From Socrates To Sartre; #21; The Young Hegelian

Hi. Fi. You. Know there are at least one third of all the human beings in the world today call themselves followers of Karl Marx and live in countries which are Marxist but less than a hundred years ago Karl Marx was almost unknown a poor scholar living as a refugee in London and having to be supported along with his wife and children. While the contributions of friends what is the power of the thought of Karl Marx Marxism has swept through the world and captured the minds and hearts of human beings as only the great religions Christianity and Islam have done in human history is Marxism then in some respects similar to a religion. No other philosopher or social scientist has ever had a world wide international organized following. We find ourselves coming back to the question What is the

strange commanding power that lies within the thought of Karl Marx. How can the global appeal of Marxism be explained. We can begin to solve this mystery by examining the forces shaping Marx's life in his own time and many places the closeness of Marx's time to the philosopher Hegel is symbolized by the year eighteen hundred eighteen. It is the year in which Hagele was called to a prestigious professorship at the University of Berlin and it is the year in which Hagels most famous follow up Karl Marx was born. At first glance there was little in the early life of Karl Marx which would lead one to predict that he would develop a philosophy for the rising industrial working class the proletariat. Marx was born in the beautiful old German city of trees in the valley of the Moselle river surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills. Marx's own family was comfortably middle

class his father being the official lawyer for the High Court of Appeal in the city of Trea. Both of course parents were descended from many generations of Jewish rabbis. But Heinrich Marx calls father was a French Enlightenment figure a believer in the gospel of reason and science. When the city of Preah was re annexed from the France by the government of Prussia and anti-Jewish laws were instituted. Heinrich Marx was required to convert to Christianity in order to retain his official position. He was baptized as a Lutheran and 18:00 17 the year before Carl was born Carl and the other children were baptized as Lutherans and 8924 their mother. The following year call attended the local schools and when he was 17 he traveled by boat down the Rhine River to the University of Bunner where he registered as a law student. After a year of writing poetry and drinking and doodling at the University of Bonn Marx transferred under pressure from his

father to the more sober and studious environment of the University of Berlin. But before returning to school lock's became engaged to his long time love from Korea the beautiful auburn hair Green-Eyed Jenny funfest fallen whose father the Baron Ludwig von best fallen had for many years had a special fondness for the vital intelligent young Karl Marx. It had stimulated in him an interest in Houma and in Shakespeare and also in the ideas of Sencion the French Socialist. These were to be lasting interest of mocs for the rest of his life. When Karl Marx came to the University of Berlin in 1936 the great philosopher Hagele had been dead for five years. But his influence in the university and in all of Germany was at its very peak its very highest. The followers of Hagel were now split into conservative and radical groups. During the entire time that Mark was a student at the University of

Berlin from eighteen hundred thirty six to eight thousand five hundred forty one. The radical intellectuals of the university and throughout Germany were depressed and miserable. King Frederick William of Prussia rule as a strict reactionary against the currents of freedom which had been set loose by the French Revolution both liberals and radicals that had great hopes for his son Frederick William the Fourth. But he soon turned out to be a more efficient and shrewder reactionary than his father had been. Prussia was now an authoritarian police state censorship of the press censorship of public meetings and a central commission for the suppression of dangerous thought throughout Germany made in the movement for reform. Impossible. Marx soon immersed himself in the works of Hegel forgot about studying the law and became one of the leaders of the radical intellectual group called the young Galen's How has the political conflict in Prussia

turned into the bitter conflict between the two camps of the followers of Faygo Hago was the dominant intellectual voice in Germany and the conflict about Hengel came from the deep ambiguity the two sidedness the paradoxical ironical double meanings of Hagels himself which we have already seen. On the one hand Hago had enshrined the Christian Germanic state of Prussia as the highest point the culmination of all of human history. But on the other hand Hegel had presented a theory of dialectic as endlessly restless negating whatever exists in order to bring about change and development toward greater rationality. The young Galen's took the radical side of this two sidedness of Hegel. They argued that the Prussian state which was in fact becoming daily more restrictive and authoritarian was not immune to the negative critical power of dialectic and must

