Jiang Xuebin: The Artistic Critical Construction of Marx’s Thought on Scientific Atheism
The long-standing religious traditions of the Western world and the religious background of his early upbringing provided Marx with a specific cognition and understanding of religion, God, or the divine. With the accumulation of life experience, the maturation of his ideological theories, and the deepening of practical struggle, Marx gradually grew into a steadfast atheist. In the philosophical realm, Marx’s atheistic thought is directly manifested as a critique of religion and theology; in the aesthetic realm, however, he constructed an artistic path for the critique of divinity. From the creation of literary works to the gradual refinement of a system of aesthetic thought, Marx constructed an artistic critical theory of scientific atheism, centered on his literary praxis, his revelation of the essence of art, and his ideas regarding artistic production. This further enriched the developmental genealogy and modes of deployment of Marx’s scientific atheism.
I. The Critique of Divinity in Marx’s Literary Creation
As a specialized artistic language, literary works are important vehicles for expressing thoughts and emotions. In his youth, Marx was deeply passionate about literary creation and composed several volumes of poetry during his student years. Furthermore, Marx authored literary works in other genres, such as plays and novels. The artistic connotations within Marx’s literary creations are profound and far-reaching, and the seeds of atheistic thought were already apparent in these early works. Marx’s literary works unreservedly negate the existence and authority of God, utilizing literary creation to launch a critique of divinity.
(1) Revealing the Illusory Essence of Deities through Artistic Critique
The image of the divine is a common subject in various literary works. Attributes such as mystery, transcendence, and unknowability allow for the depiction of the unknown, the ethereal "beyond," or the blurring of man’s real existential limits and emotional distress. These attributes are conducive to the hazy expression of the psychological intentions and Romantic sensibilities of poets and artists, thereby creating a complex and volatile world of subjective spirit. Marx’s literary works also employ God (or the Lord), or things possessing divinity or god-like qualities (such as angels and sprites), as subjects or materials for creation. For instance, poems like "Siren Song," "Song of the Elves," and "Song of the Gnomes" were composed with such deities as their subjects. However, in Marx’s writing, these are not gods in the religious sense, nor are they entities possessing supernatural power or a mystical essence; rather, they are used merely as metaphors for objective existence or as external forms for the expression of emotion. "In Marx’s understanding and narrative, although the referents of 'sprites' [1] are quite diverse, arbitrary, misty, chaotic, and even contradictory, this ultimately leads Marx logically to the conclusion: God does not exist; the residence of the divine is in the human world." [2]
In Marx’s view, deities are nothing more than the virtualization of objective existence rather than real entities; the images of the gods can find their archetypes in reality. The reason people develop concepts of God or divine imaginings regarding reality is primarily due to the finitude of their own cognition and their infinite longing for the unknown. In the poem "Song to the Stars" from the second volume of his collection Book of Love, Marx wrote:
"People lift their eyes to gaze at you, Believing you possess a mystic power, Seeking to draw hope from you, To draw thoughts that never run dry." [3]
People often place their hopes in the myriad stars to realize their wishes. However, the stars across the sky cannot satisfy the real needs of mortals—such as achieving professional success or pursuing happiness—nor can they fulfill false desires for supernatural abilities, because the gods are merely fantasies and not real existences. Natural objects like the stars are not divine, nor do they possess souls; they are merely real, objective existences that do not change based on an individual’s will or misfortune:
"Even if we are dashed to pieces, Even if we meet with total ruin, Not a single tree will break because of it, Not a single star will fall." [4]
The prayers people offer to the gods cannot change the fact that divinity is merely an image constructed by human consciousness from objective existence. In the poem "To Jenny" from the collection Book of Songs, Marx directly expresses his contempt for "God," stripping away its illusory essence. The "gods" are nothing more than illusory reflections of objective things, phenomena, and laws of nature, such as the "heavens," "stars," and the "misty seas." Consequently, the "gods" cannot satisfy man’s genuine, real-world demands; they only "gift" people with a hollow self-consolation. Thus, Marx mocks the gods:
"With irony in my voice, I fling The gifts back into their faces; I will not accept these useless trifles, While the most precious things they cannot give." [5]
Starting from objective reality, Marx’s poetry negates both the existence of God and the expectations people place upon the divine. By using an artistic mode of divine critique, he reveals the essence of deities as virtualized images of objective existence, presenting a cognition of internal human emotions and an inquiry into the universe and all objective reality.
