马克思关于市民社会与现代性的关联

Linkage between Civil Society and Modernity Seen by Marx

市民社会是马克思现代性理论的重要基础。通过对市民社会与国家关系的探讨,马克思阐明现代国家与市民社会的分离是现代性确立的重要标志;通过对市民社会经济领域的考察,马克思指出市民社会是现代性发展的真正的实践领地。在对市民社会进行全面探究后,马克思看到市民社会的局限与矛盾,从而提出超越市民社会,从政治解放到人类解放的共产主义理想。这里,市民社会又成为马克思的现代性自我批判与超越的基础。

The civil society is an important basis on which Marx developed his theory of modernity. Marx explained that it was the separation of modern state and civil society that marked the establishment of modernity. Analyzing the economy of the civil society, Marx claimed that the civil society was a real field of practice for modernity to develop. A thorough investigation of the civil society enabled Marx to discover its limitations and contradictions. It is in the light of this discovery that Marx put forward the ideal of communism, which transcended the civil society, and moved from political emancipation to emancipation of mankind. Hence, civil society was seen by Marx as the basis of self-criticism and transcending of modernity.