Contribution+to+the+critique+of+Hegel’s+Philosophy+of+Right+Introduction


 * Karl Marx, “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction,” //Deutsch Französische Jhrbücher// (February 1844).**

__General Thoughts on Religion__ · Man makes religion, religion doesn’t make the man · Man uses religion as a sort of clutch to gain a [false] self-understanding (religion = illusion) · Must give up religion to attain true freedom à by becoming //critical// · “The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses …” (2) o Criticism of religion à criticism of law o Criticism of theology à criticism of politics __Germany__ · Marx comes down hard on modern politico-social reality (//status-quo//) in Germany (likens to //ancien régime//) · He sees German turn toward national economy (“mastery of private property over nationality”) in relation to England and France whose problem is political economy (“rule of society over wealth”) o Where France and England see their lot as a problem and are trying to combat monopolies, Germany sees their turn toward nat’l econ. As the dawn of a glorious new age o Therefore, German history is anachronistic – left behind · Critics in Germany, instead of dealing with practical implications of history, deal instead in the “ideal prolongation of German history,” aka philosophy · “//German philosophy of right and state// is the only German history which is //al pari// (on a par) with the official modern present.” (5-6) · Marx wants the German nation to somehow marry this philosophical “dream-history” to present conditions and criticize both existing conditions and philosophical exposition of their “abstract continuation” à negation of philosophy o While philosophy is scorned and ignored, Marx believes that its true negation cannot happen until philosophy is accepted as reality o At the same time, philosophers have scorned the idea that their “ideal prolongation” is born of the contemporary world and therefore part of it (i.e., they thought they could make philosophy a reality without abolishing it) · “In politics, the Germans //thought// what other nations //did//.” (7) __Revolution__ · Marx seems to think that a modern state must be born through revolution (like France and England) – Germany is merely a place of speculative philosophy o The root of radicalism in Germany stems from abolition of religion o “The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that //man is the highest essence of man// – hence, with the //categoric imperative to overthrow all relations// in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence …” (7) · Germany’s revolutionary past = theoretical = Reformation o Protestant Reformation refocused locus of emancipation to inner-self à transformed German laymen (slaves to Rome) into priests o By this example, German philosophers will transform priestly Germans (slaves to Prussia and Austria) into //men// = emancipation of __people__ · So far, according to Marx, Germany has only matched the development of modern nations in abstract thought, not in deeds __Vis-à-vis Class__ · For general revolution to occur, one class (or //estate//) must somehow be acknowledged as the estate of the whole society while another becomes the embodiment of oppression (ex. France 1789) · But Marx says no one in Germany has the courage to do this since German classes are based on “modest egoism” and are, therefore, self-limiting · He says, “no class in civil society has any need or capacity for general emancipation until it is forced by its //immediate// condition, by //material// necessity, by its //very chains//.” (11) · So how can Germany achieve emancipation? o By creating a class (“with //radical chains//”) – an estate which is the dissolution of all estates – one with a universal character and universal suffering = Proletariat o Through him, will emancipate all spheres of society (“dissolution of the hereto existing world order”) · Therefore, the emancipation of the German is the emancipation of man (12) o Head of emancipation = philosophy o Heart = proletariat