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Author: Fool
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From today onwards, we discuss scientific methodology based on Marxist philosophy. In the future, depending on the situation, it will go further into the field of systematic philosophy of science.
As the first of a series of articles discussing methodology, this article must first clarify the questions: why should we study methodology philosophy, what position (should) have Ma Zhe's methodology in Marxism, and why Ma Zhe's methodology is scientific , advanced.
Answer the first question first. I have always considered myself to be a non-academic Marxist. Although I like to study theory, like many academics, and like to explore the concept of theory-logical structure and insufficiency, and like many academics, I have read a lot of original works, but I went to Marx The path of socialism and the study of Marx's philosophy are out of very real dilemmas and needs. My own earliest upvoted answer talks about my experience (Are we in the best times in history right now? - Answers from Zhihu users). I think most ordinary people and ordinary students should have the same mentality as mine - we have no ambition to devote our life to the field of philosophy research, nor do we have the ambition to add bricks and tiles to fill the blanks of a philosophical system, we study philosophy more It is to provide guidance for our daily life and help us analyze and solve various practical problems-these problems can be as small as how to chase after the girl or guy we like, how to think about the meal pairing tonight, or how to analyze the trend of the world situation and make decisions. One's own path in life - in a word, serving our real needs as a real person. This is methodological philosophy, the theoretical system that studies how we know the world and guides our understanding of the world.
Without the guidance of scientific methodology, of course people can live. In fact, most of the people around us should live like this, and some even live very well. It's just that relying on one's own "comprehension", "intelligence", and past experience may be effective within a certain limit, but with the continuous expansion of the field of human practice and the continuous expansion in time and space, this kind of dependence is correct rate becomes more and more unreliable. In contrast, under the training of scientific methodology, people can form a scientific and systematic way of thinking, master powerful analytical tools, and reason and predict with a high probability of being correct. This is the value of methodology.
The second question is to consider the position of methodology in the Ma-philosophical system. First, we must briefly explain the structure of the Ma-philosophical system. As we all know, the Marxian system consists of three basic parts: worldview, epistemology, and methodology. The worldview is the cornerstone and the origin, on which the epistemological pillar is erected, and finally the methodology dome is built. The textbooks I have read in the university's Ma Zhe are also explained in this order: first, the basic issues of philosophy, the Marxist view of the world, and then step by step into the field of specific analysis methods (materialist dialectics). Therefore, we can know that from the perspective of logical structure, worldview and epistemology are the basis of methodology; from the perspective of learning and application, the establishment of worldview and epistemology ultimately exists because of scientific methodology. Methodology is the only thing that we use directly and repeatedly temper. Worldview and epistemology are only natural and natural in the process of repeated tempering.
Marxism is a "living" philosophy, because it is a philosophy that is closely related to practice, exists to guide practice, and expands and evolves in practice. of great value. Going into the pile of old papers, smashing and analyzing every sentence of Mannles Mao's writings, and arguing about political factional struggles and differences, on the contrary, deviated from the fundamentals of Marxism.
The last question is also the most complicated. We know that the Ma-phil methodology is based on Ma-phils epistemology, and the basic standpoint of Ma-phils epistemology is to oppose idealism and adhere to materialism. Therefore, in order to explain the science of Ma-phil's methodology, we must deeply understand why Ma-phil's epistemology insists on materialism and criticizes idealism. Then, let's start with the two most basic concepts of Ma Zhe, and start to analyze the problem of cognition: what is idealist epistemology and what is materialist epistemology.
Perhaps in the eyes of many delusional people who do not read and academics who have read too many books, idealism is a very complex and very difficult to summarize thing, and has an uninterrupted and multi-level development in history; some people reject it Classify as "non-mainstream", even methods that should (or have been) abandoned. But in fact, we do not need to give a scholastic definition of idealism. Starting from the practical needs of analyzing the problems mentioned above, whether "idealism" and "materialism" are the mainstream philosophical research classification methods in the history of philosophy has nothing to do with me, nor do I care; I don't care if the three stages of development (worldview, epistemology, "reflective epistemology" ie methodology) are recognized. All I need to know is that such a method can help us analyze problems effectively and efficiently or establish a clear and concise cognitive framework, and the conclusions drawn by using this method are consistent with the objective facts we know, and the reasoning and prediction are likely to be correct, then This is an advanced methodology, and the corresponding epistemology must also be advanced.