(2) Negating Artistic Inspiration of Divine Consciousness via the Realistic Basis of Literary Creation
Marx’s literary reflections and creative practice demonstrate that the real world is the fundamental source of literature and art. The objective world, as the realistic basis of creative inspiration, directly negates the "divine consciousness" that claims creation comes from "divine calling." Most of the poems in Marx’s collections take the expression of emotion and love as their themes, extensively employing personification to reveal genuine feelings of longing for love. This Romantic mode of expression and these deeply lyrical texts stem from Marx’s perceptions and realizations of real life. Marx’s literary practice reflects on the source of artistic inspiration—arguing that it lies in real life and objective existence rather than being, as traditional philosophers claimed, a divine gift bestowed upon a select few.
The creation of lyrical poetry was Marx’s way of longing for the care of love and venting his feelings of solitude. The object of Marx’s lyricism and adoration was his beloved, Jenny, whom he missed day and night. In the two collections Book of Love and Book of Songs, dozens of poems are directly titled "To Jenny" or bear it as a subtitle. These poems recount Marx’s loyal love and constant yearning for Jenny; his love and longing for her were the fundamental sources of inspiration for his poetry. In the poem "Longing: To Jenny" from the first volume of Book of Love, Marx states bluntly that Jenny is the object of his poetic creation, and that his yearning for her is the inner drive of his heart:
"You yourself are the incarnation of this longing, The word 'longing' can hardly express my heart's full store; Blazing passion cannot be told in words, This fever will burn ever brighter in my breast." [6]
Having left his hometown, Marx used literary creation to express his yearning for Jenny, his cognition and realization of love, and his subjective metaphors and intellectual creations regarding objective nature based on the human emotion of love.
In Marx’s literary world, all things in nature and the life of human society are the sources of beauty and the starting point of artistic creation; they are also the "place of enlightenment" (wudaochang) [7] for the pursuit of aesthetics. The pursuit of beautiful things is an innate human instinct, but the process of pursuit does not depend on praying to the gods. On the contrary, blindly praying for the divine to bestow beauty while abandoning the self is tantamount to self-destruction. In the poem "The Waves," Marx wrote:
"Man always pursues beautiful things, Thinking the gods will surely grant his plea; So he willingly leaps into the abyss, But he only destroys that delicate vision!" [8]
The root of the impulse for artistic creation lies in nature and the real world of human existence, not in gods or mysterious forces. All objective existences—including spiritual consciousness such as human emotions—are both the objects of artistic creation and the sources of creative inspiration. By correctly grasping the natural world, the social environment, and the internal spiritual world of man, Marx expressed emotional fluctuations, the contradictions of human nature, the power of nature, and the complexity of society through his literary works. He pointed out that all things in the world are not the creations of God, but spontaneous objective existences and the products of human practice. This was the inspirational insight of Marx’s literary creation and the spirit of scientific atheism contained within his poetry.
(3) Resisting the Divine Dominion over Human Destiny through the Internal Spirit of Literary Creation
Marx took the reflection of man’s essential powers as the internal spirit of his literary creation. In his works, God is not a transcendent entity possessing "divinity," nor is he an omnipotent Absolute who can resolve earthly suffering, drive human destiny, or master the life and death of things; rather, God is a pure allegory. All things in the world have their own objective laws of generation and evolution, and man’s internal essential power is the fundamental basis for recognizing and utilizing these laws to realize beautiful aspirations. In "Stars: Three Sonnets," Marx uses the stars to demonstrate a cognitive reflection on the material existence, unconsciousness, and laws of motion of nature:
"O stars, if you were subject to the power of God, The vast sky would seem a desolate waste; You would only know how to run in eternal orbits, Unconcerned as a tender, noble soul perishes!" [9]
In Marx’s view, the stars are neither confined by "the power of God" nor limited by human emotion or life; they are merely natural celestial bodies moving according to their own orbits, indifferent to human feelings. The fundamental link between man and the so-called "divine" lies in human imagination, and "imagination" is powerless to determine the results of human activity.
