Marx’s Thoughts on Human Essence and Its Realistic Significance from the Perspective of Artificial Intelligence ^†

Abstract

The evolution of Marx’s ideation was accompanied by a continuous, in-depth understanding of human essence. From the promotion of human self-consciousness to the status of divinity to the transformation of humans into a human essence, his thoughts turned from idealism to humanistic material. Subsequently, from the fact that a human is the embodiment of human essence to the fact that man is the sum of all social relationships, Marx finally turned to practical materialism. Marx’s thoughts on human essence illustrated the beautiful development of mankind and the assumption of personal, happy life. He uncovered the beauty of human nature, labor, harmony, and practice in human essence and pursued the return of human essence to “beauty” throughout his life. In the contemporary era, with the popularization of artificial intelligence, the development of the machine industry in the 19th century precipitated problems similar to those faced today regarding unemployment and how human development has caused machines to replace people due to today’s popularization of intelligence. Today, Marx’s thoughts on human essence still offer insights and hold practical significance.

1. Introduction

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI), which has become the developmental trend of the times, has no limitations with respect to penetrating into our life and work with respect to reading preferences, shopping interests, travel records, schedules, and personal development in the future. The development of artificial intelligence is mainly divided into two aspects, one of which is strong artificial intelligence, also known as general artificial intelligence. Using this form of artificial intelligence, researchers seek to develop an artificial agent that mainly simulates human consciousness and intelligence to a degree comparable with or even transcending human intelligence (HI), but it is difficult to achieve this goal. In 2017, Cornell University published a paper titled the Intelligence Quotient and Intelligence Grade of Artificial Intelligence, which found that the overall intelligence level of the best Google artificial intelligence products is still far from that of a 6-year-old human child (2016 intelligence value: human 6-year-old child, 55.5; Google, 47.28) [1] (pp. 327–329). The other form of AI is weak artificial intelligence, also known as applied artificial intelligence. This artificial intelligence mainly surpasses human skills in a single aspect, producing results that are difficult for humans to achieve. Thus, the original positions of some people are replaced, resulting in the unemployment of numerous people who are engaged in repetitive, simple, and transactional jobs. Regarding robots and jobs, evidence from the US labor market states that 70% of positions in the four major American manufacturing industries (automotive, electronics, plastics and chemicals, and metals) are filled by robots [2], leading to a situation where the traditional labor force is being squeezed. Yuval Noah Harari, in his speech at the Conference of Making the Future, pointed out that we will face the greatest transformation of life itself and that human beings will replace the traditional natural mode of evolution, i.e., survival of the fittest through natural selection, with intelligent evolution, which is represented in forms such as biological engineering, i.e., the combination of biology and technology and non-organic organisms [3]. Due to the difference between this new hyper-intelligent upper class and the new useless class, we should not only ask how most people will spend their time without work but also where people’s sense of achievement and happiness will come from, and how the overall development of human beings will be realized. Marx devoted his whole life to solving these problems, and his understanding of human essence continues to deepen with the evolution of his own thoughts. In the concept of “free development for everyone is the condition of free development for all men” [4] (p. 294), individuals’ exchanges, production, and interrelationships in the process of labor are carried out at their own disposal [5] (pp. 507–591). This kind of labor, as human essence, is autonomous labor, which is free and conscious, and people realize their own values in this mode of labor. Although they were put forth more than one hundred years ago, Marx’s thoughts about human essence and free development for humans still have important practical significance today.

2. The Evolution of Marx’s Thoughts on Human Essence

2.1. The Evolution of Thought from the Human Self-Consciousness to the Human Is the Human Essence

Influenced by the young Hegelian school, Marx began to explore the philosophy of self-consciousness. His doctoral thesis substantially demonstrated the concept of human freedom through the philosophy of self-consciousness. Marx elevated human self-consciousness to the supreme position, believing that self-consciousness has the highest divinity, and this philosophy of self-consciousness reflects the zeitgeist of fighting for freedom and liberation. Unlike the abstract individual self-consciousness of the young Hegelian school, Marx attached great importance to empirical and individual self-consciousness, thus shifting the focus of research to sensibility and specific individuals, wherein the essence of humanity with respect to self-consciousness would be perceived from an idealist perspective. After graduating from university, Marx began to work for The Rheinische Zeitung. With the universal reason advocated by Hegel’s philosophy becoming a tool with which to protect private interests, Marx began to turn to Feuerbach’s materialist philosophy. In both On the Jewish Question and Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Marx transformed Feuerbach’s religious critique of “human is the human essence” into a political critique of capitalist society and pointed out that as long as there was still a duality in capitalist political countries and civil society, the liberation of human beings would be difficult to achieve. Only when man’s original strength and social power are combined can man achieve “complete human recovery” from “complete human loss”, and the liberation of the Germans until the true emancipation of human was based on the proclamation of the theory that “human is the highest human essence” [5] (pp. 3–18). At this point, Marx initially liquidated Hegel’s speculative idealism and completed his ideological transformation to materialism through Feuerbach’s humanism.

