Highlighting the study of historical value theory in contemporary times is helpful to establish the integrity and richness of historical materialism system and deepen the understanding of the essence and modernity of historical materialism. From the perspective of generative theory, historical value is the objectification of the essential strength of historical subject; From the perspective of functionalism, historical value is the function and significance of the historical object to enhance the essential strength of the subject. Historical value activities include three types: historical value cognition activities, historical value creation activities and historical value realization activities. Historical value activities are carried out according to certain laws. Historical evaluation is the subject's value judgment on historical objects including historical figures, historical events and historical phenomena according to people's needs, that is, the subject's judgment on whether the historical objects have value and the size of value. Historical progress and people's free and all-round development are a dialectical and unified process.

Keywords: history; Historical value; Historical evaluation; Historical progress; Man's free and all-round development

First of all, the questions raised

The theory of historical value discusses the significance of historical objects to historical subjects, that is, whether history has a purpose, whether it has progress, what is the significance of history to people, and how to understand historical significance. The study of historical axiology is still in its infancy in China, and no monograph has been published so far. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in the study of historical philosophy and value philosophy, but what is the intersection of the two forms? Historical axiology? The research is relatively weak. The reason is of course complicated. Marx and Engels did not discuss it in detail in their works, and even never used it. Their related thoughts are mainly embodied in historical materialism, which needs to be excavated, refined and systematized today. Before China's reform and opening up, the historical theory of value? This concept has never been mentioned, let alone systematically studied. People often simply understand historical materialism as a purely objective explanation of the historical process, and from this perspective, they regard human history as only an inevitable unfolding process, thus obliterating the characteristics of human history different from natural history. The consequence is that, theoretically speaking, in our historical philosophy, there is a certain tendency to see only things but not people, ignoring or even abandoning the values of history and people, thus deviating from the true meaning of Marx's historical view. From a practical point of view, the history of socialism has repeatedly shown that the belief in historical inevitability without the guidance of value scale is very harmful, which alienates people from history. In the early days of reform and opening up, a large number of knowledgeable scholars in China, such as Li Lianke, Li Deshun, Yuan Guiren, Lai and others, began to make a new interpretation of historical materialism from the perspective of the unity of scientific scale and value scale.

After 1978, domestic academic circles began to pay attention to the study of historical value theory and published some papers. For example, Li Deshun and Long Bin's "Social History and Human Value Activities" pointed out that the unity of values and historical views is a two-way construction process: on the one hand, the study of axiology should be highly upgraded to historical views, that is, there should be values based on historical materialism; On the other hand, we should also raise the study of historical view to the height of values, and also have a historical view with Marxist values as the background. Only through this two-way construction, renewal and integration can we lay a broad foundation for the unity of values and historical views. Since then, Cui Hewang's Marx's Historical Truth and Theory of Historical Value, his View of Scientific Practice and Marxist Historical Values, his Contemporary Construction of the Value Dimension of Historical Materialism, Historical Materialism and the Theory of Human Development, as well as many papers by the author, have all discussed how to establish the value dimension of history and human development from the perspective of historical materialism. The author is delighted to find that among the two books published in recent years, Meng's Philosophical Interpretation of Historical Concepts (2002) and Feng's Research on the Theory of Value and Its Category (2005) have been specifically discussed for the first time? Historical axiology? This chapter. Does this mean? Historical axiology? This research has gradually attracted the attention and attention of domestic scholars. But I'm afraid this is just a good start, and we need to work together to open up this theoretical treasure.

The research significance of historical axiology lies in: firstly, highlighting the research of historical axiology in the contemporary era is helpful to establish the integrity and richness of historical materialism system and deepen the understanding of the essence and modernity of historical materialism. The content of historical materialism should include historical ontology, historical epistemology, historical axiology, historical aesthetics, historical methodology and other important components. ? History? It is the history of human activities. Exploring human activities, naturally, we should not only reflect the mechanism and laws of people and their activities (mainly completed by historical ontology and historical epistemology), but also determine the purpose and value orientation of people and their activities (mainly completed by historical axiology), and also intuitively understand the beauty and freedom of people and their activities (mainly completed by historical aesthetics). Treat the three? History? There are differences in ways of understanding, values and aesthetics. However, for a long time, when people interpret historical materialism, they often mainly emphasize historical ontology and historical epistemology, while downplaying or even ignoring the study of historical axiology. As we all know, when historical materialism explores historical ontology and its understanding, it permeates and permeates the dimensions and thoughts of historical value theory everywhere. Second, respond to the various criticisms and critical demands of western scholars on historical materialism. Only by further adhering to and developing historical materialism, especially strengthening the in-depth study of historical value theory and clarifying the essence of discussion, can we be qualified and able to make a scientific answer to the debate, thus maintaining the authoritative position of historical materialism. Third, the study of historical axiology provides historical value choices for the social development of contemporary China in practice, so as to seek transcendence? Westernization? The modernization mode is suitable for the modernization road of national development; Help to establish and realize in practice? People-oriented? Promote the free and all-round development of the country.

