Historical materialism is undoubtedly closely related to the theme of political philosophy. The article tries to discuss how historical materialism can be actively developed as a basic standpoint and method on the theme of political philosophy. From the basic standpoint, the basic question to be distinguished is: is historical materialism “historical science” or “ideological mythology”? Contrary to ideology as a “false idea”, historical materialism guides the essence of thoughts ideas, categories, etc. into people’s real life process; Therefore, from the standpoint of historical materialism, political rights, political systems and political ideas are rooted in the social historical reality. Today’s discussion on the theme of political philosophy, including the research in the name of “Marxist political philosophy”, is still based on the concepts of “freedom” “justice” “fairness” and so on-such concepts have therefore become “mysterious trends”, “primitive intentions”, “the purpose of destiny”; However, the study of political philosophy based only on the “sacred ideas” runs counter to the position of historical materialism. The basic method of historical materialism on the issue of political philosophy requires freedom from the thinking mode of abstract universality-external reflection. The real universality is not abstract universality, but can go deep into the concrete and grasp the concrete universality. This requires appealing to the view of social historical reality, and requires the universals to be specific according to specific social conditions and historical environment.The materialization of historical materialism should be the methodological guidance for the theme of political philosophy.
Editor: Zhong Yao Deng Panyi
From: Political Philosophical Research.2023.No.1.
ACADEMY OF MARXISM CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES