A Deep Plough of Texts (Vol I)
Textual Unscrambling of Western Marxism

A Deep Plough Of Texts (Vol. 1, RUC Press, 2004; Vol. 2, RUC Press, 2008)

Zhangyibing

Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 Historical reconstitution of philosophical noumenon: Unscrambling of Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness
Section 1 the philosophical logical Gestalt of Youth Lukács
Pseudo-identity in the investigations of Lukács
The theoretical subsidiary background of Youth Lukács
The philosophical logical gestalt of Youth Lukács
Section 2 the concept of history of Youth Lakács
Historicity as definition of philosophical noumenon
The concept of history of Marx
Youth Lukács: historicity and naturalness
Section 3 Revolutionary dialectics and critical historical materialism
Revolutionary dialectics and natural dialectics without subject
Can positive method of science really look on facts and laws?
What is historical materialism?
Critique of naturalness: Essence of bourgeois ideology
Section 4 Logical tension of totality definition
How is the concept of totality introduced
The principle of totality of Youth Lukács
The double limitation of the category of totality
Section 5 Market materialization and pseudo-materialization of instrumental rationality
Alienation and materialization: From Hegel to Marx and Weber
Youth Lukács’ inveracious relationship with materialization theory of Marx
Countability of quantity and the structure of materialization
Materialization and concealing of the value of real subject
Abstract: On the ground of deeply exposit of History and Class Consciousness in the light of textualism, the author firstly expounds a significant paradox in it that Marx's theory of reification was illegally tied with Weber's theory of objectification of instrumental reason, that is, young Lukácuss envisaged that the theory of reification on down-standing of social relations was identical with the theory of reification on quantification of product process. After carefully analyzing texts and discourses, the author at last found out the theoretical event, which was all along hidden. This is an important advance in the study on young Lukács's theory of reification, also a embody of the author's expound reading model in the study on Western Marxism.

Section 6 Class Consciousness: Objective possibility and dialectical mediation
Historical genesis of class consciousness
The antinomy of modern beourgeos philosophical thoughts
Mediation: The methodological essence of class consciousness of proletariate
Chapter 2 Double-dimensional mediation of society and nature: Unscrambling of Schmidt’s The Concept of Nature in the Theory of Marx
Section 1 the concept of Nature of Marx
Nature: Hegel, Feuerbach and Marx
Ontology: Nature mediated by historical practice
Section 2 Heterogeneity of Marxian materialism and philosophical materialism
Neo-materialism based on the study of political economy
Anti-teleology: Limited person and specific task of society and history
Critical review of pseudo-naturalness in society and history
Section 3 Double-dimensional mediation of nature and society: Falsification of relational ontology
Economical investigation is immediate basis of Marxian new philosophy
Against Lukács: double-dimensional mediation of nature and society
Social being degenerated to natural matter
Material exchange between man and nature
Abstract: This paper is one of achievements in textual search for the classic writings of western Marxism. The author emphatically studies Marx's concept of nature of A. Schmidt who is secondary generation of the Frankfurt School, especially discusses his theory of reciprocal mediation between nature and society. He thinks that Schmidt correctly adhered to the materialist standpoint and opposed young Lukács' ontology of social Being (relation) on the ground of understanding of Marx's economic manuscripts, but what he used to against ontology of relation is natural materialist idea of retrogression of nature. The author fully proves that Schmidt misappropriated Marx's idea of transformation of material. It is indeed tragic which Schmidt unconsciously returned to the most ancient ontology of natural material by using the concept of natural necessity as "primary substance", when he asserted against all ontology in philosophy.

Section 4 Marxian materialist epistemology
1. Materializing the mediation of instrument: economical condition of epistemology
2. Giving or creation: historical speaking of epistemological essence
3. Constitution of world and practice of history

Chapter 3 Individual of infinite possibility:
The root of Marxian philosophy——Unscrambling of Fromm’s Marxian Concept about Human
Section 1 Disclosure of Marx
Renaissance of the great tradition of humanism
Does “Opposition of two Marx’” really exist?
There is only one humanist Marx
Abstract:  Marxian Concept about Human is the most important text of western Marxism of the early period of Fromm. In this book Fromm puts forward the idea for the first time that the essence of Marxist philosophy is humanist. In order to establish this argumentation Fromm points out and confirms Marxism as the social background of western humanist renaissance of the 20th century respectively and refutes the opposition idea of “two Marx’” fabricated by western Marxiology. He proposes in public that there is only one Marx, that is, Marx is always Marx as humanist philosopher.

Section 2 Rejection of the distorted Marxian concepts
Marx is not Materialism of economism and hedonism
What is Marxian historical materialism
Marxian philosophy is a kind of human protest
Abstract: Fromm is a famous humanist of western Marxism. His book Marxian Concept about Man is an important text, which humanized Marxian concept again in the 20th century. This article mainly discusses his fundamental ideas from re-reading of Marxian historical materialism. Here he argues against the interpretation of historical materialism as economical determinism and stresses that Marxism is a kind of humanist protest. This writer of the article definitely falsifies the justification of Fromm’s action.