2.2. The Evolution of Thought from the Human Is the Human Essence to Labor Is the Human Essence

Marx criticized the duality of capitalist society with the thought that “human is the human essence”, but this critique was based more on philosophical humanitarian ways of thinking. In order to reach the heights of scientific understanding, Marx deepened his research into political economy and introduced the view of labor into his understanding of human essence, thus extending his critique from capitalist political alienation to the alienation of labor. Marx believed that the labor of human essence consists of free, conscious, and creative activity, while in capitalist society, labor is just a means of maintaining individual physical survival, which essentially reflected the distortion and loss of human essence. In this perspective, it is only through man’s activities in relation to transforming nature and interacting with others via eliminating alienated labor that the real human essence can be realized, ultimately leading to the unity of naturalism and humanism. Although the theory of alienated labor was still a kind of abstract labor to a large extent because of the impact of Hegel and Feuerbach, Marx’s understanding of human essence is an important symbol of the development of his thoughts, in which he countered alienated labor with labor as an expression of humans’ essential strength, striving for an ideal society in which human beings can express themselves.

2.3. From Labor Is the Human Essence to Human Essence Is the Sum of All Social Relations

Marx proposed that labor is the essence of humanity in his Manuscript of Economics and Philosophy in 1844. He thought humans would eliminate self-alienation and truly return to a state of freedom and consciousness of human essence when he “realized humanitarian equals to naturalism, realized naturalism equals to humanitarian” [6] (p. 297). It can be seen that Marx had not abandoned the thought of humanism at that time, but as Marx turned to practical materialism, the main subject of Marx’s research became the significance of the development of productive forces in the course of human history. In Theses on Feuerbach, Marx mentioned that human essence is the sum of all social relations, while in The German Ideology, Marx criticized the views of Hegel and Feuerbach, stating that they just saw humans as abstract “words” and “objects of sensibility” and not as beings engaged in “sensual activities”. In addition, Marx criticized these authors for failing to conceive of humans in terms of their existing social relations and the living conditions surrounding them. Marx believed that man is a real individual and that humans form many relationships with nature and amongst themselves in society. It was in these relationships that Marx found that the relationship between the productive forces and the production relations, between the economic basis and the superstructure, promoted the development of human society and the liberation and overall development of human beings.

3. The “Four Beauties”: The Characteristics of Marx’s Thoughts on Human Essence

Human liberation and overall development are the core themes running through Marx’s philosophical course. His thoughts concern a return to the free nature of humanity, the elimination of alienated labor, and the realization of “A form of society based on the all-round and free development of each individual” [4] (p. 532). Marx’s thoughts on human essence outline the beautiful development of human beings and the idea of personal happy life. He uncovered the characteristics of “beauty” in human essence and strived for this goal throughout his life.

3.1. The Beauty of Nature

The debate about Marx’s thoughts on human nature was influenced by certain academic circles, with Vernon Venable as the main representative of “infinite plasticity” and Norman Geras as the main representative of “eternal invariance” [7]. Indeed, with Marx’s different periods of understanding of human essence, it seems possible to affirm the “infinite plasticity” of human nature. But, substantially, the evolution of Marx’s thoughts on human essence always adhered to a central theme, that is, human freedom and liberation. The human in “human is the human essence” is one who returns to themself from the abstract nature of citizens in political life, eliminates all slavery, and achieves the freedom of humanity; in “labor is the human essence”, this is a person who affirms themself and acts freely and consciously with respect to labor; and in “human essence is the sum of all social relations”, this is a person who tends to engage in personal free development in various social relations. The free nature of man determines the independent free activities of man in distinction from those of animals. “Men are constructed according to the law of beauty, they know how to produce according to the scale of any species, and apply the inherent scale to objects everywhere” [5] (pp. 162–164). It is precisely through the beauty of the nature of human freedom that people constantly comprehend and transform the world, drive away the slavery of nature and society, and move towards the liberation of humanity.

