Abstract: The generation and deepening of the concept of “social formation” in Marx's text has experienced three important stages: the formation of meaning， the formulation of terms and the deepening of concepts. The logical evolution of the concept of “social formation” reflects that in examining the development of human society， Marx always adheres to the scientific thinking methods of reality， historicity and integrity， specifically seizes the reality dimension of social existence， the historical dimension of social development， grasps the internal connection of social organism， and opposes to discussing social formation issues in an abstract， static， and isolated manner in a general sense. This is an important thinking characteristic of Marx to continuously deepen the understanding of the development process of human society and its internal laws， and complete the theoretical category development and innovation. Accurately grasping the historical generation of Marx's concept of “social formation” and its implicit thinking methods is conducive to clarifying the controversies among Western scholars on Marx's theory of social formation， reflecting on the drawbacks of the rigidities and one-sided understanding of Marx's concept of “social formation” and its theory. At the same time， we can also better deepen the understanding of Marx's theory of social formation from the perspective of historical science.

Key words: Marx, “social formation” concept, logical evolution, thinking characteristics