Next, I explain what idealistic epistemology is. Obviously, we can divide the world as we know it into two aspects: one is the material aspect, the other is the conscious aspect; or the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. Epistemology is the cognition of the world. By superimposing the division of cognition and the attributes of the world, two kinds of epistemology can be obtained: one is the epistemology with the objective as the origin, and the other is the epistemology with the subjective as the origin. The former is materialism, the latter is idealism. On this basis, if we further introduce systematic thinking, we can further classify by distinguishing the level of the individual and the collective: epistemology based on individual (self) cognition is subjective idealism, and the origin based on collective cognition is objective idealism.
In this way, starting from the (two aspects) stipulations of the world, we can obtain the definition and characteristics of ideal epistemology only by means of a simple classification method (this derivation methodology is an axiomatic method, and the advantage of this method is that it is top-down , a high-rise building, starting from simple premise axioms and logic can establish a rigorous derivation system. The axiomatic method will be mentioned later). Contrasting with everyday life, if you understand this definition deeply enough, you will immediately find that idealism is everywhere. Here are a few simple examples -
Netizens discuss issues online, one party slaps the face, and the onlookers applaud, but the other party refuses to admit their mistakes, and turns like the wind;
Boyfriend forgot to buy a birthday present for his girlfriend because of work, the girl cried: how can you forget my birthday? Do you not love me anymore? Do you have someone out there? Are you planning to abandon me? Did your parents hate me? ...
Xiaoming scored 80 points in the test, and his neighbor Xiaohua scored 100 points. Xiaoming's mother scolded, "Look at other people's Xiaohua, the test is better than yours, it's your fault that you know whether to play or do homework every day;
Mr. Li planned to equip a computer with a budget of 3,000. He entered the card bar (Baidu graphics card), and after the suggestion of the card bar god, he decided to add money to the four-way Titan;
China is facing severe economic pressure. The keyboard god did not analyze in detail whether the "economic transformation" is the cause or effect of "economic slowdown", but only vaguely analyzed the trend of China's economy with the rhetoric of "transformation is good", and onlookers were amazed;
I explained some basic principles of Marxist philosophical methodology and historical materialism on Zhihu, and some friends came to kindly care about my health after being brainwashed by the Chinese government, and wanted to provide me with treatment.
The above are just a few simple examples. If you don't understand it at first, the reader must have understood it at this time: what is the epistemology of "subjectivity as the origin"? In the face of real problems, setbacks, challenges, and mistakes, instead of verifying and analyzing the objective development process of reality, summarizing and summarizing the laws of objective things, to arrive at a truth-seeking judgment of right and wrong, but first from one’s own subjective understanding and imagination. Set out to identify the nature of things, make mistakes or apply existing laws, and make unrealistic emotional or value judgments. All of this is because people who hold this epistemological way of thinking first think about problems from the concepts and paradigms they have in their heads, rather than starting from introspective knowledge, real history and In practice, specific problems are analyzed in detail.
Having said this, anyone can clearly understand why the idealistic epistemology is wrong. We do not need to go to the information sea of philosophy history to fight 300 rounds in the information sea of philosophical history on the question of "whether the world is cognizable or not cognizable" and assumptions such as "brain in a vat" at the level of worldview. , I only need a simple premise (as an axiom), and a systematic logical inference. When studying Marxism, we should firmly grasp one point: Looking at Marx's works historically, the core of his philosophy criticism is the ideal methodology in sociological research, which is then derived from the corresponding epistemology and world outlook, rather than out of thin air. Grab a materialistic worldview that is diametrically opposed to metaphysics and idealism, and then establish a materialistic philosophical system based on it. As for why the methodology of idealism should be criticized, it is already clear from the above examples and explanations - anyone who wants to study human society realistically and scientifically must criticize the methodology of idealism (research on society from metaphysical philosophy It is one of Marx's greatest contributions: he took the first step on the road of scientific sociology).
