马克思的“市民社会”概念——基于《德意志意识形态》与《资本论》的解读

Marx’s Concept of Civil Society Reexamined:Based on an Intertextual Interpretation of German Ideology and Das Kapital

立足于《德意志意识形态》和《资本论》及其手稿,对马克思的“市民社会”概念进行解读,可以发现,它所指的是商品生产和交换关系,既包括自然经济条件下的简单商品生产和交换关系,也包括商品经济条件下的资本主义商品生产和交换关系。如果说后者是一种“成熟的”市民社会,那么前者就是一种尚未成熟的市民社会。以此来看,市民社会既不是特指资本主义经济关系,因为资本主义只是一种成熟的商品生产和交换关系,难以涵盖尚未成熟的市民社会;它也不是泛指一切社会形态中作为经济基础的经济关系的总和,因为其他非商品生产和交换关系,即自然经济条件下的原始公有制、奴隶主和封建主私有制等“自然共同体”的经济关系并不属于市民社会。只有用生产关系概念取代交往关系概念,才能克服市民社会概念和市民社会史观的理论局限,揭示和把握人类社会的一般本质和发展规律,在内容和形式两个方面完成创立唯物史观的理论任务。

This study is based on German Ideology,Das Kapital,and its original manuscripts. Through the intertextual interpretation of Marx ’s concept of civil society,we can find that it refers to the relationship between commodity production and exchange. Marx ’s concept of civil society includes not only the simple commodity production and exchange relation under the condition of the natural economy but also the capitalist commodity production and exchange relation under the condition of the commodity economy. If the latter is a“mature”civil society,then the former is“immature”. Thus this concept does not explicitly refer to capitalist economic relations. Nor does it generally refer to the sum of economic relations as the economic basis in all social forms. Since the economic relations of “natural communities”,such as primitive public ownership,slave-owners,and feudal owners’ private ownership under the condition of natural economy,do not belong to civil societies. To overcome the theoretical limitations of the concept of civil society,we should replace the concept of communication relationship with the concept of production relationship. Such a historical view of civil society can reveal and grasp the general essence and development law of human society;furthermore,to complete the academic task of establishing historical materialism.