In the novel Scorpion and Felix, Marx firmly asserts that human activity is not governed by the divine. God does not "manifest" when humans make choices or engage in other activities, nor is human destiny determined by God. Human imagination created God and then pulled a distance and erected a barrier between God and man, to the extent that mortals do not even know "whether God has a nose on his face." [10] While the contingency of the world’s operation and human activities may lead to "miracles" where "divine governance" and "human obedience" overlap, fundamentally, humans are the masters of their own destiny. Real choice lies in human freedom and consciousness. Therefore, all human activities and their results reside in man himself, not in the illusion of "miracles." Marx’s narrator says: "He who bathes in the river must place himself in the midst of the surging wind and waves of nature, and must conquer the raging billows, fighting with strong arms; but he who sits in a bathtub stays indoors, staring at the corner of the bathroom wall." [11]
In literary works permeated by divinity, although creative imagination can bestow a miraculous life upon a protagonist, the final destination of their fate lies in the choice of the gods. In contrast, Marx’s literary creation emphasizes that the reason humans can make choices and act upon them is due to their own attributes and essential powers as human beings, not the arrangements of God. Courageous creation and practice facing objective reality are the foundation of man’s all-round development and the key to making man the decider of his own fate. "God" is endowed with attributes such as controlling all things, transcending time, and dominating the beginning and the end. Fundamentally, these divine qualities arise from the contradiction between man’s infinite wishes and his finite abilities. When the goals of human activity cannot be achieved because of a lack of ability, man creates in his conscious world a God capable of achieving those idealized goals. The transcendence and omnipotence of God symbolize man’s self-transcendence—the extension of his own finite abilities toward infinite super-powers. However, with the refinement of human knowledge, the enhancement of cognitive abilities, and the progress of science and technology, man’s ability to understand and transform the world has developed day by day. Traditional defenses of God’s existence have lost their ideological basis; divinity is no longer mysterious or unattainable. The development of science continuously breaks through God’s "monopolized" domains, explaining the illusory nature of so-called "divinity."
Marx’s literary critique of divinity affirms man’s external basis of existence and his internal spirit and thought, thereby highlighting the objectivity of the natural world, the reality of human emotions, and the reality of human activity. Marx’s critique of divinity in literary creation deepens the theoretical significance of contemporary research into literary and artistic issues, provides realistic value for guiding the creation of literary works, and offers a literary perspective and artistic path for contemporary research on scientific atheism.
II. The "De-divinization" of Marx’s Discourse on the Essence of Art
Marx defined the essence of art through multi-dimensional attributes including the philosophical, the practical, and the social, establishing an atheistic foundation for it through scientific theoretical exposition. By reflecting on artistic issues based on materialist philosophy and the theory of practice, Marx brought the generation and development of art back from the ideal world of God to the living world of man. As a conscious practical activity of man, art sheds its divine cloak and participates directly or indirectly in the movement of social development and historical evolution, playing a vital role therein.
(1) Revealing the Objective Reality of the Essence of Art through Materialism
Materialism's essential nature dictates the scientific atheist premise of Marx's entire theoretical system: "Materialist philosophy is the theoretical foundation of atheism, while atheist thought is the logical conclusion of materialist philosophy." [5] The dialectical materialism and historical materialism founded by Marx and Engels provided a final home for philosophical questions since the dawn of the modern era and shifted philosophy’s focus toward the human being itself. This serves as the materialist philosophical foundation of Marx's aesthetic thought and the basic premise for reflecting on scientific atheism from an artistic perspective. Materialist dialectics and the historical materialist conception of history thoroughly critiqued all forms of idealism, transcended the limitations of previous "old" materialism, established the "primacy of matter" as the world's origin, and—proceeding from practice—revealed the internal connection between humanity, objective existence, and social history.
