[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nea/journl/y2022i53p181-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The nature of humanism and materialism of Marx's concept of man

Author

Listed:
  • Sushentsova, M.

    (National Research University "Higher School of Economics", Moscow, Russia)

  • Chaplygina, I.

    (Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia)

Abstract
This paper is devoted to clarification of Marx's view of man in terms of his special humanism and materialism. The authors argue that Marx's works contain normative elements and the basic value for him is free human self-realization. But this self-realization doesn't serve as a mean for embodiment of certain human ideals; it is the end in itself. So, the authors qualify Marx's position in comparison with other kinds of humanism as non-directed anthropocentrism. Marx rejects the autonomy of abstract ethics, as well as any abstract categories, and raises the significance of human practice as the process of life's actualization. In this context, the historical materialism of Marx appears closely related to his conception of man as an active agent of history and creator of material world: significant part of material world is interpreted by Marx as the estranged and objectified human subjectivity; nature and man are perceived as the dialectical unity, and the first one acquires its significance only as the living space of the second. This allowed the authors to propose the term "subjective materialism" for defining Marx's approach. Even in Marx's later works, the historical task of developing productive forces appears to be permeated with the general humanistic goal of full human liberation and recovery its primacy in relation to the external world. And this task appears to be the key trend of the history in the Marx's conception.

Suggested Citation

  • Sushentsova, M. & Chaplygina, I., 2022. "The nature of humanism and materialism of Marx's concept of man," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 53(1), pages 181-200.
    • Handle: RePEc:nea:journl:y:2022:i:53:p:181-200
    DOI: 10.31737/2221-2264-2022-53-1-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econorus.org/repec/journl/2022-53-181-200r.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31737/2221-2264-2022-53-1-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marx; Marx's concept of man; humanism; anthropocentrism; subjective materialism; ethics; alienation; dialectics; fetishism; goals of historical development; communism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nea:journl:y:2022:i:53:p:181-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alexey Tcharykov (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nearuea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.