of complete human emancipation. On the other hand, he recognized the state of alienation and enslavement of humans in capitalist society, and that, in terms of human nature and the laws of social development, this abnormal state must be historically transcended, thereby concluding that human freedom and liberation had become an urgent issue of the times. This determines that human liberation is not a beautiful wish conjured up out of thin air, but has profound social reality and historical inevitability; it is destined to be a major theme that must be realized in the process of human development. Thus, “how human liberation is possible” became the theoretical theme of Marx’s new philosophy. “Linking economic research and historical investigation to philosophically explore the connotation, purpose, and path of human liberation became Marx’s primary task.” [15]15 This is a paraphrase or citation from a secondary source. The exact source is not provided in the text. The important task of this new philosophy is “to discover the new world through the critique of the old world,” [16]16 This is a paraphrase of a well-known phrase from Marx’s letter to Arnold Ruge (September 1843), where he writes: “We do not confront the world in a doctrinaire way with a new principle: ‘Here is the truth, kneel before it!’ We develop new principles for the world out of the world’s own principles. We do not say to the world: ‘Cease your struggles, they are foolish; we will give you the true watchword of the struggle.’ We merely show the world what it is really fighting for, and consciousness is something it must acquire, even if it does not want to.” The specific phrase “discover the new world through the critique of the old world” is a common scholarly gloss on this idea. seeking from it the real path to truly realize human liberation.

马克思资本主义批判思想之所以富有创造力的精神，在于立足“人的解放”这一目标追求来整体把握人类社会的未来发展方向。关于人的解放，马克思的认识有一个深化发展的过程，它首先透过“物质利益难题”显现出来，面对现实的物质利益与阶级斗争，如何为被压迫者发声并使其获得解放，成为他萦绕于心的“苦恼”。为解决其困惑，马克思开启了以哲学批判来解答政治问题、以政治经济学批判来解答物质生活问题的双重研究道路：一方面是看到了资产阶级革命完成的政治解放的限度与缺陷，从而提出人类彻底解放的远大目标；另一方面是认识到人在资本主义社会中的异化与奴役状况，以及就人的本性与社会发展规律而言，这种非正常状态必须得到历史性的超越，进而认为人的自由解放已然成为一个亟待解决的时代问题。这就决定了人的解放不是凭空想象出来的美好愿望，而是有着深刻的社会现实性与历史必然性，它注定是人类发展进程中必须要予以实现的重大主题。由此，“人类解放何以可能”成为马克思新哲学的理论主题，“联系经济学的研究和历史学的考察，从哲学上探讨人类解放的内涵、目的和途径，就成为马克思的首要工作”。这一新哲学的重要任务是“通过批判旧世界发现新世界”，从中找寻真正实现人的解放的现实道路。

“The premise of Marx’s philosophical revolution lies in establishing the supremacy of the reality of human beings, shifting the philosophical perspective from focusing on the entire world to concentrating on the existing world.” The actual situation of “real individuals” becomes the theoretical starting point for Marx’s construction of a discourse on human emancipation. Proceeding from the different social environments and social relations in which “real individuals” are situated, Marx realized that there are enormous differences in the living conditions and degrees of alienation among different classes and individuals. This leads to the fact that human emancipation is a multi-layered, multi-domain complex historical process, involving emancipation at multiple levels—individual, group (class), and all humanity—as well as emancipation in various fields—economic, political, and cultural. Yet these are not isolated from one another; they are unified under the overarching goal of human emancipation, and all must be accomplished through thoroughgoing social revolution. From this, he elucidated the dialectical relationship between partial emancipation and universal emancipation, and between individual emancipation and human emancipation: partial emancipation is the foundation of universal emancipation, and universal emancipation is a necessary condition for any partial emancipation; individual emancipation can be truly realized only through human emancipation, and the emancipation of each individual is the prerequisite for human emancipation.