From the perspective of materialist dialectics, art is not the creation of an omnipotent God; artistic creation cannot be divorced from reality’s objective existence. In truth, theoretical reflections on art and the creation of works have often been inextricably linked to religion and the divine. In the West particularly, from Ancient Greek philosophy to German Classical Philosophy, theoretical constructions involving art have "bundled" it together with religion and divinity. The root cause of this phenomenon lies in treating idealist philosophy as the foundation of art research, a trend vividly represented by the philosophy of art of the German classical philosopher Schelling. Schelling’s philosophy of art redefined a more sacred form of art as "an instrument of the gods." [6] He believed that only this "divine art" was true art and capable of serving as an object of philosophy. In Schelling's view, art in the real world is a reproduction of "divine art"—the artistic Idea [7] within the world of Will—and is "merely a necessary phenomenon flowing directly from the Absolute," [8] possessing neither reality nor its "original form." This idealist essence determines the fundamental divergence between the idealist aesthetic thought represented by Schelling and Marx's materialist aesthetic thought. Marx argued that material matter is the basis of art; when humans bestow aesthetic concepts upon objective matter, the matter is transformed into an aesthetic object characterized by the attribute of beauty. For instance, the aesthetic properties of precious metals like gold and silver make them "natural materials for satisfying needs for luxury, decoration, splendor, and festivals." [9] In this sense, objective matter such as precious metals is the realistic premise of art—art is the human transformation and processing of objective matter. Furthermore, the appreciation of beauty requires an objective subject: "For the unmusical ear, the most beautiful music has no meaning," while the "musical ear" and the "eye capable of sensing the beauty of form" [10] are the unfolding of the essential powers of a social, subjective human being.
From the aspect of historical materialism, art is a product of the development of human social history rather than coming from the absolute will of God. For idealist philosophers, consciousness is the fundamental cause of the generation of all matter, and God is the highest absolute will; art is thus implanted with the divine will, becoming an appendage of divinity. As Schelling argued, "the immediate cause of all art is God." [11] Within the horizon of the historical materialist conception of history, art arises from human practical activity, and the social division of labor facilitated the "independence" and development of art. Furthermore, the fundamental premise for the emergence and development of art is the economic base of various eras; only when human needs for survival—food, clothing, shelter, and transport—are met to a certain degree can activities of the superstructure, such as art and religion, be carried out. However, the foundation of economic development is not static; changes in the economic base of different eras determine the inevitable transformation of the superstructure. Marx pointed out that "with the change of the economic base, the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed." [12] This transformation includes both changes in the "economic conditions of production" and changes in ideology, including art. Marx revealed the historical materialist basis of art through the dialectical relationship between the economic base and the superstructure, as well as the movement of social history. Thus, the scientific nature of dialectical materialism provides the philosophical premise for atheist art.
(2) Revealing that art is, in its essence, human practical activity
In medieval Europe, the view of art as a divine creation persisted for a long time. From Schelling's positioning and interpretation of art, true art must be God’s "masterpiece." Although God is also endowed with the meaning of the "origin" (Urgrund) in the field of philosophy, the two are essentially identical. This is the "common destination" [13] of idealist philosophy: the highest origin of philosophy and all things is ultimately reduced to God or divinity. Schelling believed that although works of art are created by humans, they are created under God’s governance: "The immediate producer of the work of art or individual real things—which make the Absolute a real-objective thing in the world of ideas—is the eternal concept or Idea of 'man within God' [der Mensch in Gott], which is one with the soul itself and closely united with it." [14] Clearly, in Schelling's philosophical system, the true creator of the work of art is God himself. God establishes a connection with humans through the Idea, and "man within God" reproduces the eternal concept of all artworks in the ideal world as an objective thing—that is, the real work of art is created. Moreover, Schelling believed that humans are able to create works of art because of their "genius" essence, but this "genius" is not something internal to humans; rather, it is a divinity "intuited" from God’s absoluteness: "Genius is a fragment fallen out of the absoluteness of God." [15] In other words, works of art are not created by humans themselves; they are merely imitations of the eternal concept of art in the world of Ideas. In this way, reflections on art and the activities of artistic creation are confined to a category of divinity divorced from human activity and the real world.