Section 3 Marxian human concept
Marx: human nature
Human essence: self-positive potentiality of productive nature
Abstract: Fromm is a famous humanist of western Marxism. His book Marxian Concept about Man is an important text, which humanized Marxian concept again in the 20th century. This article mainly discusses his fundamental ideas from re-reading of Marxian historical materialism. Here he argues against the interpretation of historical materialism as economical determinism and stresses that Marxism is a kind of humanist protest. This writer of the article definitely falsifies the justification of Fromm’s action.

Section 4 Alienation: Negation of productive nature
Neo-humanist degeneration of alienation logic
Alienation: “Man is not as he should become”
The labor alienation theory of Youth Marx
Conclusion Socialism: Aufheben of human alienation
Abstract: Fromm re-interprets the humanism of Marxian philosophy, whose critical value tension lies in re-unscrambling of Marxian alienation theory. With him the historical idea of alienation completely rejected by historical materialism becomes Marxian important logical plane facing social reality once again. The authentic creative existence which should be possessed by man, as an unhistorical value suspension, becomes an ethical measure criticizing reality. This author of the paper definitely rejects this kind of retrogressive theoretical trend.

Appendix Fromm£ºAlienation of today
The essence of modern alienation: human alienation against man and self
Omnipresent alienation in modern society
Consumption alienation
Alienation of reason, culture and thought
Chapter 4 A clarification of real world: Unscrambling of Koosik’s Concrete Dialectics
Section 1 the background of Koosik’s theoretical logic
Concreteness and dialectics: from Hegel to Marx
Koosik’s philosophical logical gestalt
Section 2 Koosik’s social phenomenology
False and true: “pseudo-concrete” world and real world
Covering and discovering: the way to essential phenomenon
Destruction of pseudo-concreteness: dialectical thinking and revolutionary practice
Section 3 Epistemology and Totality
How man recognizes real world
Concrete totality
Chapter 5 Individual’s dance with anklets: Unscrambling of Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason
Introduction
Section 1 Marxism and Existentialism
After Hegel: Marxism and existentialism
Existentialism parasitized on the margin of Marxism
Marxism: against and for
Abstract: This article mainly discusses the relations between Satre’s existentialism and Marxism. Firstly, it is the significant thought turn which happened in the fifties of 20th century, that is, the reserved acceptance of Marxism. According to Sartre himself it is Marxist reality and theory that changed his thinking context in common. Secondly, he is definitely against Stalinian dogmatic Marxism, he even thinks that there is humanist clearing in the depth of historical materialism. His existentialism is that kind of important philosophical ideas that parasitized on the edge of Marxist system and supplemented its humanist void.

Section 2 Marx: Method of mediation
Methodological symptom of dogmatic Marxism
Methodological mediation from abstract to concrete historical reality
Abstract: The study object of this Section is philosopher Sartre who entered the western Marxist gestalt. It mainly makes a deep interpretation of “Method Problem”, Part I of Critique of Dialectical Reason, which was written in sixties of last century. Here the focus of this interpretation is Sartre’s criticism of philosophical method of traditional Marxism, namely his so-called falsification of “deductive theory of transcendental concept” and his micro-social investigation model, which was introduced from psychoanalysis and society by him and was regarded by himself as a remedy of that methodological defects.

Section 3 Method of progress-regress
Appearance-changing “thrownness and projection”
Historical dialectics: human transcendence and alienation over given conditions
Method of progress-regress
Abstract: In the way of methodology the most famous of Critique of Dialectical Reason, which was written by Sartre as existentialist Marxist, is the method of Progress-regress put forward by him. This article, in the deep context of textual unscrambling, for the first time definitely points out the dialectical humanist background of the logic of progress-regress: it admits the rationality of macro-social narration( integral) of historical materialism, but it even more emphasizes the micro mechanism(differential) regarding personal existential practice as the original motivation of historical constitution. That is the internal methodological gestalt of his so-called “structural historical humanism”.

Section 4 Neo-humanist dialectics of Sartre
Existence of man: projection in the inability of concept
How is critical humanist dialectics possible?
Totality and totalization
Totalization and individual’s dialectics
Abstract£ºThe most famous philosophical idea of Sartre as western Marxist Sartre is no more than his neo-humanism, which is historical dialectics based on personal practice of genesis, i.e., projecting individual’s design of transcending given existence. He rejected the totality of natural dialectics and presence, regarding the relationship between historical totalization and personal existence as kernel proposition of historical philosophy.

Section 5 Genetical dialectics and off-the-peg dialectics
The logical structure of Critique of Dialectical Reason, Vol 1
The relationship of primary totalization of individual existence with human being
Void: the alienation basis in human existential noumenon
The practice of alienation and dominion of figuration
Abstract: In the book Critique of Dialectical Reason Sartre tries to establish a kind of structural historical humanism. He thinks that the fundamental structure of historical dialectics is the contradiction between personal existence introduced by demand and shortage of real material and that in order to change the present situations the individuals tries to transcend the given conditions through labour, but they plunge into the dominion of practical alienation and figuration. This is the alienation which occurs in the existential nounemon, therefore the genetical dialectics of personal practice is overturned to present dialectics of inert practice.

