Kai Fang

(School of Marxism Hohai University,Nanjing Jiangsu 210098)

Abstract:Based on the study of Engels’ thought of Marxist humanism and combined with the current academic discussions on Marx’s “all-round person”,“whole person” and “free person” and other related discussions,this paper,from the perspectives of human educational knowledge,human fraternity and human realization,aims to establish Engels’ path of “trinity” in the humanistic construction of “human intelligence,human nature and humanism.”

Key words:Engels;human thought;construction path;strategic implication

Ⅰ.Question raised:reexamining Engels’s contribution to Marx’s humanistic thought

It is generally acknowledged in the academic circles that the traditional Marxist humanistic study,with the development and expansion of the Communist Party of China,has constantly promoted the realization of sinicization of Marxism,and gradually formed the theory of sinicization of Marxism.However,most of the current studies on Marxist humanism are based on the basic system of Marxist discipline;that is,they are scattered in the special study of the three major contents of “philosophy”,“political economics” and “historical materialism”.Since the reform and opening-up,especially after entering the new era of Socialism with Chinese characteristics,with the transformation of the main social contradictions,the related academic exploration about the insufficient and imbalanced development among individuals,collectives and the countries has been deepening increasingly.Therefore,new academic resources with unified principles are urgently needed for the Marxist humanism issues like human education,human attributes and human nature,etc.

This paper focuses on the study of Engels’ Marxist humanism,and reveals his idea after Marx proposed “Human being takes possession of its full nature in a comprehensive way,that is to say,as a complete person.”〔1〕Then,based on the description of its unique thought on human development construction path,the paper will make the following three propositions about its thought:firstly,human development-proposition of knowledge power;secondly,hypothesis about human nature-proposition of cultural sharing;thirdly,humanism-labor changing destiny.On the whole,Engels has formed three construction paths of human intelligence,human nature and humanism in his study on Marxist humanism,which is of enlightening significance for us to understand the theory of Marxist historical materialism in the new era.

Ⅱ.Engels’ general proposition on the theory of “Human development in historical materialism”

The study of historical materialism humanism insists on putting people in the view of philosophical proposition of “world view”,that is,regarding people as “the historical product of communication”.〔2〕According to Marx’s definition,“the product of human” is “the inevitability of history”—that is,man must conform to the basic civilized form of historical development.By collating Marx’s manuscripts,Engels gradually discovered Marx’s economic and political construction model based on human marriage,family and nationalities.On this basis,Engels carried out the reconstruction of Marx’s historical materialism theory,and put forward the general proposition of “how do people realize their own development”.

According to Engels,human beings return to nature for a long time until they reach the stage of organized production,and collectively develop and reinvent human society.Following Engels’ general proposition of humanism,later Marxist researchers believe that the value of human civilization not simply reflects the values of human nature,and human development is also the basis of the study of Marx’s historical materialism.In other words,“To have a certain system at a certain stage.”〔3〕Social development restricts human development and society reform,which is always reflected in certain fluctuations.In this fluctuating development model,human ethics goes beyond the system and returns to human development.〔4〕Through looking back to development of human beings,Engels proposed the ancient civilization of moral consciousness,the state view of gradually entering the state of governing the country and leveling the world,the public view of social obligation of putting what is learned into practice,and the integration concept of cooperation and sharing and other civilization systems.In the new era of China,the enlightenment of Engels’ general proposition of humanism to us lies in:human civilization develops towards a higher stage of free development and surpasses itself through the advancement of economy and technology.People should develop themselves,surpass themselves,and develop together.One must reproduce oneself by dreams.As the chief designer of reform and opening-up,Deng Xiaoping considered the “good and bad” social standards from the perspective of “human being’s development”,〔5〕and Xi Jinping clearly proposed the concept of constructing the “community of human destiny”,which aims to promote the reform at a higher perspective,not only for meeting the demand of human nature,〔6〕but for meeting the advanced demand of human nature in the institutionalization,namely “the needs of the people”.Therefore,Chinese Communists in the new era form the Chinese proposition “Human development lies in the construction of people’s system based on Engels’ general proposition of humanism studies,which can be divided into the following sub-propositions.

