Advances in Social Science and Culture
ISSN 2640-9682 (Print) ISSN 2640-9674 (Online)

Vol. 6, No. 3, 2024
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34

Original Paper

The Connotation and Realization Conditions of the All-round

Development of Human Freedom：An Investigation Based on

Marx’s Classic Texts
Renyin Li1

1 School of Marxism, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610066, China

Fund Project

General Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education “A Study on

the Humanistic Value of the Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the

New Era” (19YJC710032)

Received: April 17, 2024 Accepted: May 11, 2024 Online Published: May 31, 2024

doi:10.22158/assc.v6n3p34 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/assc.v6n3p34

Abstract

Human freedom is the ultimate goal of Marxism, Marx started from the perspective of social production,

social division of labor and private ownership, scientifically revealed the inevitability of the all-round

development of human beings, and systematically and scientifically expounded the freedom and

liberation of human beings from the “slave-like division of labor”, the formation of the “association of

free people”, and the real realization of the leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of

freedom. An in-depth analysis of the rich connotation of Marx's free and all-round development and

excavation of its contemporary value are of great guiding significance for comprehensively promoting

Chinese-style modernization and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the new era.

Keywords

full development of human freedom, basic connotation, Implementation conditions

From the “1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts” to “Capital”, “<Critique of Political

Economy > Introduction” and the “Critique of Political Economy (1857-1858 Manuscripts)”, the focus

of Marx's research gradually shifted to the field of political economy, especially the establishment of

the labor theory of value and the theory of surplus value, which provided political economy arguments

for exploring and solving the one-sided development of human beings under the capitalist mode of



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production, and made the theory of the comprehensive development of human freedom increasingly

mature and perfect.

1. The Connotation of the All-Round Development of Human Freedom

The all-round development of human freedom mainly refers to the process and realm of coordinated

development and general improvement in the communist society, in which every individual completely

gets rid of internal and external shackles and restrictions, and achieves coordinated development and

general improvement in human labor, human personality, and human social relations. Man becomes a

whole, free man, a harmoniously developed man, that is, the essential power of man as an end in itself,

fully developed, That is, Marx said: “Man takes possession of his own comprehensive essence in a

comprehensive way, that is to say, as a complete person”. (Note 1)

1.1 The Free Development of Human Labor

Marx considered labor to be “a public demonstration of the essential power of man”. (Note 2) It is a

free, conscious material practice activity. In capitalist society, due to the old social division of labor and

the existence of private ownership, labor has become a means for capitalists to enslave workers, and

workers can only endure cruel exploitation in order to maintain their physical survival, so labor has

become an unfree and unconscious activity. Under what circumstances, then, can man regain the free,

conscious nature of labor? In this regard, Marx pointed out: “Labor of material production acquires this

character only if: (1) labor is of a social character; (2) This kind of labor is scientific and at the same

time general labor, and this kind of labor is not the nervous activity of man who is rigidly trained by

natural forces in a certain way, but the tense activity of man as a subject, which is not purely natural

and naturally forms in the process of production, but appears in the process of production as the kind of

activity that governs all natural forces.” (Note 3) The so-called social nature of labor, that is, people in

a free association, jointly use the means of production for labor activities, and the productive capacity

is completely under the common control of people. The scientific nature of labor mainly refers to the

fact that people, as the main body of labor, completely get rid of the slavery and shackles of nature and

freely dispose of their own labor behavior and labor ability in the production activities that transform

nature.

1.2 The All-round Development of Human Capacities

From the perspective of the relationship between man’s various abilities and man’s all-round

development, Marx first emphasized man's intelligence and physical strength. Because man is a person

who engages in the practical activities of material production, any activity of man is an exhaustion of

physical and intellectual strength. Marx repeatedly emphasized that “the worker's own physical and

intellectual strength.” (Note 4) “The exertion of labor is labor, which consumes a certain amount of

muscles, nerves, brains, and so on.” (Note 5) He also pointed out: “We understand the labor power or

the ability to work as the sum total of the physical and intellectual abilities that exist in the human body,

that is, in the living human body, and which are used whenever a person produces some kind of use



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value.” (Note 6) In addition to human intelligence and physical strength, it also includes: human natural

force, vitality, etc., in this regard, Marx pointed out: human beings are “natural forces, vitality, and

active natural beings; These powers exist in man as gifts and talents, as desires”; (Note 7) Human

emotion, willpower, knowledge, and so on. In short, the all-round development of human ability

contains many contents, but in Marx’s view, the most important thing is human physical strength and

intelligence.

