马克思的“生活决定意识”思想及其当代价值

On Marx’s Thought of “Life Determines Consciousness” and its Contemporary Value

马克思的哲学革命开启了由纯粹的自我意识到感性对象性活动的“实践转向”,“生活决定意识”思想在此一转向中得以问世。在马克思那里,意识在任何时候都只能是被意识到了的存在,它源自人们现实生活中的对象性活动并随之改变。我们认为,马克思以“生活决定意识”的思想突破了意识的内在性,以对象性的“感性意识”消解了思辨哲学的“纯粹意识”,贯穿了社会生活的实体性内容,实现的是唯物史观的生成。可以说,人类的历史就是感性意识的历史,感性意识在由对象性活动建构的同时,也确证了现实的社会生活;感性意识作为“对象性本质力量的主体性”,自觉表达了人与自然界、人与人之间对象性关系的实体性内容。正是在批判思辨哲学意识的内在性与虚无性中,“生活决定意识”思想切中了社会现实,其作为哲学方法论的价值也不可遏制地呈现了出来。

Marx’s philosophical revolution initiated the “practical turn” from pure self-consciousness to perceptual objective activity, during which the thought of “life determines consciousness” came into being. Marx holds that consciousness at any time is the conscious existence which derives from the objective activity of the people’s real life and changes with the change of practical activities. We believe that Marx has broken through the immanence of consciousness with the thought of “life determines consciousness”, replaced the “pure consciousness” of the speculative philosophy with the perceptual consciousness of subjectivity, penetrated through the substantive content of social life, and realized the generation of historical materialism. It is safe to say that human history is reflected in the history of perceptual consciousness which testifies the actual social life in the construction of objective activities. Perceptual consciousness as the subjectivity of objective essential powers?expresses through itself the substantive content of the objective relations between man and nature as well as among human beings. It is in the critique of the immanence and vacuity of consciousness in speculative philosophy that Marx’s thought of “life determines consciousness” reveals truthfully the social reality, whose value of philosophical methodology stands out conspicuously.