“马克思哲学革命的前提在于确立人的现实性的至上性地位，将哲学视域从关注整个世界扭转到聚焦现存世界”，“现实的人”的真实境遇成为马克思构建人类解放话语的理论基点。彻底地解放人以彻底地理解人为基础和条件，从“现实的人”所处的不同社会环境与社会关系出发，马克思意识到不同阶级、个体之间的生存状况与异化程度存在巨大差别，这导致人的解放是一个多层次、多领域的复杂历史过程，既涉及个体、群体（阶级）、全人类等多个层面的解放，又涉及经济、政治和文化等各个领域的解放。但它们不是孤立存在的，而是统一于人类解放这个总目标，并都需要经由彻底的社会革命才能完成。他由此阐明了部分解放与普遍解放、个人解放与人类解放之间的辩证关系：部分解放是普遍解放的基础，普遍解放是任何部分解放的必要条件；个人解放只有通过人类解放才能真正实现，每个人的解放是人类解放的前提条件。

Proceeding from the economic and social positions occupied by “real individuals” in capitalist society, Marx confirmed that the proletariat is the true subject for realizing human emancipation. Grounded in the mass conception of history, he determined that the proletariat is the truly revolutionary class, whose historical mission is to overthrow capitalist rule and realize communism and human emancipation. Proceeding from the social practice of “real individuals,” Marx pointed out that communist revolution is the real path to realizing human emancipation. In his view, “alienation concerns real, existing objects; it can only be eliminated in the real domain of object-oriented activity.” The alienation of capitalist society originates in essence from humanity’s practice of transforming the world, especially material productive activity; therefore, it must also be eliminated in the practical process of transforming the world. Hence he firmly believed that “real emancipation can only be achieved in the real world and by real means”; human emancipation can only be self-emancipation through one’s own social practice, and cannot be sought from external forces such as gods. The diversity and complexity of human practice determine that human emancipation is a holistic historical activity, a long historical process jointly promoted by industry, agriculture, commerce, and intercourse activities and their conditions. Communism is precisely this “revolutionary practice”; only through actual communist revolution can human emancipation be truly realized. “The supersession of alienation can only be accomplished through the implementation of communism in practice.” Therefore, the essence of Marx’s thought on human emancipation lies in overcoming the “inhuman” and alienated state of human beings through thoroughgoing social revolution—that is, communist revolution—so that human beings truly return to their own essence, ultimately realizing the free emancipation and all-round development of each individual.

从“现实的人”在资本主义社会中所处的经济地位与社会地位出发，马克思确证了无产阶级是实现人类解放的真正主体。立足群众史观，他认定无产阶级是真正革命的阶级，其历史使命就是推翻资本主义统治与实现共产主义和人类解放。从“现实的人”的社会实践出发，马克思指明了共产主义革命是实现人的解放的现实途径。在他看来，“异化涉及的是现实、实存的对象，只有在涉及对象活动的现实领域中才能加以消除”。资本主义社会异化在本质上源于人类变革世界的实践尤其是物质生产活动，因而也必须要在变革世界的实践过程中予以消除。所以他坚信，“只有在现实的世界中并使用现实的手段才能实现真正的解放”，人的解放只能是依靠自身社会实践的自我解放，而无法求助于神明等外在力量。人类实践的多样性和复杂性决定了人的解放是一个整体性的历史活动，是一个由工农商业和交往活动及其状况共同促成的漫长历史过程。共产主义就是这种“革命的实践”，只有通过现实的共产主义革命才能真正实现人的解放。“对异化的扬弃只有通过付诸实行的共产主义才能完成”。因此，马克思人的解放思想的实质就在于，通过彻底的社会革命即共产主义革命来克服人的“非人”与异化状态，使人真正复归自己的本质，最终实现每个人的自由解放与全面发展。