Section 6 Mitsein distorted: series, group
Series: non-active human aggregation
Group: common practice of otherness
Towards fight: free common practice
Abstract: The theory of human social community in Critique of Dialectical Reason is very important content of Sartre’s historical philosophy. The inert Mitsein is constituted by draught of gang’s external power, e.g., from amalgation group to oath group, organization group and institutional group. The Mitsein relationship between individual and others always appears negatively in the situations of tragical determinism, even as the fight group of active community this negative historical prospect will not be changed.
Chapter 6 Marxian Philosophiy: Science Or Humanist Ideology?
Section 1 Neo-hermeneutic: The Methodological Recognition of the History of Marxian Philosophical Thought
The “Political Dispute” of Youth Marx
The Future Perfect Tense of Teleology: The Methodological Defects of the Research of Marxist Philosophical History
Marx is not an Inborn Marxist
“Surpassing”, “Perversion” or “Returning Anew”?
Section 2 A Revised Textual Research on the History of Marxian Philosophical Thought
A Renewed Stage-division of the History of Marxian Philosophical Thought
The Ideological Stage before the Epistemological Rupture
The Totally Opposite Evaluation of Oekonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844
1845£ºThe Rupture of New-old Problématique
Section 3 The Most Important Basic Principle of Marxism
Marxism is “An Anti-Humanism in Theory”
Pseudo-subject: History is a Process without Subject
Pseudo-historical Time and Anti-historicism
Chapter 7 Stitching “Should” and “Be”: Unscrambling of Goldmann’s Hidden God
Section 1 Marx in historical Circumstance: from dualistic abruption to monistic stitching
Youth Marx in dualistic abruption
“Monistic” standpoint of dialectical materialism
Abstract: This article mainly discusses Goldmann’s idea of the formation history of Marxian philosophical thought. Taking on the scientific humanism of monistic unity between facts and values as logical yardstick, he distinguishes the dualistic situations in the philosophical thoughts of Youth Marx and Marxian fundamental transformation process of monistic idea of history of historical materialism based on practice.

Section 2 ¡¡Overall meaning structure: total typology
Dialectical totality of genetical structuralism
Man and structure: social history theory as genetical structuralism
Confrontation of society and text as positive structure
Abstract:  Goldmann is an important French philosopher of western Marxism of last century. The genetical structuralism and scientific humanist idea put forward by him are extremely significant step in the philosophical history of western Marxism. This article mainly stresses that he tries to adjust the logical abruption between humanism and scientism namely the idea of total typology. Based on scientific structuralism of Piaget’s genetic theory, Goldmann here tries to shape his complete philosophical idea facing the world through the connective relations between subject and structure.

Section 3 Hidden God: Being and non-being of truth, good, beauty and saint
Tragedy: God’s absence in universal cosmopolitanization
Naissance of tragedy: a performance in which God acts as a spectator
Rejection of world in the world
Tragedy-man of sublimity and mundaneness
Abstract: What this article discusses is a main logical thread of the book Hidden God, which is an important philosophical text of Goldmann, a French philosopher of western Marxism. The thread is as follows: Facing the capitalist process of secularization, as the tragic situations of those who are reluctant to run into material-enslavement, they must enter real life objectively on one hand, but they have to reject objectification internally on the other hand. In their heart Marxian thoughts are together with them as absent and wordless God.

Section 4 we bet in market kingdom that communism may be realised
Pascal: we bet that God exists
We bet that socialism will win
Why Goldmann bets?
Abstract: In the famous book Hidden God by Goldmann, the French philosopher of western Marxism the most celebrated idea is the bet that communism may be realized in the future. Socialism has been transferred from realistic practice to bet like internal moral order, which reflects the tragic emotion in the globalization of capital world history, but at the same time develops another kind of ideal struggle against serving the hour.

Bibliography
Index
Postscript

A Deep Plough of Texts (Vol II)
Textual Unscrambling of Post-Marxian Trend

Contents
 

Preface
Chapter 1   Atonal Dialectical Imagination: Reading of Adorno’s Negative Dialectics
Introduction: A Preparative Work of Critical Methodology
1. A Critical Principle of Deconstruction and Theoretical Structure?
2. Re-interpret Dialectics: The Downfall and Salvation of Philosophy in Market
3. Dialectics Is Not a Freezing Position
4. The Totality and the Antagonistic World That Cannot Be Engulfed
Section 1  Dialectics: Disintegrated Logic
1. Against “The First Philosophy”
2. Nothingness and Being in Non-dualistic Gestalt
3. Logic of Identity: “Metaphysical Thaumatrope”
4. Against Praxis: The Magic Curse of Production for Production
Section 2   Non-identity: Categorical Constellation in Negative Dialectics
1. Dialectics: Self-awareness of Non-identity (the Other)
2. Signification Field of Non-identity
3. Constellation: The Existential Form of Non-identity
4. The Categorical Constellation of Negative Dialectics
Section 3   The Primacy of Subject and the Priority of Object
1. The Transcendental Character of Idealistic Subject and Social Unconsciousness
2. The Illusion of the Primacy of Subject and Self-alienation of Anthropocentrism
3. Vacancy of Emperorship: Precedence and Mediation of Object
Section 4  Materialization, Alienation and Its Resistance
1. The Disintegration of “Objects” and the New Illusion of Experiential Immediacy
2. Rejecting Objectivity and Against Materialism
3. Logic of Alienation: Illusion of Philosophical Imperialism
Section 5  Negative Dialectics and Materialism
1. Critical Theory and Materialism
2. The Concept of Spirit understood by Idealism
3. Negative Dialectics and Materialism
 