First,the knowledge power proposition of human development.In each historical period of human development,the power of knowledge is a basic theory.Modern humankind has entered into a new stage of knowledge explosion,and rational and logic technology domination is gradually transformed into intellectualized society.The power of knowledge promotes industrial civilization and capitalization agglomeration,and in the era of globalization,our construction of the knowledge power is developing towards a new form of integration of production,education and research.Marx put forward the idea of how human beings liberate themselves,which is the diversity of human self-development,the richness of knowledge,the variability of self-mechanism and the integrity of activity pattern in the modern times.Therefore,human development should first meet the self-activity realization model of informatization,coupling and matrix,and an open system of complete individual world and society has become a new form of integration of current knowledge power.〔7〕To return this proposition to China itself,we can find that the awareness of protecting knowledge rights in China has been significantly enhanced,and the definition of human science and technology morality has become a new development proposition of science and technology ethics in China.As Marx pointed out,labor creates knowledge,and knowledge produces society.With people as the main body of knowledge,the society is evolved from labor organization to economic type,and the economy has began to rebuild in accordance with the knowledge system,following the intellectualization and informatization,thus returning human labor from Hegel’s “logical concept” of absolute dominance to the human body itself,then formed the “realistic individual”〔8〕the organized individuals,the professional individuals,individuals of the enterprise,individuals of the system,and individuals of the state.It fundamentally answers the knowledge-based question under “human destiny community”,and points out the fundamental direction of people’s knowledge power development in the new era of China.People’s intelligent power is no longer,in other words,the power of knowledge,so contemporary China should accelerate the construction of industrial models and the protection system,and construct various types of knowledge society,then make people’s knowledge development as an intervention mechanism,and couple it to modules of the globalized “individual”,“collective”,“ethnic group”,“tribes” and so on.

Second,humanity nature hypothesis of human development.Engels’ general proposition tells us that people gain self-awareness and development because of their institutional participation and sharing.Therefore,the more civilized society is,the more attention should be paid to the construction of industrial micro organization and social micro population.With the further development of “The Belt And Road Initiative” in China,the continuous and in-depth corporatization meets the progressive demand of human micro-organization construction.Humankind is building a new culture and satisfying the new form of human organization,and a large number of new art and literature begin to sprout.Therefore,our party is escalating on institutionalized participation and sharing,which is conducive to the introduction of the master spirit that dominates Chinese culture.We have reason to an optimistic expectation:the study of Marxist historical materialism will usher in the full revival of empirical researches on human development in China,and under the guidance of Marxist humanism,Marxist psychology,ethics,moralism,aesthetics,and the whole social science,management,business science,and the spirit of lifelong values and the spirit of being contented in poverty and devoted to things spiritual in Chinese culture will greatly enrich Chinese Marxist humanism ideological system in the new era,and eventually reach the hypothetical proposition that human’s conscious culture is human development,thus refuting cultural propositions of humanity assumptions in western scientific culture.

In the assumption of western scientific culture,human development is alienation and final marginalization,which is the core judgment of the study of western humanism in Marxist humanism.As for the question of how human beings become self conscious and how to construct free development,Marx put forward in the Communist Manifesto the concept of “union”.The “community of human destiny” proposed in reports of the 19th CPC National Congress is a restatement of this thought.For “union” and “community”,Marx clearly put forward that human nature assumption is a kind of cultural inspiration,and people are the organization system with collective construction,that is the social cell,while the individual is only a product of history.“Union” is the reengineering and reconstruction of social cells,upgraded to human development mechanism whose combination replaces the original social tools,and even it is the national organizational form which promotes the construction of the human development security.

With combing Marx’s theory of humanism,it is not difficult to find that the core problem of the cultural system established by modern society is the problem of human beings,or the problem of human development in other words.Human development is also manifested in knowing itself.Modern technology has a relatively sober and universal understanding of the most extensive evolutionary system of the universe and the infinite diversity of the world.With the rapid development of modern society,unprecedented contradictions and crises such as energy and technology have emerged,and it is extremely urgent to promote human development in an all-round way.Therefore,our Party put forward the concept of “people-oriented” development to promote the construction of a harmonious society.Facing many international and domestic institutional imbalances,China bears the responsibility for human development,building a “The Belt and Road Initiative”,constructing the community of human destiny,safeguarding world peace and realizing the construction of a new system for peaceful rise.These are great practices inspired by assumptions of humanity culture.

Third,the ontological proposition of labor of human development changes the destiny.The construction of labor system is the noumenon of human society,which is the core point of Marx’s theory of historical materialism.Marx’s dual theory of labor value has been reflected in many ways of labor distribution today,and the taxpayer system has enriched the labor value theory.〔9〕Labor is “the fundamental of man is man himself”,and human labor conforms to “law construction” of human development,as well as human labor system mirroring “intuitive itself” and other essential features.Therefore,labor is the ontological objectification of human being.Then,Marx and Engels endowed labor with practical value in 1845-1846 Theses on Feuerbach and German Ideology;〔10〕thus,labor is the institutional basis of human rights.〔11〕