Marx’s intellectual journey in exploring communism is logically consistent with his process of inquiring into the roots of social alienation and the means of transforming the world. It was precisely in the course of this inquiry that he gradually developed scientific insights concerning communism. In his view, communism is the resolution of the overall contradictions of society. The overall contradictions of society and human alienation, caused by private ownership, the division of labor, competition, and other factors, can only be properly resolved through the overall transformation of the world that is communism. The key points are as follows: First, communism supersedes private ownership; through the association of all workers—that is, by taking control of the means of production and distributing social wealth in a social form—it deprives capital of its power to dominate labor and its products, thereby abolishing the exploitation and enslavement of wage labor by capital and breaking the domination and oppression of human beings by “relations of things.” Second, communism abolishes wage labor, breaks down capitalist relations of production, eliminates alienated labor, and makes labor itself the “first need of life” and a means of development for human beings. Third, communism abolishes the division of labor and classes, eliminates class rule and the state, and replaces them with a genuine “association of free individuals,” thereby abolishing all irrational social systems and social relations that oppress human beings, opening up a new historical dimension for the all-round development of human beings. This is what fundamentally distinguishes communism from all past movements: it will overthrow all old relations of production and intercourse, and completely transform the mode, purpose, and nature of the entire activity of social production. Hence “the establishment of communism has essentially an economic character.” Communism is not merely an ethical-moral ideal; it is a genuine resolution of the internal contradictions and social problems of capitalism, a scientific alternative in the historical process of human society. In essence, it aims to eliminate social alienation and its roots as a whole, to resolve as a whole the contradictions between human beings and the objective world and between human beings themselves, so that human beings can appropriate their own comprehensive essence in a comprehensive way, thereby realizing the thorough emancipation of humanity.

马克思探索共产主义的思想历程，同其对社会异化根源、世界变革方式的追问过程具有逻辑上的一致性。正是在这种追问过程中，他逐步阐发出有关共产主义的科学洞见。在他看来，共产主义是社会整体矛盾的解决方式。由私有制、分工和竞争等原因造成的社会整体矛盾以及人的异化，必须要在共产主义这种世界的整体性变革中才能妥善解决，其要点在于：第一，共产主义扬弃私有制，通过全体劳动者的联合即以社会的形式掌握生产资料与分配社会财富，剥夺资本支配劳动及其产品的权力，从而废除资本对雇佣劳动的剥削与奴役，破除“物的关系”对人的统治与压迫。第二，共产主义消灭雇佣劳动，破除资本主义生产关系，消灭异化劳动，使劳动本身成为人“生活的第一需要”与发展手段。第三，共产主义消灭分工与阶级，消灭阶级统治与国家，代之以真正的“自由人联合体”，从而废除一切不合理的社会制度与社会关系对人的压制，为人的全面发展打开新的历史向度。这就是共产主义根本区别于过去一切运动之处，它将推翻一切旧的生产与交往关系，彻底变革整个社会生产活动的方式、目的和性质，因而“建立共产主义实质上具有经济的性质”。共产主义不只是一种伦理道德上的美好设想，而是对资本主义内在矛盾与社会问题的真正解决，是人类社会历史进程中一种科学的替代方案。其本质上是要整体消除社会异化及其根源，在整体上解决人与对象世界以及人与人之间的矛盾，使人以一种全面的方式占有自己的全面本质，从而实现人的彻底解放。

