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The End of the Supersensory World’s Mythology: Marx’s Ontological Revolution and Its Contemporary Significance

  • WU Xiaoming
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  • Department of Philosophy, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

Published date: 05 Mar 2012

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill

Abstract

The whole of Western metaphysics, particularly Platonism, sets up a partition between the sensory world and the supersensory world, laying the foundation for the mythology of the supersensory world. After Descartes set contemporary metaphysics on its course, Feuerbach became the first to attack the essence of the supersensory world on an ontological level and to transfer the criticism of theology to that of metaphysics in general. While in the final analysis Feuerbach’s criticism fails, Marx’s revolution appeals to the ontological notion of “sensory activity” or “objective activity” (i.e., practice), the core of which rests in piercing and overturning the fundamental framework of contemporary metaphysics—“the immanence of consciousness.” It is this ontological revolution which reveals the camouflage of the supersensory world’s mythology (i.e., ideology) and which simultaneously establishes a solid foundation for the critical analysis of the latter. Marx’s “science of history” is based on this foundation and develops from it.

Cite this article

WU Xiaoming . The End of the Supersensory World’s Mythology: Marx’s Ontological Revolution and Its Contemporary Significance[J]. Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 2012 , 7(1) : 128 -141 . DOI: 10.3868/s030-001-012-0007-0

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