itself be criticized and attacked. Another ambiguity within the legacy of Hagel was hotly argued by the right wing and the left wing Gilliam's. On the one hand Hago had nothing but contempt for political liberalism and for its twin components of individualism and democracy for Hagel. The state has absolute power and moral authority over the individual. But on the other hand Hagel's philosophy of history flew the flag of freedom it had claimed that the true meaning of human history is that it is the progress of finite spirits in the consciousness of its own freedom. The younger girls took the radical side of this Aggieland two sidedness and they called for freedom against the Prussian States. A third instance of ambiguity within Hegel is two sidedness or double talk with regard to God as we have seen Hagels metaphysics or theory of reality was a breathtaking vision of reality

as absolute spirit or mind of a God who was the absolute totality of rational truth of all conceptual rationality. But on the other hand Hegel acknowledged that God has no existence except in the human sphere. God exists only as he is revealed manifested externalized and embodied in human consciousness in finite minds in social institutions. In the course of history the younger Galen's took the radical side of this ambiguity about God and they worked their way finally to the conclusion of atheism that a God who exists only as human consciousness does not exist at all and still another double meaning had been left by Hegel. The famous statement that the real is the rational and the rational is the real the conservative Gilliam's and the radical Galen's waged war over this formidable and tormenting statement. The conservative camp took the first half of Hagel's

statement. The real is the rational and they interpreted to mean that whatever exists is necessary in the rational process of dialectic which embodies the absolute. Therefore to try to change what exists to change the status quo. Specifically to try to change or undermine the Prussian state is to go against the rational process of dialectic and to go against God who is embodied in the States and also in the King. But on the other side the radical camp took its stand on the second half of the statement. The half that said the rational is the real. They protested violently. These radicals that Hago never meant to defend the status quo. He never meant to say that whatever exists no matter how confused or unworthy is rational what Hagel meant according to the young Gilliam's was that only what is rational as a claim to be called real and that the most important skill of the

philosopher is to criticize all social institutions so that they can become more rational and therefore more real. Criticism became the slogan of the young Galium. We can now begin to see the powerful influence upon the thought of Marx which was exercised by the young the Galen's these radicalise years of the philosophy of Hagele against the sanctity of governments and of the Prussian state. They called for continuing the process of dialectical negation in order to reach to a higher and better form of government than the Prussian State against political absolutism. They called for progress in freedom against a God who exists only in human life. They defended atheism the denial of the existence of God against offending whatever exists as rational and divinely ordained. The young the gillion shouted that what exists must be criticized so that it can be made rational more rational by violent revolution if

necessary all this was proclaimed by the young the Galen's on the basis of their reading of Hegel Hagel's own viewpoint as we have seen was not radical or activists like theirs. His viewpoint was conservative and quietist. But the younger Galen's were motivated to find a radical message in Hegel and they were correct in finding it. What they discovered was that Hagele as we have seen was the master of paradox irony and two sidedness. There was indeed a conservative and also a radical side of Hagel the younger Galen's took the side which gave them intellectual support but these feisty young radicals were not satisfied with merely reinterpreting the philosophy of Hagele they were vigorously pushing ahead on three main intellectual fronts first with the notion of criticism. Their slogan of criticism inspired them to write pamphlets and books offering sharp critical

attacks on laws political thought philosophy and religion. Marx by now had become an extremist among the young the Gilliam's at the University of ghrelin and he seized upon intellectual criticism as the crucial means by which to change the world. But Marx will soon change his mind on intellectual criticism as the most effective weapon with which to change the world. Instead of theoretical intellectual criticism the ultimate weapon to change the world will be for Marx the industrial working class the proletariat. A second front in the campaign of the young Hungarians was derived from their criticism of Hagels two sided concept of God a God who exists only as human consciousness only in the form of man does not exist. Therefore the younger Galen's were atheists but they do a far more interesting conclusion from their criticism of Hagels concept of God. If all of the absolute's development of

