The pursuit of freedom is an eternal theme in hu man history, and it is also the core issue that Marx and Engels focused on throughout their lives. Through revolutionary changes in philosophy and political economy, Marx and Engels achieved a historic transcendence of traditional freedom theory, cracked the metaphysical, ideological,and capital misconceptions that mired freedom issues, and pointed out that humanity constantly overcame practical obstacles and embarked on a brilliant path to freedom. The historical transcendence of Marx and Engels’ concept of freedom is embodied in the following aspects: Firstly, it transcends the abstract freedom set by traditional Western philosophy, which melts into the speculative category, requires freedom to be generated in real historical practice, and faces the reality of freedom in bourgeois society; Secondly, it transcends the universal form of superficial freedom shaped by bourgeois ideology, requiring freedom to be based on objective material interests and pursuing the practical freedom of the proletariat; Thirdly, it transcends the materialization freedom of indulging in the dependence of things under the rule of capital, and requires the transformation of capitalist relations of production to achieve the all-round development of people and free personality as the highest realm of freedom.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From:Marxist Philosophy.2023.No.3.