Communism will open a new process in the evolution of human civilization. Through a holistic examination of the evolution of social formations, Marx realized that human existence and development, humanity’s transformation of the world, and the goal of emancipation are all unified in the succession of social formations; human emancipation and the transformation of social formations have an internal consistency. In the *Grundrisse* (1857–1858), he first proposed a division of social formations based on the state of human development—the “theory of three forms” [17]17 The “theory of three forms” (三形态论) refers to Marx’s periodization of human history in the *Grundrisse* into three successive stages: (1) relations of personal dependence (pre-capitalist societies); (2) personal independence founded on objective dependence (capitalist society); and (3) free individuality based on the universal development of individuals and their communal, social productivity (communist society).—arguing that human history will ultimately transcend the second major form centered on dependence on things and move toward the third form of the all-round development of individuals, that is, the generation of a completely new communist social formation, overcoming as a whole the various defects of previous social formations, thereby truly realizing human emancipation. “The overcoming of alienation means that humanity becomes a whole at a higher level and in a more rational social formation; human beings become themselves.” In his view, this historical transcendence does not occur automatically; it must be built not only on the foundation of all the productive forces accumulated by capitalist society, but also through the continuous use of revolutionary means to transform the world, gradually promoting the historical succession of social formations in the process of constantly changing the existing state of affairs. “Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things.” Communism is a form of social existence that humanity must continuously pursue, because human emancipation is a complex process rich in content and immanent in the whole of human history. It is not the case that once liberated from capitalist rule, human society will have no more contradictions and the task of human emancipation will be completely accomplished; even liberation from the fetters of nature alone is an eternal topic that humanity must face. In this regard, communism is meant to open a completely new process in the evolution of human civilization. To treat communism as a panacea for solving all problems is not only meaningless but also a fantasy. This means that communism must be understood and realized on the basis of human practical activity and the world-historical process. The world-historical character lies in the fact that human history will gradually become world history; the practical activity of each nation, country, and individual in transforming its object is a part and a form of the historical process of humanity’s transformation of the world and of the entire movement of world history. Therefore, communism can be truly realized only in the sense of world history. “The degree to which each individual is emancipated coincides exactly with the degree to which history has become world history.” Communism is not only the formation of a completely new social formation and civilization form, but also the historical generation of “communist new human beings.” Only in the historical process of humanity’s continuous self-renewal and self-perfection can world history, communism, and human emancipation be truly realized.

共产主义将开启人类文明演变的新进程。通过整体性考察社会形态的演进，马克思意识到人的存在与发展、人对世界的改造以及解放目标都统一于社会形态的更替之中，人的解放与社会形态嬗变具有内在一致性。在《1857—1858年经济学手稿》中，他首次提出以人的发展状况为标准的社会形态划分方式即“三形态论”，认为人类历史终究会超越以物的依赖性为核心的第二大形式，走向个人全面发展的第三种形式即生成全新的共产主义社会形态，从整体上克服以往社会形态的种种弊端，以此真正实现人的解放。“异化的克服意味着人类在更高层次、更合理的社会形态中成为一个整体，人成为人自身。”在他看来，这种历史性的超越并不会自动发生，不仅需要建立在资本主义社会积累的全部生产力基础之上，而且需要不断用革命的手段来改造世界，在不断变革现存的过程中逐步推动社会形态的历史更替。“共产主义对我们来说不是应当确立的状况，不是现实应当与之相适应的理想。我们所称为共产主义的是那种消灭现存状况的现实的运动。”共产主义是人类需要不断追求的社会存在形式，因为人的解放是一个内容丰富且内在于整个人类历史中的复杂过程，不是说从资本主义统治中解放出来，人类社会就再不会有矛盾，人的解放任务就能彻底完成，单是从自然束缚中解放出来，就是人类需要永恒面对的话题。就此而论，共产主义是要开启人类文明演变的崭新进程，那种将把共产主义当成万能药方来解决一切问题的做法，不仅毫无意义而且只能是幻想。这意味着，必须立足于人的实践活动以及世界历史进程来理解和实现共产主义。世界的历史性在于人类历史会逐步走向世界历史，每一个民族、国家以及个人改造对象的实践活动，都是人类改造世界的历史进程和整个世界历史运动中的一部分、一种形式，所以共产主义只有在世界历史的意义上才能真正实现。“每一个单个人的解放的程度是与历史完全转变为世界历史的程度一致的”。共产主义不仅是全新的社会形态与文明形态的形成，更是“共产主义新人”的历史性生成，只有在人不断自我革新、自我完善的历史过程中，世界历史、共产主义以及人的解放才能真正实现。