rationality is within the human sphere is carried out by man the man is the true God. It is the human being who is the true divinity. Man is God. This intoxicating and grandiose concept lead to the third front of the Gilliam's a young Galen's campaign man's divinity his god godlike nature has not yet been realized what must be accomplished is a revolution a worldwide revolution against the existing conditions of the world so as to make the world one in which the human being can live as a god. The third front is the concept of a necessary coming world revolution. A huge world catastrophe by which the institutions of the world will be destroyed so that they can be reconstructed according to the philosophy of a goal when it is truly interpreted. These three fighting fronts of the campaign of the young Hungarians

the power of merciless criticism as a political weapon. The concept of the divinity of man in place of God and the view of a necessary impending horrible world revolution destroying so as to reconstruct a rational world order. These three themes Marx incorporated from his years with the young the Galen's at the University of Berlin. They remain prominent themes within his developing thought. Marx finished writing his doctoral dissertation in eighteen hundred forty one but before he left the university a great intellectual bombshell burst upon the young Galen's. It was the publication by Ludwig Feuerbach who was himself one of the young Hungarians of a work called The essence of Christianity. In this work Feuerbach condemns the philosophy of Hegel as a disguised attempt to restore Christianity. Whatever is of value in

Hagel says Feuerbach is not what it says about the absolute. But what it reveals about the psychology of man the human being. Love says Feuerbach. Cut out the Galen double talk about God let us place as the basis of philosophy not God or the absolute But man himself. Man is a species. Real material man in a real material world. Marx took away two messages from Feuerbach attack upon Hegel. One was Feuerbach materialism his metaphysical theory that reality is primarily material and not spiritual as Hegel had claimed Marx was himself inclined toward materialism. In any case. Feuerbach reinforced Marx's own materialistic metaphysics which now became a permanent element in Marxist thinking. But secondly Marx took away from Feuerbach the message that the

philosophy of Hago is still true that when Hagel is turned upside down when it is seen that Hagel is revealing man's life in the material world rather than God's Manifestations Hagel is still the master. Marks will apply Hagels dialectic and many of Hagels concepts to the life of human beings in the concrete material world. Opta Mock's was given a doctorate in philosophy by the University of Vienna. Marx moved to the University of London where Bruno bawah a younger Gallion and a close friend held a teaching post and had encouraged Marx to try for one too. But by 1840 to the Prussian Minister of Education condemned the young the galleons as an illegal group and Bauer was dismissed from the University of Bonn. Nor was there any theatre for Mocs. There are no marks moved on to the city of Cologne where he became for a while editor of a liberal journal the Rhineland times.

But Marks's powerful uncompromising fierce radical contributions to the journal soon brought official censorship down upon the journal and Mock's was forced to resign. There was a description of Marx as he appeared while he was functioning as editor of The Journal. Karl Marx from Korea was a powerful man of 24 years old whose thick black hair sprung from his cheeks nose arms and ears. He was domineering impetuous passionate full of boundless self-confidence but at the same time deeply earnest and learned a restless dialectician who with his restless Jewish penetration pushed every proposition of young again and doctrine to its final conclusion and was already then by his concentrated study of economics preparing his conversion to communism. Marx is surely recognisable from this description written by one of the wealthy liberal businessmen of Cologne who

funded the journal the business man goes on to say with regret under Marxist leadership. The newspaper soon began to speak very recklessly in a short time. The journal was officially banned in April of the following year 1843. Marx was married to Jenny funfest phone in her own right. The beautiful patrician Jenny had become a legendary figure of courage intelligence fidelity and suffering. They moved to Paris in November where they lived from forty 43 to 1845. Why Paris by now it was clear to Marx the German censorship and reactionary politics would silence him. He could say or do nothing of political consequence in Germany. He had lost interest in his young McGillion friends at the University of Berlin and the movement itself had been banned. Specifically he was drawn to Paris by the offer of a job assisting

