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Karl Marx's Theory of History
Karl Marx's Theory of History
marx theory of history
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Before it can become clear how Marx turned Hegel on his head, an understanding of the theories of Hegel must be acquired. The study of the philosophy of history is a long and complicated one as many philosophers and historians have found multiple ways to define their field and to study the historical processes the world underwent. One of the most prominent and important figures of the philosophical study of history is the famed German writer, philosopher, and political theorist Friedrich Hegel. What separates Hegel from other theorists of the philosophy of history is his idea that the movement of history occurs in dynamic terms and shifts in historical epochs demonstrating a shift in direction in terms of ideas, and the way people approach the world around them. Hegel outlines his ideas about the philosophical approach to history in his writings Elements of the Philosophy of Right and Lecture on the Philosophy of History. Hegel writes that history is defined by a Geist, or Spirit which guides and defines it progress. Hegel states that “the essence of Spirit is freedom. All will readily assent to the doctrine that Spirit, among other properties, is also endowed with Freedom; but philosophy teaches that all qualities of Spirit exist only through freedom; that all are but means for attaining freedom; that all seek and produce this and this alone. It is a result of speculative philosophy, that Freedom is the sole truth of Sprit.” (815 Cahn) What Hegel is referring to in this quote is that Geist, or Spirit, is similar to the culture of the people and is constantly reworking itself and evolving to suit the needs of society and the ever-advancing pace of progress, technology, and change. Thus for Hegel the study of history is a study of ...
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...enal form of ‘the idea’ with me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought” (19 Marx Capital). Marx directly challenges Hegel’s belief of history being rooted around ideas, seeing history in a more materialistic light, focusing on the conflict between classes and the gradual path toward utopian communism. Thus as a result the stages of historical development follow of pattern of worker exploitation by the elites until a proletariat revolution. Because of Marx’s decision to ground the philosophical study of history in materialistic and scientific terms, choosing to focus upon real people and the relation to their labour and production instead of high concept idealistic notions, Marx is able to turn Hegel’s ideas of history and the concept of a spirit guiding history on its head.
The German Ideology starts off by illustrating the critique of the German idealists, while presenting Marx and Engels' alternative: materialistic view of history. According to Marx, the main reason for political and economical retrogression of Germany is its obsession with Hegel's view on history as a chain of phases or manifestations of World Spirit or Absolute Mind. It's possible to trace Marx's critique in three different perspectives. Initially, he directed his critique towards the very nature of Hegelian system, by stating its "contemplative" aspect. Secondly, he presented detailed analysis of discrepancies, regarding logical categories and religious conceptions, which rose between the Young and Old Hegelians. According to old Hegelians, the history was simply chronology of ideas, and the reason Germany was flourishing ,only because it was constructed on the best ideas. In the meantime, Young Hegelians adopted dialectics...
The Marx-Engels Reader by Robert C. Tucker is an anthology containing essential writings of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Major writing selections are to understand Marx perspective about history and society, such as The German Ideology. Marx introduces his historical materialism philosophy in the German Ideology: Part 1 of this book, where he proposes communism. Although I agree with a few points Marx gives, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that communism is the only way to become truly free. Marx suggest abolishing private property ownership and remove economic power from the hands of privileged people to accomplish freedom.
Philosophers believe that Hegel’s historicism has inherent conflicts that surprisingly fall in same dialectic argument that Hegel promotes, which somehow nullifies his philosophy. Originated and influenced by his Dialectic thought process of “thesis, antithesis, and synthesis”, Hegel believes that all societal and more importantly all human activities including culture, language, science, art, and even philosophy are defined by their past and the heart of these activities can be understood by studying their history. Hegel argues that the history of societal activity is a cumulative reaction to the events that has happened in the past. His famous “Philosophy is the history of philosophy" quote essentially summarizes his thoughts. Hegel believes history is a progressive and directional relation between human activities and society. He argues that in order to understand an individual, he must be studied in a society where in turn the same society can be understood by evaluating th...
Using phrases such as" innocent and childlike fantasies," Karl Marx unambiguously attacks the Hegelian philosophy preponderant during his time, citing in its concept of history an irrevocable divorce with reality. For Marx, history is exactly what it seems to be: a succession of human events in which ideas such as the division of labor, production, and revolution replace their immaterial Hegelian counterparts, if even such counterparts exist. In fact, Marx accuses the token historian of ignoring the fundamental aspects of actual human activity while instead concentrating upon non-actualized ideas at best and imaginary metaphysical concepts at worst.
In 1806, nearly two hundred years before Fukuyama’s audacious historical stance, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel declared the end of history. Hegel bases his claim in that the Napoleonic Code, a preliminary, yet revolutionary replacement of previous feudal laws, was being promulgated and slowly implemented throughout Napoleon’s empire . Hegel believes, however, that the adoption of a particular code or set of standards for a civil society, like the Napoleonic Code or the Constitution of the United States, is stipulated on the rational evolution or progression of peoples towards the realization that they are free or equal. In short, a constitution that guarantees your freedom means nothing to those who do not possess the self-consciousness
Marx, Karl. "Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy in General." marxists.org. marxists.org, 19/10/2009. Web. 26 Mar 2010. .