Chapter 2  The Pseudo-being Presented by Images: Reading of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle
Section 1  Overturning the Overturned World of the Spectacle
1. The Ontological Presentational Aberrance of Social Existence
2. The Form of Spectacle’s Dominance
3. Spectacle Imperialism and Irresistible Hegemony
4. Separation: The Deep Realistic Background of Presentational Spectacle
Abstract: This paper concentrates on the discussion of the concept “spectacle” in Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. The society of the spectacle as the newest conformation lies essentially in the presentation of social existence. People are obsessed with spectacles and therefore lose the requirement for authentic life, while capitalists manipulate the whole social life by the production and control of the genesis and transformation of the spectacles. In the productive method of spectacle the control of ideology can take place through the spreading of images and separation is the realistic social basis of the genesis of the spectacle.
Section 2   Fetishism of Spectacle: The Totally Successful Colonization of Commodity
1. From Fetishism of Commodity to Fetishism of Spectacle
2. The Pseudo-effect and Pseudo-recreation in the Process of Being Watched
3. Spectacle: Counterfeiting Life in the Paradise of Commodity
Abstract: This paper mainly discusses the problem of the fetishism of the spectacle in Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. If we can say that Marxian fetishism of commodity means that the relationship between individuals manifests itself as that between products in a reversed way, the internal genetic mechanism of the fetishism of the spectacle is the imaging of the products through the elimination of the real existence of them and the evaporation of them into a kind of visional spectacle. Therefore in the society of the spectacle the authentic need and desire vanishes and everything in life is replaced by the glittering products and pseudo-effect produced by the spectacle. Here the human existence as such becomes an ontological counterfeit.

Section 3  False Existence and Time of Spectacle
1. Static Society and Circular Time
2. Bourgeois and Irreversible Time
3. Time of Consumption and Pseudo-circular Time
4. Time of Spectacle: Toy Bricks of Time Producing Pseudo-events
5. Time of Spectacle Synchronous with Pseudo-circular Time
Abstract: This paper mainly discusses the ideas about the problem of time in Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, especially the idea about the time of the spectacle put forward by him. Different from the circular time in the pre-traditional society and the irreversible time in the industrial society, the time of the spectacle is a kind of toy bricks producing pseudo-events. The modern society saves people a great deal of leisure time and all this time becomes specific toy bricks of the spectacle time, which is dominated by images and which is filled with a variety of advertisement deceptions and deliberate misleading. In the false produced “pseudo-festivals” the capitalists force us to buy what we are not in need of by the spectacles. At bottom the essence of the spectacle time is alienated consumptive time.

Section 4   Ideology of Spectacle and Its Subversion
1. The Spectacle as Materialization of Ideology
2. Revolution of Ordinary Life: Subversion of Spectacle
Abstract: This paper concentrates on the discussion of the concept “spectacle ideology” put forward in Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle and the revolutionary strategies, which are made use of by contextualism to fight against and reject the spectacle. In the present capitalist society the spectacle has transformed the latent and invisible hegemony of previous ideology into a visible compulsion of the false image world. This kind of spectacle has realized a direct control of people’s deep unconsciousness through the production of human desire and the objective seduction. Therefore, the most effective revolutionary method of people’s subversion of the spectacle has changed from the class struggle, which aimed at the capitalist system of economy and politics, to “the revolution of everyday life”, which makes the existential moment become an art: sublating alienation and opposing the turning of fetishism into an “excursion” of artists and “hetero-trajectory” of the ideas in psychological sense. The essence of this kind of cultural revolution lies in the so-called construction of the existential context with positivity and authenticity.

Chapter 3   The Subversive Perspective from Monkey’s Body to Human Body: A Critical Textual Reading of The Mirror of Production by Jean Baudrillard
Introduction
Section 1  Was J. Baudrillard Once a Marxist?
1. The Symbolic Exchange by M.Mauss and Grassroots’ Romanticism
2. Georges Bataille’s Useless Philosophy of “Grassroots”
3. The Latent Logical Support of The System of Objects and The Consumer Society
Section 2   Marx: The Theoretical Arrogation of Historical Materialism
 