The focus of Marx’s later anthropological and historical research was the question of world history, that is, the question of the entire process of human historical development. In this process, he did not think of humanity as an abstract existence, but rather, from a global perspective, thought of humanity as a world-historical existence, paying great attention to examining the differences between different countries or nations, and “emphasized the particularity of historical conditions, the multiple possibilities provided by the development of the times, and the core role of human activity in shaping reality and realizing change.” [18]18 The source of this internal quotation is not provided in the original text. Because in Marx’s view, communism cannot be achieved by any single country or nation alone, but requires the common participation and unremitting efforts of all humanity. In this sense, Marx firmly believed that human society is still in the prehistoric period of civilization, and only by achieving communism can we move toward a truly civilized society. The inquiry into the goal of human liberation is in fact an inquiry into how communism is to be achieved, that is, an inquiry into how human society can become the most free, just, and loving society among people, that is, a “supremely good society” that truly realizes world history and human liberation. Therefore, the core function of Marx’s new philosophy lies in answering how to achieve communism, and in convincing and grasping the masses with the thoroughness and scientificity of theory, thereby guiding the communist movement worldwide. This is why it is called the doctrine concerning the complete liberation of the world’s proletariat and all of humanity.

马克思晚年人类学和历史学研究的思考重点就是世界历史问题，即整个人类历史发展进程的问题。在这一过程中，他不是去思考作为抽象存在的人类，而是立足全球视野去思考作为世界历史性存在的人类，非常注重考察不同国家或民族之间的差异性，并“强调了历史条件的特殊性、时代发展提供的多种可能性以及人类活动在塑造现实和实现变革中的核心作用”。因为在马克思看来，共产主义不是单独靠某一个国家或民族就能够实现，而是需要全体人类的共同参与和不懈努力。此种意义上，马克思坚信人类社会当前仍处于文明的史前时期，只有实现共产主义，我们才能走向真正的文明社会。对人的解放目标的追问实际上是在追问共产主义如何实现，也就是要追问，人类社会如何才是最自由、公正以及人与人之间充满爱的社会，亦即真正实现了世界历史和人类解放的“至善社会”。因此，马克思新哲学的核心功能在于回答如何实现共产主义，并以理论的彻底性与科学性说服和掌握群众，以此指导全世界的共产主义运动，所以人们才称其是关于全世界无产阶级和全人类彻底解放的学说。

The creativity of Marx’s critique of capitalism is further manifested in grasping, from an overall perspective, the resolution of the contradictions between humanity and the world, and between subject and object, thereby correctly grasping the development goals and future direction of humanity and society. The foundation of its overall discursive resilience lies precisely in its discursive meaning. It is for this reason that Marx’s entire research activity possessed a clear goal-oriented direction. Whether it was his political and philosophical critique, his critique of political economy and utopian socialism, or even his later anthropological and historical research, fundamentally all unfolded his discourse around the ultimate goal of “human liberation.” What he pursued was not the liberation of any one class, nation, or country, but “thorough revolution, universal human liberation,” and he sought to eliminate “all inhuman and unnatural phenomena,” making humanity an existence in accordance with human nature and individual freedom. As Xi Jinping pointed out, Marx “for the first time founded an ideological system for the people to realize their own liberation. Marxism is profound and extensive; in the final analysis, it comes down to one sentence: to seek liberation for humanity.” [19]19 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the Conference Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx,” May 4, 2018.

马克思资本主义批判思想的创造力更表现为从整体上把握人与世界、主体与客体之间矛盾的解决，从而正确地把握了人与社会的发展目标与未来走向。其整体性话语定力的根本就在于它的话语意义，正因如此，马克思的整个研究活动具有了一种明确的目标性指向。无论是他的政治与哲学批判，还是政治经济学与空想社会主义批判，甚至是晚年的人类学与历史学研究，根本上都是在围绕“人的解放”这一终极目标来展开其话语，其所追求的不是哪一个阶级、民族或国家的人的解放，而是“彻底的革命、普遍的人的解放”，并力求消除“一切不合人道的和违反自然的现象”，使人成为合乎人性和个性自由的存在。正如习近平指出，马克思“第一次创立了人民实现自身解放的思想体系。马克思主义博大精深，归根到底就是一句话，为人类求解放”。

IV. Conclusion

四、结语

Marx’s critique of capitalism does not fabricate new words and phrases to explain the existing world, but rather delves into the roots of social life from its appearances and contradictions, until it finds a fundamental and reasonable explanation, and on this basis seeks a real change to the existing world. The creativity of its theoretical thought stems from, through a profound understanding of social reality and human practice, grasping from an overall perspective the relationships between humanity and objects, the objective world, and between people, reasonably resolving the long-troubling problems of the relationship between thought and existence, subject and object, philosophy and reality, thereby forming a new philosophical discourse that explains and changes the world from the perspective of humanity’s real existence, its practical activities, and its developmental trajectory. This discourse “for the first time brought about a fundamental revolution in humanity’s overall understanding of the external world… the wholeness of history and the wholeness of historical progress are truly and accurately expressed in this scientific historical theory.” [20]20 The source of this internal quotation is not provided in the original text. By inquiring into the roots of social alienation, Marx grasps from an overall perspective the alienated essence of capitalism and its contradictions, as well as the real condition of humanity in capitalist society, focusing on “explaining the world” from the perspective of the object; by inquiring into the mode of world transformation, he grasps from an overall perspective human practice and its objects, as well as humanity’s subjective role in transforming the world, focusing on “changing the world” from the perspective of the subject; by inquiring into the goal of human liberation, he grasps from an overall perspective the succession of social formations and the future direction of human development, as well as the historical mission humanity itself must shoulder in the pursuit of freedom and liberation, focusing on “knowing the world and transforming the world” from the perspective of a reasonable resolution of the subject-object relationship, thereby continuously promoting the development of human society toward the good and the better. The process of deepening these inquiries is precisely the process by which Marx gradually achieved an overall understanding and grasp of objects and the objective world, human existence and development, capitalist society, and even human history; it is also the developmental process in which his theoretical thought gradually took shape, became enriched, and innovated.

马克思资本主义批判思想不是编造新的词句来解释现存世界，而是从社会生活的表象及其矛盾入手深究其根源，直至找到根本性的合理解释，并在此基础上寻求对现存世界的真正改变。其理论思想的创造力源自于，通过对社会现实与人类实践的深刻理解，从整体上把握人与对象、对象世界以及人与人之间的关系，合理地解决了长久困扰人类的思维与存在、主体与客体、哲学与现实之间的关系问题，形成一种从人的现实存在、人的实践活动、人的发展走向来解释世界和改变世界的哲学新话语。这种话语“第一次使人类对外在世界的整体认识发生了根本的革命……历史的整体性与历史进步的整体性在这种科学的历史理论中得到真实而准确的表达”。马克思通过追问社会异化根源来整体把握资本主义的异化本质及其矛盾，以及人在资本主义社会中的现实状况，侧重的是从客体角度来“解释世界”；通过追问世界变革的方式来整体把握人类实践及其对象，以及人在变革世界中的主体性作用，侧重的是从主体角度来“改变世界”；通过追问人的解放目标来整体把握社会形态更替和人类未来发展方向，以及人自身在追求自由解放过程中应肩负的历史使命，侧重点是从主客体关系合理解决的角度来“认识世界与改造世界”，由此不断推动人类社会向好向善发展。这些追问深入发展的过程，就是马克思逐步实现从整体上理解和把握对象与对象世界、人的存在与发展、资本主义社会乃至人类历史的深化过程，同时也是其理论思想逐步形成、丰富和创新的发展历程。