Second, what is history? What is historical value?

From the perspective of historical value theory, history has the following three basic provisions: (1) History is the product or result of human value activities, which is manifested as an objective existence that has passed away and is dominated by laws. This is the concentrated expression of objective factors in the connotation of historical concepts. As the product of the interaction between subject and object of history, history constitutes a grim fact that modern people must face and cannot surpass. When we only regard the objective existence of history as the external object of understanding, we regard history as an objective inorganic thing, which means that in the sense of time? Past? The fact that it has been completed. Therefore, as an objective existence, history has a cognitive relationship with us. History, as the objective object we know, not only the total productivity marked by production tools in each era can be accurately measured statistically, but also the material and energy exchange between man and the natural world produced by the productivity as the ability of human beings to transform the world can be accurately measured. Moreover, the long-term and overall trend of social and historical development is bound to be dominated and restricted by the regularity that productive forces determine relations of production, economic base determines superstructure, and social material life determines people's political life and spiritual life. So, in this sense, what is history? A natural historical process governed by certain laws? . (2) History is the purpose and development of human value activities, which is manifested in the process of human conscious value creation. This is the concentrated expression of subjective factors in the connotation of historical concepts. History is just living people with certain emotional will and ideological motivation, their activities and purposeful activities. In the process of activities, in fact, we (including everyone) are all participants in history, playwrights and dramatists of history. In our history, our activities are also part of the historical process of interaction or unity between subject and object. History is a universal, vivid and emotional activity that people engage in practical activities. The rise and fall of the dynasty and the survival of the nation can only be reasonably and appropriately explained through the intrinsic motivation and action choice of human activities. History is only the sum of the activities of countless people who pursue their own goals, and it is the driving force and will of people's actions? Total resultant force? . In this sense, history is the history of the development of individual essential strength, and it is also the process of human consciously creating value. (3) History is the accumulation and continuation of civilized achievements of human value activities, which is manifested in the dynamic and vertical relationship between man and nature and the overall improvement and progress of interpersonal relations. This is the concentrated expression of the interaction or unity of subject and object factors in the connotation of historical concepts. In human value activities, due to the unity of purpose and regularity, human beings have achieved a lot of social civilization achievements. Although any specific fact, person, existence, phenomenon and process in history will become the past because of the disappearance of its rationality of existence, the inherent value creation of human beings will inevitably melt into the long river of human history, become a link in the overall chain of historical progress, and become the reason, premise and foundation of future value activities. In this way, history is not a kind of broken mess, but the past, present and future linked with the human civilization created by the accumulation of human value activities, which is manifested in the overall improvement and improvement of the relationship between man and nature and between people, showing a process of overall historical progress.

The discussion on the essence of historical value is the basic common topic of various historical axiology. The differences and conflicts between different historical value theories are highlighted in the different understanding and interpretation of the essence of historical value. Marxism first links the issue of historical value with people's social and historical practice from the perspective of genetics, and reveals the essence of historical value from the root of its production; Secondly, from the perspective of dialectics, the issue of historical value is linked with the actual way of human existence, which further reveals the essence of historical value from its functional characteristics. (1) From the perspective of generative theory, historical value is the objectification of the essential strength of historical subjects. The interaction between historical subject and object in objectification activities has produced historical value. Historical value is the product of the objectification activities of historical subjects, and it has a strong dependence on the objectification activities of historical subjects, mainly in the following aspects: First, the needs of historical subjects depend on the objectification activities of historical subjects; Secondly, the directionality of the historical subject's demand, that is, the dependence of the external object satisfying the demand on the objectification of the subject; Third, the generation of historical value depends on the objectification of the subject. (2) From the perspective of functionalism, historical value is the role and significance of historical objects in enhancing the essential strength of the subject. Historical value represents a functional or meaningful relationship between historical subject and historical object. Historical objects can directly or indirectly help and improve people's subjective strength, make people better get rid of the shackles of nature, society and themselves, and further establish and expand people's freedom. First, the significance of history lies in its affirmation of human reality and its service for strengthening the essential strength of the subject; Second, the significance of history lies in that it is also a condition for the future development of mankind, serving to continuously enhance the essential strength of the subject and promote the free and all-round development of the country.

