A monograph by the Chinese academia expounding on basic opinions of Marxist philosophy, evealing the ignored or forgotten views by the classical textbook system of Marxist philosophy and ystematically demonstrating the opinions that Marx has ever expounded but not sufficiently developed with the view of practical philosophy; meanwhile coinciding with major contemporary issues in order to upgrade them into the basic opinions of Marxist philosophy and highlighting the modernity and contemporary significance of Marxist philosophy and comparison with postmodern thought. Focusing on the studies of the basic features and opinions of Marxist philosophy, the first part puts Marxist philosophy into the grand theoretical backgrounds of history of western philosophy and modern western philosophy, including postmodernism, to explore anew its theme, system features and contemporary significance. Part Two reinvestigates the historical process and thinking logic of Marx in founding historical materialism, explores the evolution of the ontology of Marxist philosophy after Marx, and analyzes, from Marx's point of view, the western philosophy of history, methods of western social science, postmodernism, post-colonialism, and the thought changes of Husserl and Derrida, with a view to highlighting the contemporary significance of Marxist philosophy.

Marxian theory of quasi-naturalness and object-enslavement about the phenomena coming forth in a definite historical period of human social development, which is pointed out by this book, is a significant content of the logical subject dimension of historical dialectics in Marxist scientific view of history, but for quite a long time this important scientific and critical discourse of Marx has always been overlooked. The following important doctrine is advanced and demonstrated de novo by the writer of this book whose study is based on a careful reading of a great quantity of classical literature: the development of human society and history, which is not always a natural historical process, unfolds itself as a historical phenomenon something like blindfold movement of nature only in a definite level of the function degree of the human social practice; in this specific historical period human subject becomes aberrant as the slave of external forces(nature and human materialized world), and the development of the social history becomes "a process without subject" similar to natural historical movement; the quasi-naturalness and object-enslavement of this specific social history is not an eternal order of nature, and with the development of human social practice the human kind will surpass this historical existential status in the end, i.e., making for the period of human all-round free development----realm of freedom from the pre-historical period of human social development----realm of necessity. Furthermore the writer discussed the modern signification of the this doctrine of Marx from the theoretical perspective of contemporary thought history and the view of natural science, especially from the combination with the socialist praxis possessing Chinese characteristics. This book, which has a new and deep implication and an uppermost expression in such aspects as initiative thoughts and contextual mutual-motion, as history distinguishing and tractatus, as logical penetration and simple lifelikeness, and as theoretical research and reality reflection, is a creative and infrequent writing in the investigation of Marxist fundamental theory recent years.

- Historical Materialism Series - This original and comprehensive study explores the formation, development and later 20th century enrichments on Marx's historical materialism theories. It innovatively interprets its formation period between 1835-1845 which has always been the object of heated discussions. The author gives special attention on the thoughts Marx and Engels had similarities and even agreement with their contemporaries especially Feuerbach and followers of Hegel. Naturally each philosopher has his own specific formation which applies for Marx, and his unique differences with his contemporaries at the certain point of time rapidly led him to establish the materialist concept of history. Recently we see a revival of interest in the nature and utility of this discovery by Marx. Debate amongst historians and philosophers on Marx's assertions on the role of man as the subject of history also the relations between Marx's practice view and historical materialism is an important focus of the book which has an impressive record three editions within ten years. Chen Xianda passionately argues, "Social science can fully become as accurate as natural science. To do this, the first thing is to determine its nature accurately, that is, to have a scientific understanding of the macroscopic laws of history. Different from living organisms, the social organism has its unique laws. The various systems in society with their special structures and functions are interrelated and constitute an indivisible whole. It is impossible to understand society without grasping the laws of social development and without analyzing the nature and complex causality in social phenomena. However, human understanding of society cannot rest on the qualitative analysis, and quantitative analysis should be conducted wherever it is possible. With the emergence of world-wide technological revolutions, the spread of the system theories, control/simulation theory, information theory and even mathematical methods being applied into social sciences provides conditions for the accurate grasp of the quantitative determination of social phenomena. The mutual permeation between natural science and social science is a progressive tendency, and Marxist philosophy researchers should face the world and the contemporary era, and summarize the new achievements in those technological revolutions. The achievements in natural science enrich and affirm instead of reducing the scientific character of the materialist conception of history. No methods offered by natural science can replace the materialist conception of history, and history has proved that the methods of positivism and empiricism were unsuitable." The author is among the leading researchers of history and theories of Marxism in China, who greatly influenced several important debates in the Chinese academia in the last three decades, including those on Marxist humanism, the role of superstructure, ontology and practical materialism. The generous appendix part of the book with six of his famous articles, contains author's important direct contributions to these debates, including his ideas on the present issues of Marxist philosophy in China and the world.

This original textological analysis work reads the epoch making texts of outstanding Marxist philosopher, Althusser's For Marx (1965), Reading Capital (1965), Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1971) which includes, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses and the author delves into other texts of him to support the analysis. Althusser, again and again becomes a major topic of discussion. Behind him stood two others: the young, morbid Catholic one and the older, gloomy Pre-Modernity classical materialist one. Putting it more precisely, these existential figures are factual images that Althusser had, in the past, intentionally concealed. This leads to an interpretative dramatization and an inexplicable mystery. A formerly dazzling yet fictive sage and a multi-faceted yet intentionally-concealed person both present themselves in the research realm. Traditional academic circles were thrown into disorder and discomfiture when the accepted, singular conception of a scientific, Marxist Althusser's original consistent image is destroyed, leaving only a mist that gradually dissipates. As Lacan put it, with the shedding of its coverings, the original vacancy further revealed itself. This is another victory of "the Other." Nanjing's keen researcher Zhang Yibing, whom we know from his three other successful textological readings, discovers Marxist Althusser shifting to an Althusser with four distinct facets. Zhang argues, the precondition of exploring this mystery is to demonstrate Althusser's complex, painful and obscure life and the mystery of his paradoxical thoughts. Contemporary researchers only make a distinction between the four different Althussers, but they fail to find integrated research logic. According to my understanding, there still exists continuity between the four Althussers. This is an anti-teleological viewpoint of non-subject and pseudo-subject that takes the absence of individual subject as the core.