Marx’s labor theory is the theory that has the greatest influence on the development of human beings,not only because of the academic research embodied in Marx’s labor theory of humanism,but also because of the definition of human labor culture as well as the definition of capital and social system,all of which are based on the labor theory.〔12〕The human system itself also has its own labor organization system,which includes social labor system,social welfare system,professional standard system and so on.Nowadays,the enterprise and company organization construction and management theory all reflect the consistent basis.So,the ontology of labor and labor system is always based on a person’s basic activity ability and skills.With all the popularization of high and new technology,people’s ability of system get updated and labor promotes the development of human,which means the value of labor as basis is eternal.Nowadays,labor alienation becomes a common problem in the era of scientific and technological development,but the basic ability of labor is still the foundation of human development.For example,Peters and Vortman,the American scholars,defined corporate culture as:absorbing the essence of traditional culture,combining modern advanced management thoughts and strategies,establishing a set of clear values and behavioral norms for employees,and creating a good environment and atmosphere to help the whole enterprise to conduct business activities.They all emphasize the connotation of corporate culture,mainly values.“The culture of a company is made up of its traditions and ethos,and it includes a whole set of symbols,rituals,and myths.They will transmit the values and beliefs of the company to their employees,and these rituals add flesh and blood to the scarce,abstract concepts and make it full of life.” says William Ouchi,a Japanese-American management professor.As the Terrencee Deal and Allan Kennedy put it:“Corporate culture is a shared value system across the enterprise,a clear code of conduct for employees.Corporate culture is made up of values,myths,heroes and symbols that are of great significance to the company’s employees.Eagar Schein,the world authoritative expert of corporate culture make the conclusion:“The corporate culture is the summation of common consciousness,values,professional ethics,codes of conduct and norms formed through social practice under certain social conditions and followed by all members;it is a cultural management mode that takes value as the core in the process of enterprise development.It is an invisible force and capital that condenses people’s heart to realize their self value and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.” All the views of the above researchers confirm Marx’s ontological thought of “labor changes destiny” and provide important enlightenment for dealing with the relationship between labor rights and people’s development in the new era of China.

Ⅲ.Knowledge,humanity and labor:based on Engels’s revelatory strategy on studying three paths of Marxist humanism

With the study of Engels’ major contributions to the Marxist humanism and his three paths of human intelligence,human nature and humanism,it is not difficult to find that Marxist humanism can form three construction models:knowledge,humanity and labor,which constitute the three major strategies of Marx’s human development.In a sense,Marxist philosophy is actually the theoretical foundation of the construction of this three;Marxist political economy is the construction of the social institution theory of this three;and Marxist historical materialism is the historical image of constructing this three and the preview presentation of the future communist system.It is undoubtedly a new angle of view for us to have a profound understanding of the current serious crisis in human philosophy,economics and historical humanities,deep reflection on industrial development,establishing the new social consciousness of human development and our knowledge of the development organizations and institutional bodies of entrepreneurs,investors,creditors,managers,government departments,the public,enterprise employees and freelancers,and forming the noumenon view that labors people of our country are masters of their own affairs.And it will make us realize the ingenuity of human beings and the flexibility of organization,instead of treating human development as a combination of crowd-gathering,or unified operation the regiment operates like a sea of human tactics and the fleet,or the expansion of individualism,and all of these are not the construction model we discuss.〔13〕

First,human intelligence-knowledge strategy.When the macroeconomic environment and the market situation become unfavorable to the economic and social development,the pressure from the outside will urge the economic mechanism to deal with it,which requires people possess knowledge and culture,always ready to face social transformation to adapt to the change of the outside world,to form the knowledge enterprise and the willpower of human,as a result,various external knowledge of human development,construct the human development management consciousness and career strategy.〔14〕Human development is in the new normal period of knowledge update and knowledge reorganization today,so we should construct new knowledge strategies.China has provided global Chinese wisdom and Chinese experience in China’s manufacturing at the national level,market embeddedness at the corporate level,and especially at the national strategic level.Therefore,we need to build a knowledge-based social construction model of China,implement specific synergy mechanisms,and challenge the “new normal” of the global economy.In the period when we are coping with the pressure of global operation,we let enterprises have their own development strategies and carry out industrial activities along their own thoughts,thus forming the knowledge system of China’s development.One Belt And One Road refers to the situation of knowledge reorganization,and human development is under the collision of global cultural competition and the consciousness of different interest groups,and Chinese knowledge should emerge innovative elements to constantly achieve innovative development.