According to the essence of historical value and the basic form of interaction between historical subject and object, that is, the objectification activity of historical subject, we divide the existing forms of historical value. In social history, the basic fields of subject objectification activities are material production activities, social and political activities and spiritual and cultural activities. Therefore, historical value, as the process and result of these three basic fields, is manifested in the existence forms of three historical values pursued and created by the objectification activities of historical subjects: natural material value, social and political value and spiritual and cultural value.

Three. Historical value activities and their laws

Historical value activity refers to the objectification process and result of historical subject's two-way movement of historical object with historical existence and value existence. Historical value activities include three types: historical value cognition activities, historical value creation activities and historical value realization activities. (1) The cognitive activity of historical value is a process in which the cognitive subject of historical value objectively reflects the facts of historical value through his own active choice and construction. The two-way movement of subject objectification and object objectification constitutes the real content of historical value cognition activities. Historical value cognition takes historical value facts as the activity object, which is essentially a reflection of historical value facts, and it includes the process of cognition, selection, reconstruction and construction of the subject of value cognition. Starting from the state of the subject of value cognition and its relationship with the object of value cognition, the activities of historical value cognition can be divided into two forms: historical value cognition and historical value evaluation. (2) The creation of historical value is a process in which the historical subject acts on the historical object through some intermediary, changes the shape of the object, and transforms the potential value of the historical object into realistic value. From the perspective of essential provisions, historical value creation activities are manifested in two interrelated aspects, namely, the objectification of the essential strength of the subject, and the subject giving the object a new form; The object attribute is the subject, and the object promotes the free and all-round development of the subject. Historical value creation activities are always carried out on a certain scale. These scales can be divided into three types: external scale, internal scale and aesthetic scale. The diversity of existing forms of historical value determines the diversity of historical value creation activities. (3) The realization of historical value is not only a process of self-service of historical subjects, but also a process of development and utilization of historical value. The realization of historical value means that the historical object acts on the historical subject and has a positive effect and influence on the historical subject. The realization of historical value is essentially to make historical objects pass through? Potential value? Arrive? Value? In the process of transformation, the historical subject constantly consumes the object of historical value in its activities, so that the historical subject can be satisfied, enriched and improved. The realization of historical value can be divided into three different forms: the realization of natural material value, the realization of social and political value and the realization of spiritual and cultural value.

Historical value activities are carried out according to certain laws. What are these laws? What are their working forms and ways? Our research needs to be deepened. The author tries to explore several laws from the perspective of historical materialism. (1) People's value life determines people's value consciousness. The so-called value life refers to the contents of values, value relationships and value activities that are ubiquitous in people's social life. It exists objectively and must be reflected in the subject's brain in order to form a sense of value. The so-called value consciousness refers to the general name of the content components related to value, value relationship and value activity that are ubiquitous in people's psychology, cognition, consciousness and ideology. Judging from the relationship between value life and value consciousness, there are many contents that cannot be accommodated within the scope of historical understanding, and only from the perspective of historical value theory can we give a comprehensive explanation. In the multi-level relationship between the two, it not only reflects the decisive role of people's value life on people's value consciousness and then on history, but also shows that value consciousness participates in value life and plays a role in the complete historical operation. The special objective basis of value consciousness is people's objective and realistic value life (including value, value relationship and value activity, etc.). ) As a social existence, people's value life determines their value consciousness as social consciousness. Of course, people's value consciousness also has a negative effect on people's value life. Value consciousness not only expresses and reflects value life in spirit, but also reacts on value life. Value consciousness plays an important role in value life, which is mainly manifested in power function, guidance function, balance function and adjustment function. (2) People's value activities constitute the resultant force of historical movements. History is the development of people's real activities and the real movement of human overall practice. Therefore, the motive force of historical development can only come from people themselves. It is neither superhuman providence nor nature other than human beings. Its core can only be people's needs and people's activities to meet these needs, that is, activities to create value, recognize value and realize value. It is people's value activities that constitute the internal dynamic mechanism of historical movement. However, as the motive force of historical development, is human value activity a kind of history from the perspective of historical subject or historical object? Together? . The theory of historical resultant force not only embodies the process of dialectical unity between the certainty of social living conditions and the initiative of historical subjects, but also embodies the dialectical unity relationship between the inevitability and contingency of historical development. (3) The process of historical value activity is the unity of regularity and purpose. Its root lies in the duality of human existence, that is, the unity of subjectivity and objectivity, or the unity of human initiative and passivity. In the process of historical value activities, regularity is the basis and premise of purposefulness, which enables regularity to be realized actively and consciously. People carry out historical value activities based on needs, and needs are the most direct driving force to dominate historical value activities. The unity of purposefulness and regularity in the process of historical value activity is not only an ideal state, but also a realistic and true existence. Is there a purpose and regularity in people's historical value activities? Ultimate realization? And then what? Step by step? This is a dialectical movement process full of contradictions. (4) The process of historical value activity is the unity of development and cost. Because historical development is realized through human value activities, the investigation of the relationship between development and cost must also be carried out in the process of historical value activities. From the perspective of historical value theory, the so-called? Price? Its essence is the result of the historical subject's value understanding and the choice of various value goals in order to achieve its long-term development goals. People's historical value activities can be divided into material value activities, social and political value activities and spiritual value activities according to the field of activities, so we can also divide the costs into three types: the cost of transforming nature, the cost of transforming society and the cost of reshaping spirit.