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The meaning of the above paragraph comes from my personal feeling of reading: Marx actually first found the scientific method of sociological research, and then gradually established Ma Zhe's world outlook and epistemological system. From "The Ideology of Germany", "Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right", to "The Communist Manifesto", "Das Kapital", "Critique of the Gotha Program", from the time point of view, we will find that Marx has established a clear materialism in the early days. However, its dialectical materialism philosophical system is immature, and it is gradually perfected in the follow-up research on social problems. Therefore, I think we can understand Ma Zhe from another angle: if we want to really study problems scientifically, we must seek truth from facts, and then we must admit objective reality. That is to say, it is not as conventionally imagined that the methodology is established from the world view and epistemology, but the scientific methodology determines the corresponding epistemology and world view. In this way, we have a deeper understanding of the objectivity and scientific nature of the Ma-philosophical system. Without arguing with some academic (and keyboardist) "philosophers" whether materialism and idealism are "mainstream", scientific, and without getting into endless quarrels about objective reality, I established the scientificity of Ma Zhe.
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In contrast to idealism, materialistic epistemology is to recognize problems from the objective point of view, to pursue objective laws, and to approach absolute truth through relative truth. Materialist epistemology is to seek truth from facts, which is the attitude of science, and the attitude of science is to take objectivity as the origin. In the process of learning the methodology of Ma-Zhe, in order to truly realize the realization of materialism, we must first realize three sentences: link theory with practice, closely link the masses, and criticize and self-criticize.
The integration of theory with practice includes two aspects: one is to summarize theoretical laws from practice, and the other is to use theoretical laws to guide practice. If you believe in the theoretical side, you will commit a dogmatic error, which is a type of subjectivist error, and it is also a typical ideal epistemology; if you believe in the practical side, you will commit an empirical error, which is also a type of subjectivist error. is another typical idealistic epistemology. Practice is inexhaustible, so it is necessary to summarize its abstract commonality from the individuality of concrete practice, and summarize it into theoretical guidance of universal laws and principles. Because of the hierarchical and historical limitations of practice, theoretical laws may not always be correct. With the expansion of the field of practice, the laws are often expanded. The theoretical laws (relative truths) that are effective and successful in a certain stage are not always correct. In guiding the practical actions at the current stage, it also continuously expands and corrects itself with the development of practice. After this process, the law of cognition approaches the objective law, and the relative truth approaches the absolute truth. People's practice and will cannot exist in violation of objective laws in any case, otherwise they will hit a wall and encounter failure.
Close contact with the masses is mostly valued in political practice, but what I want to emphasize here is an attitude issue about social science research learning. There is a very unreasonable thought handed down from the Western political science and economics circle, and this kind of thought is also extremely popular on the websites where the petty bourgeoisie and the fresh are gathered, such as Zhihu Douban. A collection of high-level and macro-level people, such as the masses, is regarded as an entity that is detached and independent of itself (or rather, that it is detached and independent of itself). His own theoretical research criticizes society, as if an autopsy doctor takes a precise scalpel to dissect a still and unconnected corpse. This kind of person, who opens his mouth and shuts his mouth and says "how are the people doing", associates words such as ignorance, ignorance, and rabble with the masses and society, while he seems to be just a transcendent observer, God. What's more, because I can't see a doctor as a doctor, I say that the patient is not doing well, and I don't check whether there is a problem with my medical skills (how to refute those who talk about Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine when they mention "democracy" People who then question democracy? - Answers from Zhihu users). This completely violates the spirit of seeking truth from facts and enters the field of ideal epistemology. Everyone is a member of society and a product of society. Only savages exist beyond society and the group itself. When you say "how are the people" and "how are the Chinese", remember to be included in yourself. In society, the most massive and complex giant system, no one has absolute particularity. Only by realizing this, can we approach objectivity in our understanding of ourselves and establish a materialistic attitude.
Criticism and self-criticism are the least need for elaboration, and the literal meaning is very simple. Criticism is not always useful to an individual, but self-criticism can always be done alone, always reflect on oneself, and eliminate the attitude of seeking truth from facts. It's hard work, but a real materialist, a real worker, realizes that it must be done, and there is no other option. Criticism and self-criticism are combined with theory and practice, and a very strong and firm materialist epistemology can be established.
Above, this article has clearly answered three basic questions (of course, in order to gain a deeper understanding, we must think step by step with the depth of our discussion), and briefly analyze the correct understanding of materialism and idealism under the framework of Ma Zhe's theory. A brief exposition of what I think should be done to establish a materialist epistemology. This article is just an introduction. In the future, we will discuss Ma Zhe's logic chain, the application of methodology, and the answers to frequently encountered problems in the process of spreading Marxism.