Focusing on the issue of real individuals and their material production, Marx made a critical interpretation in section 1 of Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. On the one hand, from the point of view of the individual of production, human dependence is the concrete embodiment of human sociality or social connection, and its bond and foundation can be either geographical or blood relationship as a natural factor, or social factors and social relations such as commodity production and exchange, which helps to bring about the independence and isolation of the individual at the same time. On the other hand, from the point of view of individual production, material production has both general rules and commonality, and special rules and individuality. It is the dialectical unity of general rules and special rules, commonalities and individuality. Whether it is production in general or production in special, it can be expressed both as technical elements and technical relations, and as power elements and power relations. The two cannot be confused. Since production, individual and society are an inseparable organic whole, although the viewpoint of the isolated individual ignores people’s sociality and social ties, it is a distorted reflection and expression of mature civil society, that is, the developed social ties under the condition of commodity economy. Bourgeois economists’ understanding of material production is superficial and one-sided.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From:Studies on Marxism.2022.No.7.