Critique of alienation was Marx’s early critique of the relationship between the subject and the object in capitalist society from a humanistic perspective, which was a revelation of the inverted relationship between people and things on the baisi of alienated labor.Critique of fetishism was Marx’s critique of capitalist social relations in his later period on the basis of historical materialism, which was based on the revelation of the inversion of the relationship between man and man into the relationship between thing and thing by capital logic. Japanesescholar Hiromatsu Wataru provided an interpretation of “reification” for Marx’s theory on critique of fetishism, and summarized Marx’s ideological process from critique of alienation to critique of fetishism as a transformation from the “subject-and-object relationship structure” to the “social relationship structure”. In this way, he regarded Marx’s critique of alienation as his early immature thinking, emphasizing the logical break between Marx’s critique of alienation and critique of fetishism, but neglecting and denying the coherence of the development process of Marx’s ideology.In actuality, there is an inherent logical connection between critique of alienation and critique of fetishism.Critique of fetishism was not only a logical extension of critique of alienation, but also a creative promotion of critique of alienation.Changing from critique of alienation to critique of fetishism, Marx completed a thorough critique of the “rule of people by things” in capitalist society.

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  LiuTingting

　　From: Journal of Peking University(Philosophy and Social Sciences). 2024.No.06.