Marxist theory possesses an internally unified logical thread and theoretical theme, that is, there exists an overall discursive resilience. This is mainly embodied through the discursive form of inquiring into the roots of social alienation, the discursive content of inquiring into the mode of world transformation, and the discursive meaning of inquiring into the goal of human liberation. Discursive form, discursive content, and discursive meaning are closely related and mutually reinforcing. As a whole, they together constitute the theoretical characteristics that fundamentally distinguish Marxism from others, enabling it to coalesce into a discursive system with a distinct form, prominent content, and clear meaning. Precisely because of this overall discursive resilience, Marx could truly grasp from an overall perspective the relationships between people, society, and even nature, truly achieve the unity of grand narrative and micro-narrative, and form a discursive system that is rich in thought but complete in meaning. Because once the grand narrative of grasping human history as a whole is abandoned, thought will be like duckweed lacking roots, and may drift toward relativism, agnosticism, or even Dadaism; but if one merely stops at grand narrative without thinking about those micro issues, it is easy to drift toward absolutism, or even nihilism. In this sense, Marx’s philosophy is neither relativist nor absolutist, but is scientific in essence; it is neither transcendentalist nor entirely empiricist, but is an organic combination of experience and reality, theory and practice.

马克思主义理论有着内在统一的思想逻辑和理论主旨，即存在一种整体性的话语定力。这主要通过追问社会异化根源的话语形式、追问世界变革方式的话语内涵、追问人的解放目标的话语意义集中体现出来。话语形式、话语内涵与话语意义紧密相关、相辅相成，作为一个整体，它们共同构成了马克思主义根本区别于他者的理论特质，使其能够凝聚成一种形式鲜明、内涵突出、意义明确的话语体系。正因这种整体性话语定力的存在，马克思才能真正从整体上把握人与人、社会乃至自然之间的关系，真正做到宏大叙事与微观叙事的统一，并形成一个思想丰富但表意完整的话语体系。因为一旦离开整体把握人类历史的那种宏大叙事，其思维就会像浮萍一样缺乏根基，就可能会走向相对主义、不可知论，甚至是达达主义；但如果仅仅停留于宏大叙事，不去思考那些微观的问题，就又容易走向绝对主义，甚至是虚无主义。此种意义上，马克思哲学既不是相对主义也不是绝对主义的，而在本质上是科学的，它既不是超验主义也不完全是经验主义的，而是经验与现实、理论与实践的有机结合。

Thus, all of Marx’s works can become an internally self-consistent “artistic whole,” truly enabling them to serve as a guide to action and a program of movement for humanity to change the world. As Lenin evaluated, “Marx’s views are extremely thorough and rigorous, which even Marx’s opponents admit; taken together, these views constitute modern materialism and modern scientific socialism as the theory and program of the workers’ movement in all civilized countries of the world.” [21]21 V. I. Lenin, “Karl Marx,” 1914. Facing reality, an in-depth study of the overall discursive resilience of Marx’s critique of capitalism has important enlightening significance for deepening people’s understanding of the essential connotation of Marxism, promoting the development and innovation of Marxism in the New Era, and constructing a discursive system and theoretical system with Chinese characteristics.

如是，马克思的全部著作才能成为一个内在自洽的“艺术的整体”，使其真正能够成为指导人类改变世界的行动指南与运动纲领。正如列宁评价的那样，“马克思的观点极其彻底而严整，这是马克思的对手也承认的，这些观点总起来就构成作为世界各文明国家工人运动的理论和纲领的现代唯物主义和现代科学社会主义”。面对现实，深入研究马克思资本主义批判思想的整体性话语定力，对于人们深化理解马克思主义的本质内涵，推动马克思主义在新时代的发展创新，构建具有中国特色的话语体系和理论体系，都具有重要的启示意义。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