Yang Fan: The Idea of Human Liberation in "The German Ideology"
In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels not only thoroughly settled accounts with their "former philosophical conscience" [1] but also, through a comprehensive critique of German ideology represented by the Young Hegelians, completed a fundamental revolution in the conception of history. They firmly anchored the starting point of history in social, practicing, and concrete individuals, and upon this foundation, provided a formal exposition of the problem of human liberation. Marx and Engels no longer appealed to abstract moral invocations or changes in ideas for human liberation; instead, they examined it within the objective laws of socio-historical development and the process of practice, completing a profound shift in the theoretical paradigm.
The Premise of Human Liberation: "Real Individuals"
Marx and Engels’s thought on "human liberation" unfolds based on the logic of "real individuals." Humans in the process of real activity are the standing point of Marx and Engels’s thought. Marx and Engels pointed out that the premises of history are "the existence of living human individuals... their activity and the material conditions under which they live." "Real individuals" are neither "isolated" entities nor "self-consciousness," "species-essence," "the unique one," [2] or any other abstract categories. Rather, they are living individuals situated within specific social relations and relations of production, engaged in actual productive activity, restricted by specific material conditions, and constantly changing those conditions. "Real individuals" are first and foremost flesh-and-blood natural beings who must satisfy basic survival needs through material productive activity, situated within the most unpretentious and foundational practice: the production of the material means of subsistence. In material practice, the essential powers of man become objectified, and the agency of the subject is realistically unfolded. In the process of material production, humans not only transform nature but also transform themselves, developing new needs, new capacities, and new social relations. Marx and Engels believed that "the production of life, both of one’s own in labor and of fresh life in procreation, now appears as a double relationship: on the one hand as a natural, on the other as a social relationship." People are both the creators of these relations and are constrained by them. Therefore, Marx and Engels pointed out that "real man" is inevitably a person situated within specific relations of intercourse [3]. The real essence of man is the "sum of all social relations." To break the shackles of idealism for human liberation, they pointed out that the problem of human liberation should be examined with an eye toward historical development, social development, and the development of production.
The Division of Labor, Private Property, and the Chains of "Alienation"
Human liberation means a revolution against the material premises that restrict the well-rounded development of the individual—that is, fundamentally changing the existing mode of production. Marx and Engels profoundly revealed that the root cause hindering human liberation lies in the spontaneously formed, coercive social division of labor and its inevitable product—private property. They believed that "the division of labor is one of the chief forces of history up to now." The emergence and development of the division of labor promoted the development of the productive forces and relations of production in human society; however, at the same time, it led to the fixation and partialization of individual activity, as well as the "unequal distribution of labor and its products." This distributive relationship eventually gave birth to private property. The division of labor and private property are the sources of the formation of alienated labor. After the division of labor appears, anyone is confined to a certain range of non-voluntary, socially imposed activity, and their development is forced to become one-sided. Marx and Engels pointed out that "as long as the division of labor is not voluntary, but has come about naturally, man’s own deed becomes an alien power opposed to him." Under private property, especially capitalist private property, labor becomes an alienating force. The labor of the proletariat is no longer the free exercise of human essential powers, but a means for survival and earning a living. Labor becomes an alien power that in turn possesses the laborer. The alienation of the laborer from his own labor, the products of labor, and the human species-essence ultimately leads to the alienation of man from man. The laborer is reduced to an appendage of capital; the worker is enslaved by material goods, the capitalist is enslaved by capital, and man gradually loses autonomy and creativity. Only by breaking free from this alien power of constraint and enslavement can humans move toward true liberation and realize their free and well-rounded development.
