Human society develops in private ownership XI: private ownership and the family and the state

Chapter 11 Private Property and the Family and the State

On the question of the relationship between private property and the origin of the family and the state, we will first follow the line of thought discussed by Engels in his book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" runs through a clear cognitive path, that is, the process of human civilization and the evolution of the form of social organization determined by the natural laws of human nature are subject to the historical existence and logic of human nature (we must be sober, this is the ownership from the material point of view, it is the ownership at the material category level of human nature in the secondary contradiction position of human nature in the stage of human security) to private ownership (it is the ownership at the material category level of human nature in the main contradiction position of human nature in the material stage of human nature). Or the logic of human society leapfrogging and switching.

Therefore, we must make it clear that the essence of the process of human civilization here is that human beings have completed the goal and task of developing safe production capacity in the safety stage of about 3 million to 5 million years, and have crossed the historical process of upgrading to the material stage for about 5,000 years; From the public ownership of materials in the stage of human security to the private ownership of materials in the stage of human material, that is, the transformation of private ownership is essentially the transformation of material private ownership into the main contradiction in the material stage on the basis of the public ownership of materials in the secondary contradiction position in the stage of human security. After human beings established the kingdom of security and freedom, the leap and promotion of the category level of human nature's needs, as a form of social organization serving the decisions and needs of human nature, will naturally change when the main human nature category level changes.

Under the circumstance that the level of human safety category is the main contradiction, all human needs, including the level of human nature and material category, must be subordinated to the needs of safety and serve the improvement of safety production capacity. Under such preconditions and conditions, from the perspective of the material category level of human nature, the ownership of the material means of production is examined, which is the ideological expression of Engels' public ownership.

This ideological expression is that human beings have moved from ignorance and barbarism to civilization, the family has changed from blood family, Punalua family (group marriage family) and dual family to autocratic family, and the form of social organization has changed from clan to state, all of which are the external manifestations of the transformation of the primitive public ownership of material productive forces (material means of production) to private ownership, and they are also the external manifestations of the upgrading of the category level of human nature from security needs to material needs determined by the natural laws of human nature. Implicit in its deep level is that in the material category of human nature, the needs of human nature, the will of human nature, the power of human nature and the improvement of human nature, that is, the continuous satisfaction, continuous release, continuous liberation, and continuous freedom of human nature. Of course, this is a gradual process of development under the premise and condition of the safe production capacity of society, that is, a process of development of spontaneous order.

On the basis of human nature and the development of the main productive forces of security, the adjustment of the material relations of production from public ownership as a secondary contradiction to private ownership as the main contradiction has brought about a series of reforms, reforms, and scientific developments in the form of society, the form of the family, and the form of social organization.

There is no doubt that the research of Morgan and Marx in different years and different paths has led to the same "view of historical materialism" and that Engels' book "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" is scientific in reaffirming, upholding and developing it. However, it is only the historical cognition since the material stage of human beings, and it is the summary of the main contradictions of human nature in the history of the material stage of human beings, and cannot include the stage of human security, that is, the historical cognition and summary of the primitive society mentioned in the past, nor can it contain the later development stages of human society (the sexual stage and the spiritual stage), that is, the communist society of Marx and Engels and its later stages. This is because the main contradiction and main task in the stage of human security is the productive productive force rather than the material productive force, and the main contradiction and main task in the stage after the material stage of human beings is the sexual productive force and the spiritual productive force rather than the material productive force.

Therefore, in the material stage of human beings, historical materialism is a profound cognition and high-end induction of this social stage, and a high degree of extraction and generalization of this social stage. It is precisely because of the existence of such causes and logic that the material means of production, determined by the natural laws of human nature, have become private ownership, become the main contradiction in social development and the main grasp of promoting social progress, and are the relations between members of human society, which are mainly and generally manifested in material relations (economic relations, commodity relations, monetary relations, etc.), and this relationship determines and influences other relations.

Moreover, the essence determined by the natural laws of human nature is scientific selfishness (not non-scientific selfishness), so material private ownership must also be scientific private ownership, maintaining a unified and cooperative private ownership, rather than a private ownership in which the two main classes are opposed and the struggle is greater than the unity and cooperation of the two main classes; It is a private ownership that is dislocated and complementary, dislocated and mutually beneficial, a private ownership that develops together in the Tai Chi model of yin and yang, and a private ownership full of vitality and vitality in the antagonistic (opposition between the ruling class and the ruled class) and unity (social unity). The starting point and the end point are mutually conditional, interdependent existence and development. It is only that this is done in different positions or identities (employer and employee, capitalist and laborer, leader and led, etc.) and at different levels or points of departure (the labourer seeks to meet the basic requirements of survival, the capitalist seeks to satisfy the requirements of capital expansion). This is the law of yin and yang of private ownership, the law of unity of opposites, and this is the way of social development. It is not possible or realistic for all the capitalists in the world to be equal, and it is not realistic, and it is always formed by the history and reality of the first to come, and generally speaking, the existence of two classes.

Under the influence of the natural laws of human nature, the formation of private ownership in the past was a natural thing for human beings, and the disappearance of private ownership and the arrival of public ownership in the future are also natural things, or things of continuous benign adjustment, reform, reform, and peaceful struggle, rather than things of man-made violent revolution (of course, this is conditional on the publication of Marx and Engels' "Communist Manifesto").

But in these, historical materialism either takes a different position, or they are all blank. Today, we're here to make it clear.

Engels further expressed the two theories of production in full, and regarded man's own production and the production of means of subsistence as the core factor restricting the development of human society. However, the former, as the core constraint, only exists in the stage of human security, that is, it restricts the development of safe production capacity; The latter, as a core constraint, exists only in the material stage of human beings. It must be clear that as the core, that is, as the existence of the main contradiction, neither of them runs through the four stages of human society.