In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx, with the help of Friedrich Engel, advocated for the violent overthrow of capitalism and the creation of a socialist society. According to Marx, “The history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” (184). Notably, Marx and Engel were the main proponents of communism. Marx’s main argument was that the society is the product of class conflict that results in different social classes with opposing economic interests. Importantly, Marx believed that the society comprised the oppressor and the oppressed, and the two are in constant conflict with each other. The ensuing conflict results in the revolutionary reorganization of the society, or the ruin of the opposing classes. Therefore, Marx, like Kant, saw the institutions of a given society as influential in determining its future. However, Marx argued that traditional institutions were unsuitable for a free and just society that respected human dignity. For example, he saw the modern bourgeoisie society as a product of the “ruins of feudal society,” meaning that the modern society is yet to resolve class antagonisms (184). Indeed, he sees the modern-day social classes as the products of the serfs and burgesses of the middle ages. In this regard, he claimed that the modern social structures are the products of a sequence of revolutions in the systems of production, as well as exchange. However, modern social structures are yet to enhance equity in the society. Therefore, Marx advocated for a revolution that would change the existing social structures and prepare the society to adopt communism. Unlike Kant’s idea of freedom of speech, which is a mind influencing process, Marx seemed more violent by the stating that “let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution”
The ideology of Marxism, established by German philosopher Karl Marx, is a collectively known set of assumptions of a political ideology, which focuses especially on analysis of materialist interpretation of historical development, or on class struggle within the society. The primarily approach of Marxism, nonetheless, was the critique of capitalism. The strength of his inquiry lies in belief of inevitable shift from capitalism and he aims to advocate the new form of ideology and economy, the socialism. The title of this essay is provocative as in today´s world, there exist many proponents who claim, the core of Marx conception of ideology is still relevant in the 21st globalised world. However, Marxism is relevant to the extent to which is it important to examine every political and economic conception, moreover if we are able to perceive its outcomes after the concepts has been practically applied. This paper is intended to assess key ideas of Marxism with observations of positives and negatives it brought and the reasons why the concepts failed.
History is the increasing self-consciousness of the Spirit i.e. Reason; that is, a progressive increase of Reason within the world. This relationship between history and Reason is expressed by Hegel's agreement with Leibniz that this is the best of all possible worlds. In other words, everything is as it should be. In fact, Hegel makes strong assertions along just these lines, "that [Reason] reveals itself in the world, and that nothing else is revealed in the world but that Idea itself, its glory and majesty (12-13)." It is from this idea that Hegel derives the point that "Re...
Karl Marx 's famous; The German Ideology opens with a detailed summary on the Hegelian tradition 19th century idealist German philosophers. The Hegelian philosophers focused on consciousness. Marx distinguishes from himself with earlier historians, particularly Hegel, who insisted on the predominance of the idea in their understandings of history. Consciousness is considered to be from the beginning a social product and remains so as long as men exist. Karl Marx distinguished several theories on the creation of consciousness enabling mankind to better understand the society that they are a part of. He defined consciousness as the knowledge of knowing something; which was created by humans in order to understand their environment in which
One of the greatest debates of all time has been regarding the issue of the freedom of mankind. The one determining factor, for Marx, it that freedom is linked with class conflict. As a historian, Karl Marx traced the history of mankind by the ways in which the economy operated and the role of classes within the economy. For Marx, the biggest question that needed to be answered was “Who owns freedom?” With this in mind, Marx gives us a solution to both the issues of freedom and class conflict in his critique of capitalism and theory of communism, which is the ideal society for Marx. His theory of communism is based on the “ultimate end of human history” because there will be freedom for all humankind. Marx saw communism as the ideal society because it is "the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and man- the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence...between freedom and necessity" that capitalism fosters. Marx was also committed to the notion that theory and action go hand in hand. Marx dismissed earlier thinkers because they (philosophers) "have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it." He also stated "Ideas cannot carry out anything at all. In order to carry out ideas men are needed who can exert practical force". However, Marx would have been appalled by the way his theory of communism was misused. It can be said, though, that Marx's theory of communism was clearly open for interpretation because he failed to offer "principles or guidelines of even the most general kind" for how the system of communism was to be fully established. It was this opportunity for interpretation that made Marx's theory of communism doomed for failure when it was used in practice.
Marx defined historical materialism in the preface of A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy that, “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their consciousness.” In contrast to idealism, which prioritized the value of human ideas, historical materialism insisted that the existence of human kinds pushed the productions; and mode of production shaped human consciousness in return. The contradictory between Idealism and historical materialism lie between whether it was evolvement of consciousness steering for societal changes or the other way around. While choosing one of them as individual political philosophy, it was very similar of answering question, “which came first, chicken or egg?” Personally, I favor for historical materialism for “consciousness is determined by your beings” seems rational as well as logical.
Among those Hegel influenced were theologians and religious people because of his emphasis on the importance of God in his teachings. (Boston U) Hegel was supported by German scientists and theologians because he promoted the vitality of these two areas of studies. His opponents were those who did not believe in God or religious motives in philosophy like Kant with Agnostic Phenomenalism and Schelling with Objective Idealism that prompted Nietzsche and Marx to find their ideologies. Georg wrote many political works critiquing different European governments explaining how the morals and motives for doing certain things are corrupt and twisted. His more famous works came later, like the Jena Writings. Included in these writings was the Philosophy of Right. In this piece, Hegel talks about Natural Law and how the true meaning of Natural Law is hindered by the materialistic world. He claims that the physical world alters the perception of the actual truth. He advocated the traditional rationalist approach to the Natural Law. His underlying message is that the community must move beyond the false reality the state entraps them in to find what is real and what is good. (UTM) Hegel believed that if one were
As a German philosopher, a politician, and an important figure within the Communist League, Karl Heinrich Marx birthed a new way of looking at things through his beliefs, ideas, and writings. Karl Marx was considered to be “…certainly one of the most important minds of modern times”(1). He wanted to know more about philosophy, so that he might understand the political and social system better.
Marx’s perspective was not based on the conflict of ideas, but rather on the conflict of classes. This conflict is the results of a new mode of production. According to Marx, history would consist of epochs of modes of production. He states that these modes of production are: primitive communism, slave society, feudalism, capitalism, and then socialism and communism.