Abstract: We cannot read Marx’s notion of justice at a literal level. Both the epistemological concept of reification (Verdinglichung) and the ontological one of objectification (Versachlichung) contained in Marx’s criticism of fetishism can serve to define the basic principles of justice. According to the concept of justice in Western political philosophy, the justice of contract based on capitalism, a special social form, is regarded as the natural property of all forms of society. Hence the justification for the justice of exchange results in a fetishism of justice. Through criticizing the traditional understanding of justice in terms of the ontological objectification and bringing out its foundation on a society of commodity transition, Marx deconstructs such justice from the perspective of Communism. In the course of developing socialist market economy nowadays in China, we shall dialectically adopt a transitional constructive notion of justice so as to achieve the “self realization of human beings”.

Key words: Marx, criticism on fetishism, justice, &ldquo, self realization of human beings&rdquo