Of course, in the material stage of human beings, Engels expounded the historical conditions and social basis for the evolution of human society from blood relations to class relations from the perspective of the development of material production as the core element and the development of human society in the material stage. He pointed out that, according to the materialist point of view, the decisive factor in history is, in the final analysis, the production and reproduction of direct life. It highlights the position of the main contradiction of material production, and highlights the characteristics of the material category level of human nature that dominates this human stage (material stage), so that material production has become the key and engine of social development in this stage. It is precisely for this reason that the material production and material materials determined by the natural laws of human nature must be privately owned. This is because, in the realm of material necessity, public ownership is contrary to human nature, and it is impossible to accomplish the goals and tasks of the kingdom of necessity in the material stage.

In the stage of human security, the development of safe production capacity is the focus of people's attention, while the development of material productivity is a secondary thing for people. Therefore, Engels pointed out that in the early days of primitive societies with a low level of productive forces (material productivity), the main factor determining the human social system was blood relations and nothing else. Because blood ties maintain the construction and growth of security productivity with population as the main thing, maintain people's teamwork, and maintain the new force of the future. Therefore, the kinship relationship of this major factor reflects at a deep level the formation and development of the security productive forces, the main contradiction in the security stage. Therefore, later, with the development of the material productive forces of the secondary contradiction, after entering the material stage, its development and the complexity of the social division of labor made the social system more and more subject to the inevitable development of labor (material production) and the domination of ownership (ownership of material materials).

Engels examined the historical changes of the family form in various historical eras (including the stage of human security and the material stage) and its different stages of development, and pointed out that the family, as one of the organizational forms of economic cells and social life, has not always existed, and its emergence, existence, and development are restricted by certain social and economic relations. This constraint on socio-economic relations must be made clear that the beginning of the material phase of human beings (previously the change of the family was subject to the constraints of social security relations). Among the four forms of kinship family, group marriage family (Punalua family), dual family, and autocratic family, the first three are the manifestations of the security stage, and the latter are the manifestations of the material stage. The private ownership of the material productive forces and the material means of subsistence, which is the main contradiction, began with the latter form of the family, that is, the autocratic family.

In the material stage, the division of labor is an important step in the development of material productive forces, and at the same time, it provides more products and missing products for the society (products that they do not have but others have), shows a possibility for the needs and satisfaction of human material categories, enlightens, guides and enhances people's pursuit of these materials, and awakens a desire of human nature, so that the division of labor is a distinctive social manifestation and achievement of material private ownership. Previously recessed or inconspicuous. Then, under the action of the natural law of human nature, the trend of individualization of labor is the decisive factor of material private ownership, and the socialization of exchange promotes the rapid development of private ownership and the universalization of society. Thus, the development of material private ownership led to the natural division and division of society into classes (the existence of material classes).

Therefore, material private ownership and material class do not exist from the beginning, but are the products of the development of social material production to a certain stage, that is, the products of the material stage of human beings, which is a historical category. Because of this, their disappearance is also a historical inevitability.

The state is the product of a certain stage of social development, that is, the product of the material stage, which is determined by the natural laws of human nature. In order to develop the material productive forces, the social division of labor and the in-depth development of private ownership, classes and class struggles cannot be dispensed without, but they must be carried out in a community. Therefore, it is imperative that the community of countries come into being, and it must be constantly consolidated and developed.

Engels discussed the historical transformation of the family form and marital status, the division of labor, private ownership and the reform of the political system, and many other issues. Among them, Engels's research on the transformation from matriarchy to patriarchy, and the historical changes in the family status and social roles of men and women is in essence a study of the leap from the stage of human security to the stage of material, and a study of the transformation of material public ownership into material private ownership in the material stage in the security stage.

Engels showed us that the changes in the relationship between men and women within the family are all changes in the social development determined by the natural laws of human nature, the changes in the social needs of safe production and the social needs of material productive forces, and the changes in the former from the main contradiction to the secondary contradiction, and the latter from the secondary contradiction to the main contradiction.

His real name is Zheng Jinmin, pen name Rabbit Wo Huangshan, a native of Luonan, Shaanxi, an independent scholar, the founder of historical philosophy of life, and a researcher of the "Four Treasures Culture" of Cangjie, Luoshu, Luohe and Linglun Shaanxi (Luonan).

He is the author of "Restoring the True Appearance of the Dao" (issued in the eighth special issue of "Sinology Research" in 2020, and won the "Sinology Research Monograph Award" and "Sinology Research Academic Achievement Award" of Shaanxi Sinology Research Association in 2019-2020 and 2023 respectively), "The Law System of Historical Philosophy of Life", "The Hypothesis of the Human Security Stage", "Life and the Law of Life", etc.

At present, he has written books such as "Discussion on the Classification of Life Culture and Human Nature", "Discussion on the System of Philosophical Unity", "Exploration of Relevant Philosophical Issues", "New Thought", "Luohe Anthology", "Cangjie Lectures" and "The Development of Human Society in Private Ownership". "The Way of Cangjie Character Making" and "The Status and Role of Cangjie Character Making" in Chinese history won the Kaifeng National Cangjie Cultural Paper Essay Award respectively in 2022. He has successively obtained 13 registration certificates of "national brand" works issued by the Copyright Office of the People's Republic of China, such as "Historical Philosophy and Philosophy Law System" (entered Baidu Library), "Cangjie Lecture Notes", "Cangjie Character Creation Luonan Examination", "Linglun Luonan Music", "Luoshu Luonan Examination", "Luohe Culture Luohe Examination", etc. On September 19, 2021, he accepted an hour-long live news interview with Xi'an Radio Station on the history and philosophy of life and the situation of "Shuyuanmen 1991".