1. The Mirror of Production: What is J. Baudrillard against?
2. Rejecting the Gestalt of Historical Materialism
3. The Pathogenic Cause of Methodology: The Super-historicization of History
Section 3   Noumenon of Production: I Produce, Therefore I am
1. Deviously Criticizing Value of Use and “Value of Exchange”
2. The Theoretical Stick Constituted by Primitive Relationship of Symbolic Exchange
3. Down with Utilitarian Ontology of Production
4. Re-questioning of Marxian Critique of Capitalist Mode of Production
Section 4   Critique of Labor Ideology
1. The Metaphysical Evil of Labor: Concrete and Abstract, Quality and Quantity
2. The Productive Labor Is Sinful
3. The Good of Labor and the Beauty of Non-labor
Section 5   Marx and the Dominance of Nature
1. The Enslavement Concept of Nature in the Thoughts of Enlightenment
2. Marxian “Half Revolution” in the Theory of Nature
3. The Capital Law and the Capital Natural Necessity
Section 6   Marx and Ethnocentrism
1. Capital History and Capital Dialectics
2. The Analytical Category and the Ideological Category
3. Can Human Body Function as A Key to Dissection of A Monkey’s Body?
4. Historical Materialism and West Centrism
Section 7   The Enigma between the Dissection of A Monkey’s Body and the Structure of An Ape’s Body
1. A New Interpretation of Dialectics of Master and Slave
2. The Heterogeneity between the Labor of Handicraftsmen and Utilitarian Labor
3. Logical Distinction between Dissection of A Human Body, that of A Monkey’s Body and that of An Ape’s Body
Section 8   Historical Materialism and Euclidean Geometry in History
1. The Legality of Modern Discourse Saying about the History of Ancient Society
2. Is Historical Materialism a Universal Science?
3. The Passing Away of Economic Origin Produced by Historical Materialism
4. The Initiative and New Revolution of “Critique of Symbolic Political Economy”

Chapter 4   Presence and Absence of Marx: A Textual Reading of J. Derrida’s The Specters of Marx
 Section 1 The radical absence of absent specters
  1 Why did Derrida write Specters of Marx ?
  2 A memorial politics dancing with specters
  3 Marx and specters theory
  4 The genealogy of Derrida’s specters theory
Section 2 The theoretical logic of Derrida’s specters theory
  1 Deconstruction and impossible specters
2 For Specters of Marx
Section 3 Marx in defférance: the Spiritual Heritage Deconstructed
1 We are all inheritors of Marx
2 Time out of joint and presence out of joint
3 The error of the ontological response of 'Specters of Marx'

Chapter 5   Hollow Man: A Perpetual Constitution of Fairyland ------ A Textual Readiing of Slavoj Zizek’s The Sublime Object of Ideology
 Chapter   Hollow Man: Eternal Structure of Dreamland----A Textual Reading of Zizek’s The Sublime Object of Ideology

Introduction: Inoculation of Marx and Lacan
1. Contemporary World in the Eyes of Marx
2. The Correlation between the Contradiction and Drive of Capitalism
3. Marxian Surplus Value and Lacanian Surplus Enjoyment
4. From Tragedy to Comedy: The Overall Take-over of Marx by Lacanian Discourse
Section 1   Impossibility: The Political Position of Post-Marxian Trends
Abstract: This Introduction mainly discusses Zizek’s viewpoints about Marx. Zizek is a famous and important representative of contemporary western post-Marxian trend. On the one hand he thinks that Marx is still an important theoretical resource for the people today to make a critical survey of capitalist society, but on the other hand he criticizes Marxian substitutive plan of capitalism from the position of Lacanism. The essence of Zizek’s political idea of “post-Marxism” is nothing but the overall take-over of Marxist science with Lacan’s philosophy.

1. Habermas and Foucault: Two Traditional Ideas of Subject in the Shadowgraphs of Contemporary Theories
2. Althusser and Lacan: The Heterogeneity in the Emptiness of Subject
3. Deleting Nostalgia: The Social Revolutionary Spectacle of “Post-Marxism”
4. Irremediable Trauma: The Post-Marxian Political Ideas of S. Zizek
Section 2   Marx Invents Lacanian Concept of Symptom
1. The Mysterious Form of Non-essence: Freud and Marx
2. “Scandal”: The Unconsciousness of the Form of Commodity
3. The Body of Money: The Indissoluble Sublime Object
4. Blind: Essence of Ideology
Abstract£ºThis article mainly discusses one important idea, namely, the idea “Marx invented symptom” in Zizek’s book The Sublime Object of Ideology. The writer expounds Zizek’s attempt to integrate the theoretical logics of Marx and Freud, especially revealing the so-called homogeneity of formal mysticism in order to introduce Lacan’s concept of symptom. Here with Zizek, commodity fetishism is exactly the critique of symptom in the interpretation of the phenomenon of economic unconsciousness while the essence of the contemporary ideology is turning a blind eye to it with the character of misconception.

Section 3   Social Symptoms and Non-perfect Fetishism
1. Social Symptom: The Breakdown Point of Universal Ideology
2. Fetishism: The Misunderstanding of the Inverted Presentation
3. Non-perfect Fetishism in the Dependence of Objects Is Exactly the “Appearing Point” of Social Symptoms
Abstract£ºThis paper mainly discusses the theory of social symptom and non- complete fetishism in Zizek’s The Sublime Object of Ideology. According to Zizek, social symptom is the crevasse or the inclusive hole. It is Lacan-Zizek’s logic that this social symptom, which is internally corrupted, is exactly the fundamental condition constituting social reality. After distinguishing the complete fetishism in the human dependent society, Zizek points out that the non-complete fetishism in the dependence of objects in bourgeois society is just the authentic “emerging point” of social symptom.

