Abstract
Taking “real individuals” as the starting point for a materialistic view of history, Marx’s discussion of labour, estrangement, free individuality and communism provide possible solutions or clues for contemporary Chinese people in responding to questions such as “what is socialism?,” “what is the difference between socialism and capitalism?” and “what are the peculiarities of Chinese modernization?” This chapter demonstrates the necessity and importance of recognising and valuing the role of the concept of individual in the construction of socialism in China by identifying several valuable contributions this concept can make. These include the change of ownership rights, the pursuit of a better life and cultural change and innovation.
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Notes
- 1.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Preface to the 1872 German Edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 23 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1988), 174–175.
- 2.
Karl Marx, “Letter to Otechestvenniye Zapiski,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 24 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1989), 200.
- 3.
Karl Marx, “Preface to the First Edition,” in Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 1, trans. Ben Fowkes (London: Penguin Books, 1976), 90–91.
- 4.
Marx, “Preface,” 91.
- 5.
Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 24 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1989), 85.
- 6.
Karl Marx, “Economic Manuscripts of 1857–58 (First Version of Capital),” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 28 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1986), 400.
- 7.
G. W. F. Hegel, Outlines of the Philosophy of Right, trans. T. M. Knox, ed. Stephen Houlgate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 60.
- 8.
Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 3 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1975), 290.
- 9.
Marx, “Economic,” 296.
- 10.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 6 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1979), 499.
- 11.
Frederick Engels, “Anti-Dühring—Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 25 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1987), 98.
- 12.
Engels, “Anti-Dühring,” 99.
- 13.
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “The German Ideology. Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner, and of German Socialism According to Its Various Prophets,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 5 (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 47.
- 14.
Marx, “Gotha Programme,” 87.
- 15.
Karl Marx, “Wage Labour and Capital,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 9 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1977), 216.
- 16.
See Collected Writings of Li Da, vol. 1 (Bei**g: People’s Publishing House, 1980), 684–706.
- 17.
See **aotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 37–44.
- 18.
This phenomenon reflects Chinese people’s enthusiasm for learning and interpreting traditional Chinese culture (such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism).—Trans.
- 19.
These are two popular political slogans in China, and their original Chinese versions are “人民当家作主” and “全心全意为人民服务.”—Trans.
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Li, Z. (2023). Studies on Marx’s Concept of the Individual and China’s Modernisation. In: The Concept of the Individual in the Thought of Karl Marx. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22591-8_12
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