Since informatization,we have faced the reconstruction of knowledge-based production system.〔15〕Knowledge industry and management involves the import,output,management mechanism innovation,thus forming knowledge vitality,reflecting knowledge model of dynamic collaboration,the concrete scheme of match,the path of synergy,and knowledge strategies that people form under normal circumstances,will change in economies of scale and business scope with the development of the career.However,when facing the same industry competition pressure,or a global economic crisis,or generally facing financial crisis,we may not keep the synergetic match with the other side,but produce precise results.Returning to the origin from human development,it is inevitable to make adjustments adapt to the overall environment.Therefore,we need to build the knowledge model of human development and pay attention to the knowledge of human labor.The whole society should establish a complete professional standard system to improve the knowledge matching,coordination and collaboration between human and industry.〔16〕

Second,the human nature-value strategy.The human nature strategy is mainly reflected in the industry design thought of doing in Rome as the Romans do,the product development mechanism of accurate positioning,cooperation of partnership with all-round targeted.Culture,humanity,ecology and public,this is the basic thought system that human nature strategy gets more and more attention.In economic society,the rights restructuring,the cultural conflicts caused by the separation and merger of the crowd mechanism,the cultural change caused by reorganization and integration,and other phenomena,to say,different people have formed their own culture in their respective historical growth along with merger and separation while confluence,conflict and reorganization of different corporate cultures will be appear.At this point,new people must assess the situation,conform to the times and economic environment,constantly adjust strategy of humanity so as to integrate people’s economic and social value system.Human strategy is to mobilize all the people to be solidarity over the difficulties and innovate the system culture baptism.In the new socialist era,we need to carry forward the human values of socialist system,upholding the spirit of one side is difficult,eight sides support,making the development of human morality as the basic principles of being man.

Humanization strategy,on the other hand,also includes the collective values,collective enterprise of entrepreneurs,collective willpower of leaders,namely the Huizhou merchants’ Spirit of “uneasy about the status quo”,“prepare for war in time of peace” and Zhejiang merchants’ Spirit of “unwilling to be the second”,“stronger & bigger”,and Canton and southern Fujian traditional spirit of “A rising tide lifts all boats”,“No advance means retreat”.Besides,humanization represents the individual character,family responsibility,shows the enterprising sense of responsibility and mission,and then form a powerful integration of mental state and tactics level,never give up until reach the target.It is just the spiritual and cultural power that make a person invincible in the complex market competition,and then gain a competitive advantage of industrial structure and the economic and social system of human development,which is the inspiration we get from Jin merchants’ model and Jack Ma’s Alipay.The people’s development mechanism of conduct commerce and exchange money in different countries or harmonious development of family and country reflects the special pattern of the collectivist development concept.〔17〕

Third,the people-oriented development strategy.Developmental strategy is a historical category,and a long-term historical category of population organization.China has put forward the strategy of “integration” development,followed the diversified development pattern of “One Belt and One Road”,and implemented the overall layout of the globalized economy.This is consistent with the research path and theoretical framework of Marx and Engels on human development.China’s “One Belt and One Road” and the implementation of globalization and industrial density strategy promotes economic infrastructure and the development of the new economy as a whole.In many high-input industries,China has given full play to the advantages of its economic construction,assumed the role of a driver,and comprehensively promoted the intensification strategy of resources,industries and finance.Developmental strategy is often a subculture of organizational collaboration，Although it represents the construction mode of human development,it is also restricted by the original protection mechanism formed in various regions.Therefore,“One Belt and One Road” needs constant adjustment in multiple ways,and the transformation within different economic systems,or the reconstruction in the combination of external systems.Finally,it is implemented to build a procedural,standardized and institutionalized economy structure,which is the development concept of “community of human destiny”.Thus,the developmental strategy is gradual,adjustable and follows the trend.Obviously,the collaborative negotiation at the national level needs to build a deepening investment mechanism and development mechanism.In the new round of economic growth,we are no longer a free-rider,but our own developmental construction.Therefore,we should have a broad vision,a grand strategy,a large pattern,and have a developmental belief to make the world be harmonious.

For a long time,due to the influence of western personal values,Marxist human thought has not clarified Engels’ contribution and value to the path in theory,nor reconstructed institutional system of human development in practice for us.Under the call of “Chinese dream” which is the goal of the times,the development of human firstly means the full revival of Chinese nation’s ceremonies.Therefore,the theory of human development will blend with knowledge strategy,humanity strategy and labor strategy in Chinese mode,and sets a new concept of development for the research of Marx’s “human development” in China.It’s also the concrete sinicization practice plan of Engels’ unique contribution to Marxist theory of human thought.The origin of Marxist revolutionary theory is Europe,but perhaps we can predict that the origin of Marxist theory of human thought,especially the theory of human development,is China.The great Chinese practice in the new era will confirm this prediction!