Section 4   The Positive Cynicism and the Illusion of Ideology
1. Marx: Two Kinds of Ideological Critiques
2. Ideology: Frankfurt School and Althusser
3. Cynicism and Modifications in Contemporary Ideology
4. The Phantasm of Ideology and the Epoch of Post-ideology
Abstract£ºThis paper mainly discusses the idea of Cynicism in Zizek’s book The Sublime Object of Ideology. Based on the demarcation between two kinds of Marxian ideological critiques, Zizek carries out a comparative investigation between the ideological theory of Frankfurt School and that of Althusser, that is, the ideology of science and technology and that of national apparatus. Finally, Zizek puts forward the new status of ideology occurred today is cynical post-ideology, which does not only refer to the idea-representative system, in which the false relationship shades the truth, but to the reality-constituting illusion. Therefore, the world is deconstructed into a totality of idols.

Section 5   The Materialized Faith and the Reality Constituted by illusion
1. Marx Plus Lacan: The Materialized Faith
2. Phantasm Modulating the Social Reality
Abstract: This Section mainly discussed the question of objectifying belief in Zizek’s book The Sublime Object of Ideology. With the Lacanian representative of post-Marxian trend of thoughts, Marxian commodity fetishism becomes the confirmation of Lacanian objectifying belief. This belief is supporting the idol of ideology, which is oversewing the capitalist reality that is never rational. This will make it impossible to anticipate that people can carry out a radical transformation of capitalism.

Section 6   The Phantasm of Ideology and Surplus Enjoyment
1. Questioning Althusser’s Theory of National Apparatus of Ideology
2. Kafka in Lacanian Circumstance
3. Zhuangzi’s Dreaming of Butterfly and Ideological Dream
Abstract: This Section mainly discussed Zizek’s thought of ideological idol in The Sublime Object of Ideology. Zizek firstly transplanted Lacan’s symbolic theory into the level of social history by the critical analysis of Althusser’s national apparatus of ideology and then recognized and confirmed the support of ideological idol of pseudo-reality through the works of Kafka and such specific contexts as Zhuangzi dreaming about butterfly.

