The Course of Human Emancipation and the Evolution of Social Forms

This article was published in the English edition of Chinese Social Sciences, by Professor Liu Tongfang, and was translated in its entirety by the editors of the English edition of Chinese Social Sciences.

Abstract: 

The “end of history” is a subjective proposition about actual social history made in light of the intrinsic and cultural logic of capital. It urgently needs to draw on Marx’s theory of human emancipation for inspiration to transcend the historical limitations of capitalism. Through study of civil society, Marx came to the logical conclusion that this society will necessarily be overcome. The process of overcoming civil society is at the same time one of transcending political emancipation and advancing towards human emancipation. Political emancipation and human emancipation as the “two leaps forward” in social development make overall history in the sense of types logically divide into three stages, namely pre-capitalism, capitalism and communism, that are inherently connected with Marx’s theory of “three major forms” in social development, i.e. societies respectively featuring personal dependence, objective dependence, and all-round development of individuals. The fact that this theory is concerned with the circumstances of man’s development and the degree of his emancipation determines that the theory of human emancipation also sheds light on the field of social forms, and that human emancipation and the evolution of social form are really two aspects of a single process. With the historical orientation of the self-improvement of socialism, the Chinese people are seeking, in their theoretical and practical explorations, an approach to realizing human emancipation, one that will offer experience with fresh significance for world history in the huge transition in the form of human society.