The “Individual” and the “Totality” within the “Material Production” of Modern Society——A Reinterpretation of Marx's “Introduction” to the “1857-1858 Manuscripts”

The “Introduction” to Marx's “1857-1858 Manuscripts” is a section “of extreme complexity and great controversy.” Due to various textual and historical factors, scholarly interpretations of its content and underlying ideas have long lacked sufficient detail, precision, and depth. Writing in the midst of the “Crisis of 1857-1858”-a major turning point in the history of capitalist development-Marx confronted the crisis of a “bubble economy” generated by unrestrained capital speculation and financial turbulence. Against this backdrop, he identified “material production” as the primary object of his system of political economy, reducing “production at a certain stage of social development” to “the production of individuals within society” in order to clarify the central role of the individual within material production. On the basis of the historical transformations of modes of production and through a critical analysis of various modern intellectual currents, Marx emphasized that “material production” in modern society ultimately aims at the realization of the independent individual. He further proposed the notion that “production is a totality”, which should be understood in terms of the internal relationship between “production in general” and its specific historical forms, as well as the integrative unity among different types and sectors of production. Marx's reflections in this regard continue to possess powerful explanatory force, critical potential, and methodological significance in the context of contemporary globalization.