Marx's redefinition of the human being clearly established the scientific atheist essence of his theoretical system. The view of divine art emphasizes that the reason humans create works of art can only be attributed to God's guidance—though the capacity for artistic creation resides within the human, it is a divine gift bestowed by God. Obviously, this mode of understanding misplaces the relationship between humans and art; it denies the practicality of the human as subject, reducing humans to mere "carriers" of divine art. In Marx's view, the human is not an "abstract human," but a real, sensuous human. Marx's stipulation of the essence of practice [16] allowed art to return from the divinity of the ideal world to the humanity of the real world.
In a broader sense, artistic perspectives, artistic creation, and artworks all belong to the category of artistic practice. Among these, the artistic perspective belongs to the level of spiritual practice, artistic creation is a special human practical activity, and the artwork is the product of human practical activity. At its root, practice is the internal essence of all social life. Marx’s establishment of the practical nature of human activity indicates that art has merged into social life and become an important component of social life (the essence of which is practice); an internal link exists between art and human practical activity. Under divine intervention, all human activities lose their free and conscious practical nature, as God governs the purposiveness and results of human activity. Consequently, humans are reduced to "tools" used by God for self-proof, and art—created by God's "tools"—is used to manifest the existence of the divine. By interpreting the essence of art based on the practicality of human activity, Marx made art a conscious aesthetic creation of the human being. Humans engage in creation or production of objective matter according to aesthetic standards, eventually forming artworks; this practical activity of creation or production is necessarily integrated with human consciousness. Beauty is the fundamental attribute of art, and all human practical activities regarding art must unfold according to their own unique internal aesthetics. Marx believed that, compared to animalistic activity, human practical activity consciously follows the laws of beauty: "man also forms things in accordance with the laws of beauty." [17] Creative activity that consciously follows aesthetic consciousness and the laws of beauty directly reveals the practicality of art, providing an atheist practical basis: art is a conscious practical activity of the human being.
(3) Revealing that art is, in its essence, to satisfy the needs of human social existence
The birth of art is a product of human aesthetic needs and a practical result formed through the continuous pursuit of beautiful things during the development of human history. Art is a practical activity carried out to satisfy the needs of human social existence. Human artistic practice and its results are generated based on the emergence of social history, unfold with its development, and reflect actual social conditions. Clearly, the essence of art lies in reflecting human social existence rather than the illusory world of God. Human artistic practice has gradually matured alongside the development of human social history, and the accumulation of artistic achievements through practice has become increasingly rich, displaying distinctive epochal connotations.
In his Abstract of Morgan’s "Ancient Society", Marx pointed out that the epic Iliad depicted the basic state of social life at that time, mentioning that "coinage was still unknown at that time, so commerce was still barter," "gold bars were used by weight and calculated in talents," and "objects made of gold, silver, copper, and iron, various textiles made of linen and wool, houses, palaces, etc." [18] Strictly speaking, Homer’s Iliad is not a historical documentary in the true sense but rather a legendary and artistic epic masterpiece; however, its historical and archaeological value cannot be ignored. The record of equivalent exchange without currency, the weighing of gold, daily necessities, and residential architecture has been preserved, presenting social scenes under the historical conditions of that time through the artistic medium of the epic. In this sense, art assumes a clear social function in terms of its existential attributes. When discussing clans and tribes, Marx also noted that "songs handed down from ancient times are their only historical records and chronicles," [19] though these songs more or less carry mystical colors, such as praising the protection of the gods for survival.
Beyond the state of material existence, art can also reflect real social systems, social movements, and social formations, participating in the process of socio-historical development as a special form of ideology. When revealing the political situation in Germany, Marx used tragedy to signify the stubbornness of the old system in the development of history. He noted: "The history of the old regime was tragic as long as it was the pre-existing power of the world, and freedom, on the other hand, was a personal notion; in short, as long as it believed and had to believe in its own justification." [20] The old system fought against the nascent world to maintain its original dominant position; fundamentally, this was the contradiction between the backwardness of the old system and the progressiveness of socio-historical development, which determined the tragic nature of the old system's demise. Simultaneously, Marx affirmed the reflection of real social movements in tragic works. In his correspondence with Ferdinand Lassalle, he pointed out that the tragic conflict in the work Franz von Sickingen was "the tragic conflict that made the necessary downfall of the revolutionary party of 1848–1849," and Sickingen's downfall represented a "new form of opposition to the existing system." [21] Furthermore, Marx once analyzed the basic characteristics of social formations through art. Because the emergence of the division of labor resulted in humans being confined to specific spheres of activity—able only to engage in one "exclusive" job such as hunting, fishing, or herding—Marx noted that in a communist society, humans could transcend the limitations of specific spheres of activity and freely choose any productive activity: hunting, fishing, herding, or engaging in criticism [22] according to interest, without being fixed as a hunter, fisherman, shepherd, or critic.