1.3 The All-round Development of Human Social Relations

“Social relationships actually determine how far a person can develop.” (Note 8) The enrichment of

human social relations is a full demonstration of the all-round development of human beings. It was

from the perspective of the development of human social relations that Marx examined the three stages

of human development. In the first stage based on human dependence, man’s productive and active

capacity is limited to a narrow range, and in the stage of man’s independence based on material

dependence, man’s social interaction expands to various fields. Individual activities have broken

through the narrow restrictions of countries, regions, and nations, and the exchange of material and

spiritual production has been carried out extensively throughout the world; at this stage, the productive

forces have developed rapidly, the commodity economy has become increasingly prosperous, and the

general exchange of commodities has linked people in various fields and levels, and people’s social

relations have also been enriched and developed, but due to the enslavement and bondage of human

beings by capitalist production relations, which restricts the free and all-round development of human

beings, the vast majority of people in society are increasingly impoverished and deformed. Only by

eradicating the roots of capitalist private ownership, “On the premise of the universal development of

the productive forces and the general development of the related world exchanges”, (Note 9) in a

communist society, the social relations of man are enriched and developed in an all-round way under

the common control of the people, and the free and all-round development of man can be realized.

1.4 The Free and All-round Development of the Human Personality

The free and all-round development of personality is the concentrated embodiment of the development

of man's essential strength in the individual. In a class society, the development of people's personality

is limited by class relations, “their personality is conditioned and determined by very specific class

relations”. (Note 10) As members of class society, the individual's freedom of individuality is enjoyed

only within the ruling class, and the broad masses of the working people are excluded. Marx once

criticized that in bourgeois society, the individuality of the laborer is stifled and he has completely lost

himself, he pointed out: “The domination of the individual by the relationship of things and the

suppression of individuality by chance have taken the sharpest and most common form” (Note 11) and

only in the communist society does the class cease to exist, and the social relationship is no longer an

alien force that dominates people, but has become a form of realizing the freedom of human

individuality under the common control of people. “It is the individual who acquires the means to

develop his faculties in full development, that is to say, it is only in the community that individual



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freedom is possible. …… Under the conditions of a true community, each man acquires his own

freedom in and through his own union.” (Note 12)

2. Conditions for the Realization of the Full Development of Human Freedom

In his works such as “German Ideology” and “Capital”, Marx not only comprehensively expounded the

historical process of human development and the connotation of man’s free and all-round development,

but also explored the conditions for the realization of man’s free and all-round development.

2.1 The Elimination of Private Ownership and the Social Division of Labor

According to Marx, capitalist private ownership is the root cause of human alienation. Under the

conditions of private ownership, the ruling class, which accounts for a very small minority of the

population, occupies the vast majority of the material wealth and other social resources in society, and

the polarization is serious, and the broad masses of laborers are deprived of the conditions and

opportunities for development. “Private property makes us stupid and one-sided, so that an object exists

only when it is owned by us, that is to say, but it exists as capital to us, or when it is directly

appropriated by us, eaten, drank, clothed, housed, etc., in short, is ours when it is used by us, even

though private property itself regards all this direct realization of appropriation as mere means of life,

and the kind of life for which they serve as means is the life of private property—labor and

capitalization.” (Note 12) To achieve the free development of man, it is necessary to eradicate capitalist

private ownership. At the same time, the elimination of the old social division of labor is a

comprehensive social condition for the realization of human freedom. Marx believed that the social

division of labor is the product of the development of the productive forces to a certain stage, which

objectively promotes the development of the productive forces and provides a material basis for the

all-round development of man, but under the capitalist system, workers are engaged in heavy labor all

their lives, and their bodies and minds are greatly damaged, hindering the all-round development of

man. Marx pointed out that the big machine industry “turns man into a deformity, it suppresses the

various production aspirations and production talents of the workers, artificially cultivates the

one-sided skills of the workers”, (Note 13) and “in fact produces the skills of some workers”. (Note 14)

Therefore, the elimination of the old social division of labor is a prerequisite for the realization of the

free and comprehensive development of human beings.