Bibliography
Postscript

Preface
Ever since Mr Xu Chongwen first introduced the concept of “Western Marxism” to China in 1982, the study of Marxism abroad has enjoyed 20 years of difficult experiences. It goes without saying that this introduction is of vital importance for the academia of Marxism study, though there is still disagreement over the usage of the keyword “Western Marxism” , which has in effect opened up a new field of questions due to its fixed realm of study. In my opinion, it overcomes the narrowness of traditional study of Marxism and prompts further studies and theoretical creativity worthy of consideration.
 However, I have to admit that most of the achievements in this field in the past 20 years have lain in translation and comments. Most classical texts of the traditional “Western Marxism”(up to the 70s of 20th century) have been translated into Chinese,   but they mainly focus on philosophy, culture, aesthetics, psychology. Such subjects as sociology, economics, politics and history are almost neglected (but of course, some recent researches have come to notice these aspects, which has made up for the lost parts). This shows that our present study leaves much to be desired, especially the theoretical position needs to be ascertained. To be candid, our researches lag far behind our foreign colleagues, which, as a critical disadvantage, shows two important prospects: a complete understanding of classical texts and a construction of new research mode.
 First of all, when we look back into the great many classics of Western Marxism ever since the publication of  History and Class Consciousness, it is not difficult for us to find that most of our achievements have been comments, which are far away from intensive reading. We have lots of second-hand data and references of views. We have failed to enter the philosophical contexts of speakers. I have once pointed out the main reasons for this phenomenon: first, we have failed to read the classics of Marxism, which Western Marxism researchers have studied. Then how can we come up with “Marxism criticism”? To be concrete, “Marxism criticism” presupposes that the critics should read intensively the classics of Marxism (i.e. what I called “Back to Marx”). Without this, any comments and assertions could be blamed to be “illegal”, from which a rootless kind of theoretical researches stems. Second, all schools of Western Marxism are ready to integrate Marx with various trends of philosophical cultures so as to construct opposing discourses of radicalism beyond the modern main stream of bourgeoisie academy. What is more important, a number of researchers themselves are masters among contemporary schools of western philosophy. They explain Marx by way of their own original discourses of philosophy. It would turn out to be in vain to master the objective problematic (i.e. what we asserted to be “doctrine”) without complete understanding of the perspective of philosophical cultures. As a result, how could we come to deconstruct the deep theory of our critical object? Besides, we are still unfamiliar with the fixed historical contexts, in which the western researches are situated, even if we have access to piles and piles of translations ever since the 80s of 20th century. The shortage of the supportive background of history leads to the third reason, that is, Chinese researchers do not have special discourses and speech contexts, which they are supposed to have. What is most important for the present research in China is that we should turn around and face the texts and characters once again, construct special historical contexts, and find out the theoretical logic and the key “symptom” so as to read intensively on the basis of complete understanding.
In the second place, contemporary Marxism research abroad presupposes the transformation of research modes. There is no denying the fact that the research mode of the traditional “Western Marxism” (two subjects, for example, the “essence” of Marx and bourgeois political criticism) can not support its original connotation and denotation any longer, as new Left and the traditional Western Marxism camp have changed greatly since French “Red May Storm” in 1968. If the research mode is not redefined, the theoretical logic will be covered with confusion. In my opinion, a new definition of historical theoretical logic is a must approach to this phenomenon, that is, to identify the layout, in which the historical termination of Western Marxism and to construct post-modern Marxism, post-Marxian trend and late-Marxism are situated at the same time. This is the only way to review the new trend of Marxism philosophy. 
 As noted above, Adorno’s criticism of totality and identity signifies the termination of Western Marxism as a must historical existence in the 60s of 20th century. The termination, in historical practice, resulted in the western students’ revolutionary movement at the end of the 60s and the failure of “Rose Revolution”.   It is well-known that the special theoretical trend of Western Marxism is established unconsciously in the process of re-explanations of “orthodox Marxism” by some Marxist philosophers in the 20s of 20th century. This trend is apt to refuse any kinds of mis-shapening of Marxist philosophy and opposes unscientific mode of interpretations, which sanctifies authors of Marxism classics. It attempts to distinguish some un-orthodox “new Marxism” different from the system of Engels and Stalin, due to the re-interpretation of Marxism texts. And yet this new-born Marx is usually situated in a certain modern western culture and a school of philosophy. What is more important, this Left theory persists over that they themselves are authentic Marxism, though they are, in essence, against the bourgeois political institution in the framework of industrial civilization.
 In the early logic construction of Western Marxism philosophy, Lukács’s totality, Gramsci’s practices of monism, and Korsh’s dialectics all contribute to go against the disintegrated theoretical logic and capitalistic fact. After the 30s of 20th century, humanistic Marxism comes into being due to young Marx’s text of The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. It includes the early theoretical activities of Frankfurt School and humanism construction by Bloch, Sartre, Fromm and Lefenvre. Humanistic Marxism reaches its topgallant in mid-60s of 20th century. The main stream of Humanistic Marxism is seriously attacked by western Marxists headed by Althusser with scientism, which refuses non-historical human and subjectivity. As a result, it re-acts a modern rational disintegration of the west in academic unconsciousness – a paradox of humanism and scientism.
After this, Dialectic of Enlightment by Adorno and Horkheimer starts a theoretical breakthrough in the late period of the development of Frankfurt School. And Adorno’s Negative dialectics generates a new kind of logic trend, that is, the internal refusal of the whole industrial civilization. As the enlightment of bourgeois liberal discourses, asserted to be slavery of nature and government of human by human, all attempts to pursue the free liberation, based upon identical quality (both human beings and laws ). This liberation has become the total potential conspiracy of capitalism. The violent imposed relation between human and nature has been reflected. Up till then, the most important generative force of Marx historical materialism and the logic of human liberation are negated. I believe that Adorno’s philosophy sets a theoretical starting-point to the post-modern trend, while the construction of philosophy signifies a brand-new attitude toward Marx, which I would term the trend of post-Marx. The essence of the theory lies in that it both negates the critical theoretical foundation of Marxism philosophy and inherits the tradition of Marx’s criticism in terms of methodology and basic standpoint. In writing general theoretical papers, he does not piously refer to Marx’s “classical texts” any more, instead, he chooses to agree or disagree in a more relaxed and liberal way. The trend of post-Marx represents the theoretical image of a great many former western Marxism researchers and mid-Left thinkers in the 70s of 20th century. It is on the basis of his thoughts that Frankfurt School has a great theoretical turn. Take Fromm, the second generation of western humanistic Marxism philosopher, for example. In his last work Haben oder Sein(1976), he gives up abstract subject-centre theory and goes further to distinguish “to have” and “not to have”. He is strongly against the traditional humanistic “self-center, self-interest and the lust to have”, “the slavery of