The Development of Productive Forces and the Revolutionary Proletariat
"Liberation" is a historical activity. To realize "human liberation," the absolutely necessary practical premise is the immense abundance of material wealth created by the high development of productive forces, and the global universal intercourse [4] brought about by this. This provides the material foundation for eliminating local limitations, forming world-historical individuals, and ultimately eliminating the old division of labor. In contrast to "alienated labor," Marx and Engels proposed the concept of "self-activity." Self-activity refers to an ideal state of human practice; it is activity in which "the development of individual capacities is comprehensive." In self-activity, labor recovers its nature as the primary need of man and as free, conscious activity. Individuals are no longer constrained by a fixed division of labor; they can freely engage in various creative activities according to their own interests and the needs of society, thereby achieving free and well-rounded development. The realization of self-activity depends on the elimination of the division of labor under the conditions of private property, the high development of productive forces, and the fundamental transformation of social relations. Marx did not view self-activity as an unattainable utopia, but rather pointed out the realistic path to its realization: revolutionary practice. Through revolution, the severe constraints imposed by private property and the division of labor on the individual are broken, promoting further development of the productive forces and the rational adjustment of the modes of intercourse, thus realizing the liberation of real people and the free development of all. While capitalist large-scale industry creates massive productive forces and universal world-wide intercourse, it forges the material and subjective forces to overcome alienation even as it produces universal alienation. When existing relations of production become fetters on the development of productive forces and the progress of modes of intercourse, the revolutionary practice of the class representing advanced productive forces becomes the direct impetus for breaking the old order and building a new society. As the most deeply and thoroughly oppressed class in capitalist society, the proletariat, through revolutionary movements to seize political power, creates the conditions for eliminating all classes and class rule, and for the self-activity of every individual.
The "True Community" and the Free and Well-Rounded Development of Man
In the final analysis, human liberation is manifested in the free and well-rounded development of the individual in the future society; it is a liberation from the "one-sided man" to the "well-rounded man." The free and well-rounded development of the individual depends on human liberation based on real society; only by being liberated from the shackles of exploitation and oppression can the free development of the well-rounded or total man become possible. Marx and Engels's vision of the future regarding human liberation is the voluntary and conscious combination into a "true community," a completely new form of social organization. The "free and well-rounded development of man" can only be truly realized in a communist society, and only under these social conditions can man obtain thorough and genuine liberation. Marx and Engels believed that the community forms of class society are essentially "illusory communities," being an "association of one class against another." Within them, the individual exists only as a "member of a class," and the general interest is nothing more than the particular interest of the ruling class; individual freedom and the general interest of the community exist in a state of opposition. Only after private property, classes, and the forced division of labor are abolished can a "true community" be established. "In the conditions of the true community, individuals obtain their freedom in and through their association." The individual is no longer an object managed and dominated by alien forces, but a conscious master of social life; they are no longer subject to a specific link or field of production. The free and conscious character of labor is restored, the individual and the community are truly reconciled, and the ideal of the liberation of human individuality is realized. On one hand, it transcends the opposition between individual and social interests in capitalist society, making the community a condition for, rather than a limit on, individual free development. On the other hand, it preserves the richness and diversity of individual development, making society full of vitality. This liberation is the "thorough liberation of all human senses and attributes"; it is a total liberation in which "man appropriates his total essence in a total manner" across all levels—economic, political, cultural, and spiritual. The individual sheds dependence on persons and things, is liberated from all alienated and enslaved social relations, and achieves full expression of individuality, obtaining the conditions and possibilities for free and well-rounded development. Marx and Engels believed that "only in community with others has each individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions," and that the fates of all are shared. Through universal world-wide intercourse, individuals break free from national and local limitations and become "world-historical" individuals directly connected with world production, thereby obtaining the possibility to fully exercise their talents and reaching a state of free and well-rounded development.
The thought of Marx and Engels on human liberation is a combination of a profound revolution in the conception of history and a lasting movement of practice. Its theoretical brilliance increasingly demonstrates its profound power of truth and powerful contemporary value amidst the complex social changes and ideological fluctuations of the contemporary world. This thought, having bidden farewell to Utopian fantasies, remains to this day the fundamental theoretical resource for critiquing capitalist modernity and exploring the future path for humanity, pointing out a scientific path for the cause of the liberation of the proletariat and all of humanity.