3.2. The Beauty of Labor

In Marx’s studies on economics, the category of labor, as the core of his thought, has two forms: object labor, which is productive labor in the general sense, involving the development of productive forces based on the relationship between man and nature, and alienated labor, which exists in a certain social and historical stage and is more related to production relations. As mentioned above, the essence of human labor is free and conscious independent activities, which separate people from animals through labor to realize the differentiation of man and nature, simultaneously promoting the development of productive forces. However, human labor eventually leads to alienation in class society, wherein labor becomes an activity of self-loss because the products do not belong to the laborers. Due to the inability to manifest man’s essential power, alienated labor loses the beauty of labor itself. After grasping the beauty of free labor, Marx contended that traditional alienated labor will be eliminated with the development of productivity and the formation of universal social contracts. The beauty of free labor cannot be fully realized until people can choose their occupations based on their hobbies, all while the restrictive division of labor dissolves.

3.3. The Beauty of Harmony

As mentioned above, the relationship between man and nature was formed through labor in the same way as a social relationship. A certain mode of production or a certain industrial stage is always associated with a certain common mode of activity or a certain social stage, and this common mode of activity consists of the productive forces [5] (pp. 532–533). However, the result is a multiplied productive force due to the fact that individual labor is based on a natural division, so this force is alien and coerces people that they cannot control it but must be governed by it instead. Marx believed that the great development of capitalist productivity caused labor to be isolated from capital, producing two classes, where one seized a lot of wealth while the other lost the basic needs of life and fell into difficulties. This disharmonious state of alienation eventually becomes an unbearable force and thus a force for revolution. It is also a step towards communism with respect to the practical activities of eliminating private property and all kinds of alienation so as to realize the reconciliation between man and nature as well as other humans.

3.4. The Beauty of Practice

The man in Hegel’s speculative philosophy is a tool with which to perfect the absolute spirit and also the man in the phrases. And the man in Feuerbach’s philosophy is just a (sensuous) contemplative man. Neither Hegel nor Feuerbach regarded people as realistic individuals or accounted for their social relations. People will reveal their own nature through freedom in labor and social relationships. The truth of human thought and the beautiful ideal is not a theoretical problem but a practical problem: only “in practice can prove the truth of their own thinking” [5] (p. 500). Marx set out a beautiful ideal society for human beings, which “is not a situation that should be established, an ideal that reality should fit in with it” but “a movement to eliminate the reality of existing conditions” [5] (p. 539). The beauty of ideals comes from the beauty of the transformation of reality.

4. The Time Value of Marx’s Thoughts on Human Essence in the Intelligent Era

The advent of the intelligent era has brought both shocks and opportunities to the development of human beings. Artificial intelligence liberates people to a certain extent and changes the traditional pattern of labor that makes people think about how to use their spare time, deal with the problem of re-employment, and intellectually get along with others. Marx’s thoughts on human essence provide us with insights into these problems.

It can be expected that with the popularity of artificial intelligence, a large number of jobs may become obsolete, transforming, as Harari said, into a “useless class” because AI is far more productive. The value of people is reflected through their own labor and the sense of achievement it brings. But how can we achieve the happiness and satisfaction associated with people’s value when we are losing the opportunity to work normally? Although most people are not members of a “useless class” today, the disappearance of many traditional positions and the birth of new positions is an indisputable reality. This rapid change requires people to learn continuously and improve the adaptability of their own labor forces. The popularity of artificial intelligence application has indeed precipitated unemployment for many workers, but it also produces high levels of productivity and social wealth, allowing leisure time to be greatly increased, meaning that people can “allocate according to demand”, even without work, to provide the time required for the overall development of the individual. “Save labor time is equal to increase free time, which increase the individual fully development time” [6] (p. 225). It is difficult for people to choose their labor positions freely without a developed productive force and rich material, and everyone is limited to a special range of activities, thus suppressing their interests, hobbies, and abilities. Once one has enough leisure time and does not have to worry about food and clothing, it is possible to achieve the comprehensive development of one’s personal abilities. One can thus be either a hunter, a teacher, etc. In this context, one’s limited range of activities is broken, and one’s identity is freely transformed with one’s own abilities [5] (p. 537). At this stage, talent would truly lead to what Marx called free and independent man, and because of the reconciliation between man and nature, people would be able to form a union where everyone develops freely.