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Title:: The Tension between Socialism as a Human Ideal and Socialismas a Practical Social Movement

Abstract:: In the Marxist tradition，socialism is not only a theorized human ideal but a practical movementto achieve this ideal. However，there is a tension between these two types of understanding of socialism：the socialism in theory differs from the socialism in practice and between the two extremes of the cline fromidealization to reality there exist various types of ideas on socialism. The shifts in the concept of socialismbetween the idealization and the reality not only makes possible the agreement between theory and practicebut enables us to rise above the dilemma in real life as well. But at the same time，the shifts have causeda fundamental problem，i.e. the confusing division in the understanding of the concept of socialism. Theconflicting understandings of socialism，though on the surface totally different from each other，share somecommonality in the deep sense：that is，they all fail to see the real connection and mediation between theidealization and the reality and ignore the possibility of transition between the two extremes. The key to solvingthe problem lies in building a solid theoretical foundation for the belief in socialism.