The Essential Determinative of Man and Historical Materialism

In the article "Is Man the Starting Point of Marxism?" (published in Philosophical Studies, no. 3, 1983) Comrade Mao Chongjie remarked: "The problem is not to what extent Marx emphasized man nor on how many occasions Marx mentioned man in his works. The problem is whether or not we should and how we could persevere in the materialist conception of history over the issue of man." Nevertheless, the author held that the cause for the progress of history lies "outside man" and therefore the source or cause of the essential determinative of man also lies "outside man." Whatever the explanation, a viewpoint as such cannot be regarded as having "persevered in the materialist conception of history," either. In fact, it can be traced to the same origin as the idea of negating practice as the basic category of historical materialism, which the author stated in another article. (See "Also on the System of Marxist Philosophy," Xueshu yuekan [Academia Monthly], no. 2, 1983.)