2.2 The Need for Alienation Is Eliminated

According to Marx, “their needs, that is, their nature, and the way in which they seek satisfaction, bind

them.” (Note 14) The needs of the working masses include not only the needs of survival, but also the

needs of spiritual and development, and the purpose of social production is to satisfy the needs of the

people. Through the investigation of capitalist relations of production and the mode of production,

Marx exposed, on the one hand, that the capitalists distorted the needs of the proletariat in order to

extract more surplus value, and restricted the multifaceted development of its needs. On the other hand,

the fallacy of the national economists defending the bourgeoisie is revealed, Marx noted: “(1) He



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reduced the needs of the workers to the maintenance of the most necessary and miserable physical life,

and the activities of the workers to the most abstract mechanical movements; Thus it is said that man

has no other need for activity or enjoyment; For he even proclaimed such a life as the life and existence

of man. (2) he takes living (survival) as far as possible as a criterion of calculation, and it is a universal

criterion; I say universal standard because it suits most people. He transforms the worker into a being

without feeling and need, just as he transforms the worker's activity into a mere abstraction from which

all activity is extracted. Therefore, any extravagance of the worker is unforgivable in his sight, and

everything that goes beyond the most abstract need—whether passive enjoyment or active

performance—is a luxury in his opinion.” (Note 15) Furthermore, Marx proposed that the elimination

of the alienation of needs and the enrichment of human needs are the primary conditions for the

realization of the free and comprehensive development of human beings.

2.3 The Realization of a Communist Society

Through the investigation and analysis of the basic laws of the historical development of human society

and the capitalist relations of production, Marx believed that replacing the capitalist society and

establishing an association of free people, that is, a communist society, is the only way and the

fundamental way to realize the free and all-round development of human beings. He pointed out: “In

place of the old bourgeois society, in which there were classes and class antagonisms, there will be a

union in which the free development of each is the condition for the development of all”. (Note 16) In a

communist society, private ownership and class antagonism disappear, the social division of labor no

longer exists, and labor becomes a free and conscious activity of man. The development of equality and

freedom of each person, the full display of man's free personality, and the great enrichment of social

relations. The free and all-round development of human beings has been truly realized. Marx pointed

out that “in a communist society, no one has a special sphere of activity, but can develop in any sector,

and society regulates the whole of production, so that it is possible for me to do this today and that

tomorrow as I wish, hunting in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, animal husbandry in the evening,

and criticism after dinner, so that I will not always be a hunter, fisherman, shepherd, or critic.” (Note

17)

Notes

Note 1. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels" (Vol. 42) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p.123.

Note 2. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 42) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p. 128.

Note 3. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 30) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p. 123.

Note 4. “Selected Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995,

p. 44.



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Note 5. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 23) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1972, p. 194.

Note 6. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 30) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p. 190.

Note 7. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 42) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p. 167.

Note 8. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 3) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1960, p. 295.

Note 9. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 3) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1960, p. 39.

Note 10. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 3) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1960, p. 515.

Note 11. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 3) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1960, p. 515.

Note 12. “Selected Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995,

p. 119.

Note 13. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 47) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1979, p. 216.

Note 14. “Capital” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1975, p. 339.

Note 15. “Capital” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1975, p. 337.

Note 16. “The Complete Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 3) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

1960, p. 514.

Note 17. “The Collected Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 2) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House,

2009, p. 226.

Note 18. “Selected Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995,

p. 294.

Note 19. “Selected Works of Marx and Engels” (Vol. 1) [M]. Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1995,

p. 85.