论马克思方法论唯物主义的演进方式——从发生论的描述到目的论的解释

On the Evolutionary Manner of Marx’s Methodological Materialism:From Genealogical Description to Teleological Explanation

马克思历史科学中的方法论唯物主义旨在描述和解释人们的实践活动与历史发展过程,其依循的原则是从下层的物质条件出发来解释历史的变迁和社会结构的形成。按照传统本体论的界定,方法论唯物主义是用质料的变化解释事物的构成。与唯心主义直接设定形式、从形式出发解释事物的形成不同,方法论唯物主义面临的一个重要问题是"无形式的质料如何构成有形式的事物"。对此,马克思采用两种方式回应了"质料何以成形"的问题:一是发生论的方式,即从历史起源的物质生产活动出发,描述这种活动如何一般性地层层构建起人类社会;二是目的论的方式,即从既定的社会形态出发,回溯过去的各个因素如何发展以至构成当前特殊的社会结构。其中,目的论的解释包含着发生论的描述,它既是理解历史的方法,同时也是理解实践的方法。

The methodological materialism in Marx’s historical science describes and explains people’s practical activities and historical development. Its principle is to explain historical changes and the formation of social structures from the material conditions of the underlayer. According to the conceptions of traditional ontology,methodological materialism explains the composition of things in terms of the change of matter.Unlike idealism,which directly sets the form to explain the formation of things,methodological materialism is faced with a problem: how can formless matter constitute things that have form? To deal with this,Marx adopted two different ways. One is the way of genealogy,which starts with the material productive activity as the origin of history and describes how this kind of activity can build up human society. The other is the way of teleology,which starts with the established social structure and traces how the elements of the past developed to form the specific social structures of the present. Among them,the teleological explanation contains the genealogical description,which is not only the method to understand history,but also the method to understand practice.