It is thus evident that Marx’s interpretation of artistic issues from a social foundation reveals the atheist premise of the essence of art. It profoundly reflects that the root of human artistic practice and its achievements lies in objective, real human society. Conscious human artistic practice takes social reality as its source and mirrors real social existence and survival needs. Although the subjects and works of many artistic creations use religion or deities as their themes, the essence of art has nothing to do with divinity. The creators and appreciators themselves are humans with social attributes, and the works both obtain inspiration and materials from the real world and are created according to the material and spiritual needs of human social existence. This determines the fundamental premise that human artistic practice is rooted in real society rather than divinity.
III. Marx's Discourse on "Artistic Production" as a Scientific Refutation of Divine Art
Marx used "artistic production" to reveal the alienation of literary and artistic creation and its works within capitalist relations of production, thereby finding a realistic basis for the construction of an artistic critique rooted in scientific atheistic thought. Marx's theory of artistic production directly links art with human production, pointing art straight toward the fundamental problems of capitalist society. By cutting into the essence of human existential activity through the production activities of modern society, he casts aside the creationist theories of art and restores art to the real world of humanity.
(1) Art as a Mode of Production in the Real World
Marx first affirmed that art is a mode of production existing within the real world, stripping away divinity from human subjectivity. Through human artistic creation and its reality, he negated the divine origin of art and established the real world as the root of artistic generation. In his Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Marx pointed out that the prehistoric periods of various ancient peoples were permeated with imagination and myth [23]. It was precisely through these fantasies and myths that religion and the gods were born; humanity established illusory objects of worship for itself through artistic creation. Thus, gods arise from the conscious activities of humans, in which imagination plays a vital role—man creates the deities he worships through the imaginative processing of consciousness, constructing divine images and describing "divinity" through primitive artistic creation. Thereafter, the all-ruling gods stood above humanity, and humans, in their longing for the unknown and their worship of natural forces, rendered themselves subordinates to the divine. In this way, humanity lost its proper independence; all human production and life, including artistic activity, unfolded under the "guidance" of the gods.
Marx discussed the relationship between art and production in many places throughout his writings. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, he proposed: "Religion, family, state, law, morality, science, art, etc., are only particular modes of production" [24]. Here, Marx had not yet used the concept of "artistic production," but he already understood art and religion as modes of human production—modes that act upon the production of mental activity. As a specific social ideology, art originates from human mental maneuvers; artistic activity is a form of the "production of ideas, conceptions, and consciousness." In The German Ideology, Marx emphasized that human production can be divided into material production and mental production. Man is not only the laboring producer of material life but also "the producer of his own conceptions, ideas, etc." [25]. That is to say, art should not be subject to gods but is the result of human activity in the real world and becomes a specific mode of production; religion, likewise, is not something external to man, but like art, is a specific social ideology that becomes a specific mode of human production.
Marx’s theory of artistic production treats artistic activity as a form of the "production of ideas, conceptions, and consciousness," profoundly revealing the inner connection between art and religion. Artistic production consciously transcends activities or phenomena that belong purely to the category of aesthetics; starting from the reality of modern human life under the dominance of the capitalist mode of production, it reconstructs the social attributes—political, economic, and otherwise—of artistic production. Religion similarly acts upon the realm of consciousness, and the alienation of its production also occurs within the human spiritual world. Whether in art or religion, the premise of production lies in the objective existence of human society. The profound connection between art and religion indicates that the "divinity" of art can be "traced" through religion; however, religion is itself an alienation of the human spiritual world and a distorted existence within the real world. Consequently, "divine art" cannot maintain a foothold in the real world.