Fourthly, the process, scale and rationality of historical evaluation.

Historical evaluation is the subject's value judgment on historical objects including historical figures, historical events and historical phenomena according to people's needs, that is, the subject's judgment on whether the historical objects have value and the size of value. The object of historical evaluation is historical value, which belongs to a special conceptual activity to reflect and judge historical value, so the most direct object of historical evaluation is not general history, but historical value. From the horizontal structure of historical evaluation activities, it mainly includes three elements: historical evaluation subject, historical evaluation object and historical evaluation intermediary system. Historical evaluation is a dynamic process. A relatively complete historical evaluation process often goes through five stages and links: defining evaluation purpose, obtaining evaluation information, determining evaluation scale, forming evaluation judgment and testing evaluation results. In real life, every stage and link in the process of historical evaluation may not be clearly recognized, so this theoretical investigation and abstract analysis can only be an idealized model to some extent.

Historical evaluation scale is a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted and multi-level unified existence, which constitutes the evaluation scale system. There are three reasons why a system structure is needed to integrate: First, it is determined by the diversity and complexity of the historical value subject's own needs. In the final analysis, the scale of historical evaluation is closely related to and influenced by human needs to some extent. However, people's needs have a complex structure and different levels, which is a system in itself. Second, it is determined by the complex system structure of the historical evaluation object itself. The ambiguity and multi-faceted nature of historical evaluation objects objectively require the formulation of a diversified and unified evaluation scale system. Third, it is determined by the limitations of a single historical evaluation scale itself. Only when various historical evaluation scales are integrated into a certain system or system can they complement each other and overcome their single limitations. (1) Productivity scale is the fundamental scale of historical evaluation. It has the dual functions and significance of object scale and subject value scale. From the object point of view, it reflects the regularity of historical development, that is, it reflects the regularity of the external world that human historical subjects must follow in transforming and utilizing nature. The development of productive forces determines the evolution of social forms and marks the progress of human civilization; From the perspective of subjective value, productivity is also the embodiment of purposeful historical development, that is, it embodies the ultimate goal and value significance of human transformation and utilization of nature. Productivity is the realization of human subject value and the generation of human essence and personality. (2) The scale of institutional civilization is the key scale of historical evaluation. The scale of institutional civilization, like the scale of productivity, is not a simple external objective scale, but contains an internal subjective value scale, which has the dual significance and function of truth judgment and value judgment, and is a concrete symbol of the regularity and purpose of historical development, because institutional civilization is not only the need to standardize the relationship between people, but also the fundamental service for people, and it is a tool and means to improve people's essence and promote their free and all-round development. On the one hand, the scale of institutional civilization embodies the objective inevitability and regularity that human historical subjects must follow to transform people and society and their relations, on the other hand, it also embodies the ultimate goal and value significance of human historical subjects to transform people and society and their relations. (3) The measure of spiritual civilization is an important measure of historical evaluation. Although the scale of spiritual civilization focuses on the subject value or inner spirit, it is by no means a simple internal subject value scale, but contains an objective historical scale. Marx once said that once thoughts leave the material foundation, they will make a fool of themselves. Without the inevitability and regularity of historical development, the scale of spiritual civilization will become a castle in the air that cannot explain anything. (4) The free and all-round development of entry is the final measure of historical evaluation. It focuses on grasping the scale from the perspective of subject value, but it is not a simple internal value scale of subject, but contains objective historical scale. The scale of man's free and all-round development expounded by Marx always contains two interrelated contents: first, the specific state of existence and development of human historical subjects, that is, the degree of man's development and freedom and the degree of evolution and exertion of subjectivity; Second, the subjective changes in the social conditions in which human beings live, that is, the subjective changes in the composition of social and historical object systems such as productivity, production relations and superstructure. This point has been fully explained in Marx's famous theory of three forms of human historical development.