nature” and human “hateful attitude” toward nature. Later on, both Pollock and Habermas establish their system of thoughts on this very new theoretical turn. Without this point, it would be very hard to understand Habermas’s non-identical communication theory, which transcends the economics of labor. As a result, it is Adorno who starts the trend of post-Marx. Besides, another important theoretical event occurs almost at the same time, that is, the great change in the research of post-modernist conventional life criticism after 1962, witnessed by Lefebvre, the important French Marxism philosopher. Lefebvre identifies the social rule of contemporary bourgeoisie and the transformation of slavery structure from material production-economic register to consumption-sign register. Lefebvre is the first to overturn Marxist historical base of material production mode and in his later study of space, he proves the occurrence of recurrent space which transcends the virtual space. This takes the place of the relation field of historical materialism (traditional space: absolute natural space, political historical space and economic abstract space). His viewpoint directly influences or prompts Baudrillard’s post-Marx turn. It is worthy of notice that Adorno and Lefebvre have always been western Marxists, but they are also the initiators of the trend of post-Marx.
In the Marxism Camp after Adorno, there appears a radical trend. It negates industrial civilization and all cultural forms which are based on industrial civilization. Its main force derives from the post-modern Marxism which is established by means of post-modern trend, for instance, the ecological Marxism and new feministic Marxism. These theorists take themselves as Marxists, but they fundamentally depart from the traditional western Marxism. Their difference lies in that they deny the most important principles in Marxist philosophy at the root. For instance, ecological Marxism is against the viewpoint that the promotion of productivity is the base of historical development, as the non-ecological attitude actually refuses the promotion mode of historical materialistic productivity. Take another example, feministic Marxism refutes that Marxist point of social class is no more than father track. It is due to the fact that Marx only identifies the virtual labor in the exchange market in terms of the relationship between labor and capital, completely ignorant of the position of woman housework in the existence of labor force, which cannot enter abstract social totality of labor. This “shadow labor” neglected by Marx is in fact a kind of labor that can create labor of value. The above mentioned viewpoints, though claim to be Marxism, have departed from the “authentic Marxism” and the basic theoretical intention of modern bourgeoisie criticism, which the traditional Marxism attempts to prove.
After French “May Storm”, a group of young western Marxists in Europe begin to make their farewells to Marxism. They turn to a more radical trend, witnessed by post-modern trend. They acknowledge that they would not agree with Marxism any longer, but at the same time, they claim that they have inherited Marxist criticism, for example, Deleuze, Baudrillard, and Derrida. They are the mainstream of post-modern trend, initiated by Barthes, Lacan and Fodor, but at the same time, they are different from the political standpoint of post-modern Right (for example, Lyotard, Rorty, and Hassan. A new comer is a Lacanist, Zizek  . They refute modern capitalism, and carefully keep a certain distance from Marxism. This is what I term Post-Marxian Trend. The trend itself is a theoretical change, caused by an abrupt Right turn in the post-modernistic context of Western Marxism. It should be notified that these Marxist philosophers are not Marxists any longer. They are different from Adorno and Lefebvre on this point. Their political position is also different from that of the self-appointed post-modern Marxism, as we mentioned above. Now we are going to discuss late Marxism.
The Post-Marxist philosophy boasts of its historical transcendence over the basic framework of Marxism. On this point, both post-Marxian philosophy and post-modern Marxism are of the same quality in terms of historical ontology, owing to the transcendence of the post-modernism over the modernism, on which all the so-called new philosophy are established. They believe that the social history, on the basis of which Marxism is founded, has become the residue of history. An entirely new social civilization is supposed to come up with an alien reality foundation for the new radical criticism. Therefore, most of the post-Marxist thinkers propose to criticize Marx from a certain perspective, and to set up a new platform of criticism. Take Baudrillard for example. He published The Mirror of Production and For a Critique of Political Economy of Sign in the 70s of 20th century. As a student of Lefebvre, Baudrillard is also influenced by Barthes and, Guy Debord who rewrites the beginning of Marx’s Capital in his famous Society of Spectacle. He starts with an immense accumulation of spectacle and replaces Marx’s an immense accumulation of commodities. And in the end Baudrillard comes up with the exchange relationship of signs to replace Marx’s commodity exchange. This is to claim the historical destruction of Marx’s production mode. In his The Mirror of Production, he points out that Marxism failed to break away from capitalist producerism thoroughly. What it expects is nothing but a more efficient and justified production organization, rather than a completely different value and way of life. He is convinced that the production mirror of Marx is already broken, while the post-modern media illusion is the true killer of the capital rule. Baudrillard pronounces the death of both modernity and industry (material production mode). This is the fundamental reason for his refusal of Marxism.
It should be noted that there is another kind of Marxism philosophy discourse after the post-modern trend has become the mainstream logic of western radical force. It is very close to traditional western Marxism. It keeps the post-modern space-time relationship with traditional western Marxism in its internal theoretical logic. It sticks to the basic principles and viewpoints of Marxism philosophy. It upholds that Marxism philosophy is so strong that it cannot be transcended by post-industrial society. Facing the rapid development of capitalism, they refuse to acknowledge the essential change. They only choose to identify late capitalism (Ernest Mandel) or global capitalism. And yet, I prefer to define it as Late Marxism, which could include such avant-guard members as Jameson, Egaleton, Best, and Kellner. The term flexible production is most creative. Late Marxism transcends the traditional western Marxism in that they come up with an entirely new theoretical discourse, confronting post-industrial society and globalization production, in spite of the fact that they insist on the basic framework and principles of question analyses and solution of their antecedents. It must be pointed out that both Late Marxism and Post-Modern Marxism come to confront the same brand-new history. However, Post-Modern Marxism asserts the post-modern renewal of Marxism, while acknowledging that modernity turns to post-modernity. In contrast, Late Marxism does not see post-modernity. They consider the new historical era as a late period of capitalism development. Both Late Marxism and Post-Modern Marxism come to identify Marxism and stick to Marxism, which is essentially different form Post-Marxian Trend. 
I don’t believe that we can establish a scientific platform for basic Western Marxism research without these above mentioned theoretical preconditions. And I am convinced that it is indispensable to read the most important Marx classical papers abroad. This has constituted a critical part of my research, for which I have published such works as Dialectic Illusion – A reading on Adorno’s Negative Dialectics and The Problematic, Symtom Reading and consciousness – A reading on Althusser.   I intend to read systematically Western Marxism, Post-(Modern) Marxian Trend, Late Marxism. This project has started from Back to Marx – Philosophical Discourse in Economic Context(1998), and used to be expected to finish within 5 years. But now the systematic reading has to last longer. I am determined to do this job carefully and seriously as it is a critical basic project. I am very happy to see that a group of my graduates have come to this productive field, which leads me to expect a bumper harvest after painstaking efforts.
 
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