Since Karl Korsch’s "Marxism and philosophy" came out,the question of relationship between Marxism and philosophy has been a hot issue.There are two representative views for this issue.One thinks that Marxism is mainly an experiential theory of history,a neutral,objective and functional explication to human history and modern social structure.Another insists that Marxism is a philosophy essentially,and a cultural and political criticism of social alienation and the reification in social life and culture.Both of the directions are reasonable to some extent,otherwise are one-sided.As McClellan noted,by effectively integrating history,philosophy,sociology and economics,Marx’s social theory has made greatest achievement in the history of human thoughts in 19th century.If we view in terms of this position,Marx’s contribution to our age is not that he set up a new philosophy in ordinary sense or he put forward a special doctrine in any social science,but that he was the first man who consciously succeeded in overcoming antagonism between philosophy and science,opened up a new practice of philosophy,namely integrating all scientific knowledge to form a unified social critical theory from normative perspective of human self-creation and liberation.As a critical social theorist,Marx has made most influential criticism and diagnosis of modern society and capitalism based on the norms of modernity and ideal of human emancipation.The new way of which takes Marxism as the critical theory of modern society has its own merits,by the way we not only can go beyond the so-called dualistic constellation between ’scientific Marxism’ and ’Critique of Marxism’,but also would be beneficial to well grasp the intrinsic unity and its contemporary significance of Marx’s thought.