Taking the historical evaluation scale as the axis, an ideal model of historical evaluation rationality in the normative sense can be constructed. At least it should reflect the following three aspects: (1) The rationality of historical evaluation is the unity of regularity and purpose; (2) The rationality of historical evaluation is the unity of human feelings and rationality; (3) The rationality of historical evaluation is the unity of value and tools. The rationality of historical evaluation is a kind of practical rationality, that is, it must be understood from the perspective of practice. When I say practical rationality, I mean right? Practice? What is the nature, characteristics, process, result, value and significance of the activity? What is this? And then what? What should it be like? Reflection and evaluation of problems. The rationality of practice is a reasonable concept based on the unity of scientific rationality and value rationality, or the unity of tool rationality and purpose rationality, that is, the normative rationality of people and their social practice activities based on society. Since the rationality of historical evaluation is essentially a practical rationality, and the relativity of the structure, process and result of human practical activities determines that practical rationality is a relative evaluation concept, then the rationality of historical evaluation can only be a relative rationality. So-called? Relative rationality? It mainly includes two meanings: first, concreteness, that is, different historical evaluation subjects have different specific scales or principles for evaluating historical objects, so they are relative; The second is historicity, that is, the scale or principle of historical evaluation rationality is not static, but is constantly revised, enriched and improved with the development of history, so it is relative.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) historical progress and people's free and all-round development

As a general summary of the development trend of social progress, historical progress represents the progress and upward movement of social history and the movement from old to new and from simple to complex. Historical progress is manifested in all fields of social life, including the expansion of social productive forces, the innovation of social system, the innovation of spiritual civilization, the replacement of social forms and the development of people themselves. The basic connotation of historical progress is that historical progress is the unity of subject and object, fact and value, quantitative change and qualitative change, relative and absolute change. The basic forms of historical progress are confrontation and non-confrontation. They have different positions and functions in different social forms. Marx and Engels understood historical progress on the basis of human's practical activities, and adopted the method of unifying the understanding of the role of human's practical activities in social progress and the understanding that social form development is a natural historical process, which provided a starting point for refuting various theories of historical cycle, historical retrogression, theological historical progress and rationalistic progress, thus profoundly revealing the essence of historical progress: (1) Historical progress follows the iron law of productivity development. (2) Historical progress does not depend on people's rational ability and strength, nor on irrational factors such as people's emotions and desires. Both rational and irrational factors will be reflected, improved and developed with the development of human practice; (3) Historical progress is not linear, but the unity of progressiveness and stumbling. The stumbling of historical progress is not only manifested in the speed of social development, but also in the dialectical unity of the overall progress process and the partial, lateral and temporary retrogression process; (4) The measure of historical progress is mainly the level of productivity and the degree of people's liberation. As a general summary of social development trend, historical progress is manifested in all fields of social life, and its objective symbol is the promotion and development of human civilization, which is embodied in material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization and the free and all-round development of human beings.

It is the consistent thought of Marx and Engels to regard human development as the ultimate value goal of social and historical development. Man's self-realization and development, not only as a kind of content, permeates the social and historical development, but also as a synchronous development process consistent with the social and historical development, as an ideal goal and logical destination, stipulates the nature and direction of the social and historical development, which conforms to human nature and is infinitely beneficial to human society. The free development of human beings refers to the conscious, voluntary and independent development of human beings as the main body, aiming at perfecting their own personality and promoting social progress, and aiming at developing people. The all-round development of human beings refers to the all-round development of human characteristics, social relations, needs and personality on the basis of the high development of social productive forces and production relations. People's free development and all-round development are dialectical unity. They are mutual premises, conditions and promotion. When we understand the dialectical unity of people's free development and all-round development, we should regard it as a gradual improvement, continuous progress and endless historical process.

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Historical progress and people's free and all-round development are a dialectical and unified process. In the theory of three social forms, starting from the evolution of three historical stages, Marx specifically investigated the realistic historical process of realizing the ideal goal of free and all-round development of human beings. On the one hand, historical progress has created the necessary social and historical conditions for people's free and all-round development, which has greatly influenced and determined people's free and all-round development to a certain extent. On the other hand, historical progress can not be separated from people's free and all-round development. Every aspect of historical progress is inseparable from the role of people and the continuous practice of people who promote historical progress. Therefore, the process of historical progress is also a realistic historical process of human liberation, maturity and free and all-round development.