PROJECTS FOR MODERNIZATION OF THE PILOSOPHICAL PARADIGM OF CHINESE MARXISM UNDER THE SLOGAN "BACK TO MARX"
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, Vilkov Vyacheslav 
Published: June 2024

A scientific deideologized analysis of contemporary processes of rejuvenating paradigmatic Chinese (Sinicized) Marxism, emphasizing the objectives and tasks of reforming or revising its philosophical foundations, evaluating the nature and extent of the most recent strategies for updating its theoretical and methodological foundations, and categorical apparatus are relevant for the modern community of philosophers and policy researchers, and mayhelp form adequate conceptual ideas about the tendencies in the development of Marxism from the middle of the 19th century to the early 21st century, as well as a methodical understanding of the essence, specifics, and historical significance of those national forms or unique theoretical models that hold the status of metanarratives in society.The purpose of the research is to analyze the processes of modern Chinese (Sinicized) Marxism's development and to conceptually cover the reasons behind its emergence, its objectives, and the future prospects for implementing the modernization projects put forth by PRC representatives of the philosophical scientific community at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Within the framework of this issue, it becomes necessary to clarify the specifics and highlight the essence of the general tendency for China to westernize the Marxist philosophical and socio-political theory traditional for this country, which was developed under the influence of the Soviet Marxist-Leninist metanarrative and inherited its inherent ideational, structural-functional, political, and ideological advantages and disadvantages. First and foremost, it served as the foundation for the political philosophy and state socioeconomic policy of the CPC as a universal dialectical-materialistic philosophical notion that evolved into a metaparadigmatic one in the condition of socialist China. The results. A theoretical platform for a conceptual examination of the essence and goal of the most recent projects for the modernization of paradigmatic Chinese Marxism under the slogan "Return to Marx" is proposed. This theoretical platform is based on a concrete and historically oriented comparative analysis of the key ideas of the founders of Marxism and the tendencies of the transformation of Marxism-Leninism in the USSR in the second half of the 20th century, and on the other hand, the clarification of the peculiarities of the history of the formation and the main features of the institutionalized in the PRC national-type Marxist philosophical teaching (including its ideological and political guidelines). It is proven that within the Chinese philosophical scientific community, efforts have intensified to revise the ideational-theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the Chinese model of Marxist philosophical theory; strategies for radical correction of its traditional structure and functions are being developed and made public; and there is a growing tendency toward reforming it by incorporating ideas and methods from Western Marxist and non-Marxist schools and trends from the 20th and early 21st centuries. As a result of critical consideration of the basic provisions of the most influential trends in the history of Marxism, the attributive features of ideological-theoretical, methodological and ideological attitudes are characterized the newest Chinese the possibilities of their implementation are outlined, and the prospects for introducing pro-Western counter-Marxist narratives into the philosophical discourse of the PRC are assessed.The research methodology is based on the combination of principles and epistemological instructions of concrete historical, comparative, systemic, structural-functional, and discursive analysis, applied in accordance with the requirements of the scientistic approach. Practical implications. The results of the research can helpimprove the scientific understanding of the general and nationally specific processes of the genesis of Marxist philosophical teaching during the second half of the 19th and early 21st centuries, optimize the methodology of knowledge and theoretical modeling of tendencies in the modernization of the ideological and theoretical principles of the most influential Marxist metanarratives in the world (Soviet Marxism, Leninism, and Sinicized Marxism), as well as clarify the specifics of the paradigmatic model of Marxist philosophy created and institutionalized during the second half of the 20th century in the PRC, and increase the adequacy of the assessment of those reformist and revisionist projects for rejuvenating modern Chinese Marxism, which were developed on the ideas and methodology of currently popular schools and movements.Value. The suggested methodological framework, conceptual generalizations, and distinctive data regarding the evolution of Marxism as a theory, ideology, and political practice exposed aspects of its primary metanarratives' origins as a nationalization or adaptation of Marxist ideas to the particular social and political contexts of various nations. The scientific community of philosophers and social scientists may find this useful in advancing our understanding of the motivations behind, objectives, character, and effects of Western-oriented projects aimed at modernizing Marxist theoretical models of philosophical knowledge and cognition. Based on the theoretical reconstruction and methodological recommendations of Western non-Marxist currents and schools of the past century, the developed theoretical reconstruction and predictive evaluations of the logic of reforming the Chinese model of Marxist philosophy – whose traditional foundation and structural-functional core is the diamat-istmat conception of development – can serve as an additional ideational-theoretical and methodological basis for the study of the prospects of its potentialtransformation or revision.