Return to the Theoretical Source of Marxist Philosophical System: Reinterpreting Marxist Ontology and Epistemology

Yang Geng, July 2020

Author: Yang Geng is a professor at Beijing Normal University. The book mentioned in the text “The Basic Theoretical Research of Marxist Philosophy” was published by Beijing Normal University Press.

For Marxist philosophy, its basic theory is certainly practical ontology. Different from traditional philosophy which focuses on “how the world is possible”, Marxist philosophy focuses on “how human liberation is possible”. The reason why Marxist philosophy has caused a revolutionary change in the history of philosophy is that its theoretical premise is to transform the theoretical theme of philosophy from “how the world is possible” to “how human liberation is possible”. Human liberation is the real sun around which Marxist philosophy revolves.

Marx was a German, but he lived and settled in Britain for 34 years in his 65-year “travail”. The epoch-making “Communist Manifesto” was first published in London in English and German in 1848. Marx not only criticized German classical philosophy, but also criticized British classical economics. It was in this dual criticism process of philosophical criticism and economic criticism that Marx founded the philosophy of “new materialism”. Marx not only criticized the German system as “the open completion of the old system”, but more importantly, criticized the “typical” capitalist mode of production – the British mode of production. “Capital” “mainly uses Britain as an example in theoretical exposition” (Marx). It was in this critical process that Marx founded political economics with capital criticism as its core. Marx was born in Trier, Germany, but he spent a long time writing in the British Museum in London, England, and was buried in London Highgate Cemetery. It can be said that Marx’s main theoretical and practical activities throughout his life were closely related to Britain, and he had an “indissoluble bond” with Britain. Therefore, I am grateful to Springer Nature for publishing this book in English (published by Beijing Normal University Press). I dedicate this English version of this book to this German philosopher who is buried in the Highgate Cemetery in London and works at the British Museum in London, to express my deep respect for this “millennial thinker”.

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