From Marx’s definitions of art, it can be seen that only within human productive activity can its nature as a mode of production be discovered, and art is simultaneously and necessarily restricted by the laws of production. Marx categorized both art and religion as specific modes of human production, thereby determining their reality and objectivity. He thus negated the control of the divine over art and religion, causing art and religion to break away from a divine essence and return to the real world of humanity.
(2) Art as a Critical Mode of Physical Production
Theologians are keen on explaining the world, but in the end, they must resort to "God," placing their hopes in the existence of a supra-human power. This necessarily requires proving the existence of God. Art can present the images of so-called "gods" more intuitively; therefore, for the theologian, art is the way God manifests Himself in the human world. For instance, Schelling believed that "art is the real presentation of the forms that things have in themselves, and thus the real presentation of the archetypes" [26]. What he referred to as "things in themselves" are things within the Absolute—that is, God Himself—and the "archetypes" are the modes or eternal concepts of things within God and the world of Ideas. Although Schelling emphasized the absolute identity of subject and object when granting God a philosophical primordial significance, he still could not purge the idealistic essence wherein God becomes the origin based on the Absolute Ego, nor could he avoid the divine nature and religious attributes of God within his theoretical construction and Western cultural tradition. Precisely because of this, the explanations and definitions of art by idealist philosophers represented by Schelling aimed to "deify" art, stipulating its ultimate mission as serving God.
In contrast, the fundamental orientation of Marx’s theory of artistic production lies in answering real-world questions regarding human social life and social relations of production. It does not explain the mysterious origins of art or expressions related to the divine, nor does it develop a theoretical construction from purely aesthetic categories. Rather, starting from the real society controlled by the modern capitalist system, it uses art as a specific mode of criticizing capitalist production to expose the exploitative nature of the capitalist system. Marx discussed the relationship between art and production in multiple works, formally using the concept of "artistic production" in the Introduction to the Grundrisse (Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy). Marx pointed out, "When artistic production once appears as artistic production, it can no longer be created in that classical form which marks an epoch in world history" [27]. Pure artistic creation of the Ancient Greek era cannot be realized in modern life under capitalist rule; artistic production has already emerged as "'artistic production' of the spiritual production sector of capitalism" [28]. In Marx's view, the art of the Ancient Greek era was a purer form of art; the production of this art followed the laws of beauty and was created for the purpose of fulfilling human aesthetic needs, producing "significant artistic forms" within the field of art and turning artistic production into a mode of human spiritual production with aesthetic value. However, the capitalist mode of production and its highly developed social division of labor caused the social function of art to be directly linked to capital. In Marx's view, the various functions of bourgeois society are mutually prescriptive and serve only the capitalist. Therefore, as a mode of capitalist spiritual production, the primary function of artistic production is to satisfy the capitalist’s accumulation of capital.
From the perspective of art, Marx profoundly exposed the central position of capital in capitalist society. Whether in the realm of material production or spiritual production, there always exists an exploitative essence where the capitalist dominates labor and squeezes the productive labor of the worker in all social production. Marx noted, "A writer is a productive laborer not because he produces ideas, but because he enriches the bookseller who publishes his works, or because he is a wage-laborer for a capitalist" [29]. The capitalist production process, including artistic production, "is a process of absorbing unpaid labor"; the capitalist seizes capital interests in the process of dominating the worker's labor. By combining art with production, Marx exposed the internal contradictions of capitalist society, and art became a realistic mode of criticizing capitalist production. Clearly, the core issue of artistic production lies in "production." Although capitalist artistic production is an "alienated" production serving the capitalist, it also demonstrates that art has moved from being a long-standing divine mode of expression to a realistic function for humans to understand and transform the world. Art draws a clear line against divinity and no longer serves as the self-expression of the divine in the human world.
(3) Artistic Production as a Real Activity for Mastering the World
The mindset of divine art ignores the realistic foundation and practical abilities of human existence. Marx, however, affirmed human value and elucidated human subjectivity and its basis in social existence, enabling humans and their activities to break free from divine domination. The combination of art and production further demonstrates that Marx was concerned with the real life of human beings, which is where the transcendence and advancement of his artistic thought lie. Fundamentally, production is human production, and the objects and products of production must take the human being as the subject. Humans can only obtain what is necessary for survival through productive labor; this is something God cannot provide. Artistic production is likewise based on material premises and real people, providing productive labor that satisfies the needs of social life for humans themselves. Therefore, Marx’s theory of artistic production directly establishes the link between art and human production, pointing art straight at the fundamental problems of capitalist society. By cutting into the essence of human existential activity through the production activities of modern society, he brings human artistic production back to the status quo of social life and the reality of human social development, thereby casting aside creationist theories of art.
