Smith to Marx: A Historical Interpretation of the Methodological Evolution in Economic Philosophy

Author: Tang Zhengdong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: In the current interpretive atmosphere of Marxist philosophy, tracing the historical position of Marxist philosophy must start from the line of European modern philosophy such as Descartes—Kant—Hegel, and explaining the contemporaneity of Marxist philosophy must be grounded in placing Marx into a dialogue with modern philosophers like Heidegger. This seems to have become a certain learning habit. However, this book argues that the key to Marx's transcendence of modern metaphysical philosophy lies in providing philosophy with a new generative mechanism from the internal reality of social life. Fundamentally, Marx's philosophy is not the philosophical thought that supports his reflections on abstract topics like humans and freedom, but rather the philosophical thought that supports his reflections on social life issues centered around real economic problems. In this sense, we can say that to understand Marx's philosophy, it is necessary to fully connect the development line of economic philosophy methodologies from Smith to Marx. This book proceeds from such guiding principles, comprehensively clarifies the views of three main economic philosophy methodology schools related to understanding Marx's economic philosophy thought, conducts an in-depth study of the thoughts of their respective representatives, and aims to highlight the basic characteristics of Marx's economic philosophy methodology through comparison. On this basis, this book provides a historical interpretation of Marx's economic philosophy methodology and offers fresh interpretations of some important issues related to the fundamental connotations of Marx's philosophy.