Since the Renaissance, human reason began to gradually liberate itself from the shackles of religious theology, and art ushered in a peak of development. Art began to become an important means for people to resist religious oppression and divine ignorance; in a large number of artistic works used to glorify divine miracles, the radiance of humanity was revealed everywhere. Art that appeared to submit to God and religion was instead used to express human reason, freedom, and creativity. Through long-term research on works of art, rich experience in literary creation, and profound literary and artistic criticism, Marx formed an artistic outlook predicated on atheism and unique insights into artistic issues. He applied the understanding and creation of art to the real production of humans, stipulating the artistic mode by which humans master the world through the real activity of artistic production. Consequently, the discursive mode of art is no longer the self-manifestation of divinity, but the self-expression of human subjectivity and creativity. Artistic production has become a real activity for humans to master the world.
Production makes human free spiritual activity a mode of human mastery over reality, and artistic production is one such mode. Although Marx emphasized that artistic production is a mental production activity, he also affirmed its material characteristics. Marx's theory of artistic production is based on economic and political perspectives to analyze artistic issues, combining art with real production to reveal the deviation between the capitalist mode of production and the essence of artistic production. In the modern capitalist mode of production, art is not as beautiful as divine conceptions might suggest, nor can it reflect the so-called "highest reason" or the "will of God." Marx profoundly explained the "false relations" of capitalist society—materializing all relations and turning them into "purely monetary relations." Even supposedly noble labor, such as artistic labor, has turned into purely monetary relations. The capitalist mode of production causes the essence of art to become alienated. Marx used artistic production to criticize the exploitative relations of production and productive activities within the capitalist production system: the products of artistic labor are no longer works of art expressing aesthetic value but commodities predicated on capital interests. In this production process, in order to complete artistic production activities, laborers adopt a limited scale of capitalist production. Marx illustrated the exploitative relationship therein with an example: "A writer, when he compiles a collective work (e.g., an encyclopedia) involving many people, exploits these many other writers as assistants" [30]. Therefore, the bourgeoisie makes artistic producers their wage-laborers through monetary relations, and the entire capitalist production system generates a wage relationship among artistic producers that takes a form "transitional to capitalism." In this regard, artistic production as a real activity has caused art itself to lose its function as a spiritual mode of mastering the world. The problems of capitalist production and the alienation of artistic production pointed out in Marx’s theory are real and rooted in the internal contradictions of capitalism. These realistic problems cannot be solved by God; they can only be realized through human practice and human liberation.
IV. Conclusion
Marx expressed his atheistic reflections on the relationship between art and divinity through the medium of literary creation, pointing out that art is rooted in objective existence rather than divine revelation. Grounded in a reflection on the philosophical, practical, and social foundations of art, he profoundly revealed the atheistic essence of art, demonstrating that art is a practical activity of human social life rather than a "spokesperson" [31] for God in the real world. Through his analysis of artistic production, he pointed out from the perspective of political economy that although art under the conditions of capitalist production cannot maintain its original meaning, it nonetheless profoundly demonstrates that art is a mode of production within human society, rather than a means for God to control man or a tool to deceive people in the name of the divine. Marx's construction of artistic critique—based on literary creation, the revelation of the essence of art, and the theory of artistic production—reflects the theoretical trajectory of the gradual maturation of Marx's atheistic thought. It also clearly outlines the intellectual thread of Marx's atheistic thought from the perspective of art: moving from the basic concept of artistic creation to the foundational premises of theoretical reflection, and finally to the practical critique of artistic production.
(About the author: Jiang Xuebin, Associate Professor at the School of Marxism, Heilongjiang University)
Internet Editor: Tongxin Source: Science and Atheism (Kexue yu wushenlun)