Arnold ruga a friend with the editing of a new journal in Paris which was to be called the German French annals and which hoped to print both the German and French radical literature or marks quickly accepted the job in a letter to ruga in the summer of 1843 in which he said I am tired of this hypocrisy and stupidity. I am tired of having to bow and scrape and end them safe and harmless phrases. In Germany there is nothing I can do in Germany. One can only be false to oneself. But there was another reason for the choice of Paris as the next stage in Marks's years as a radical exile and refugee from hostile governments. Hardest of all the great capital cities of Europe was at this time the most hospitable and the most tolerant of all shades of political opinion. Paris provided a rich and exciting intellectual atmosphere especially

for the refugees and exiles from the oppressive states and churches from Germany Russia Italy Poland Hungary all of whom were busily engaged in literary artistic and political activities on behalf of freedom for all humankind. At the same time France was undergoing rapid and socially disruptive change as the Industrial Revolution advanced through the country the mass production and the mass distribution of the Industrial Revolution was driving out small business and making factory hands of growing numbers of the French population. The government of France was weak and corrupt and controlled by the newly created wealth the industrialists and financier's discontented factory workers throughout the South were engaging in riots and strikes. In this intensely stimulating atmosphere locksmith Friedrich Engels was to become his lifelong friend colleague and financial benefactor.

He met also the Russian anarchist Michael Bacuna and later his enemy and he spent much time with French Socialist theorists especially with the socialist anarchist Pudong who also became an enemy of Marks's in very short order. The 1840s in Paris before 1848 the year of the revolutions across the face of Europe this period was a period of rapid development of French radicalism. Marx himself had little use for most of the French radicals. Some of them he suspected of lusting to bring about a bloodbath. Some were maverick Catholic priests will be distrusted but most of them he considered to be utopians by which Marx meant that they were concocting theories of improving society which could never be actualized. They remained and would always be pie in the sky. Marx's Paris years from 1843 to

45 were the crucial years of his intellectual development. Not so much because of the stimulation of Parisian intellectual life but because during this period Marx fixated upon two questions which he would spend the rest of his life trying to answer the first question was why had the French Revolution failed. Why is it that Europe was no closer to freedom now than it had been before the revolution took place. The Age of Enlightenment had been naive to think that the world could be changed by reason by science and education but the Jack-O been part of the revolution were also proved false by attempting to change the world through the reign of terror. Nor was there value in Hegel's viewpoint that the French Revolution had failed because the time was not yet ripe for the dialectic to reach the stage of freedom. Since Hago had given no indication as to how to tell when the time is ripe for a revolution what can be now known so that a new revolutionary

strike for freedom will not fail. The second question which Mock's was determined to answer was What is the significance of the new industrial revolution. The great revolution of technology in factories mills mines and agriculture which transformed the social economic and political life of the world bringing with it great wealth to some and widespread poverty and alienation to others as Hago had already noted in his account of civil society. What is the future of the industrial revolution. Can the gross inequities which were now visible in France and even more so in the socially unhealthy factory towns of England can can this continue without a revolution to correct this. What is to prevent such a revolution from failing as the French Revolution had failed to answer these questions. Marx read with a frenzy while in Paris plowing through everything written of significance which bore upon these problems

posed by the French and industrial revolutions. He taught himself French by reading the works of all the French socialists who were currently celebrities in Paris. You read French and German history in accordance with Hagels historical approach to the understanding of all human problems and in order to deal with the economic problems connected with the industrial revolution. He read all the major economic theories in the field from those of the 17th century to his own time and most carefully Adam Smith's great work. The wealth of nations from all that he read he made copious notes of long passages some of which he incorporated into his own manuscripts. This was to become a lifelong practice for Marx The Omnivorous reading the endless note taking the great outpouring of manuscripts many of them unfinished. Here in Paris Jennie's first baby was born and while she and the baby returned to her family in three or four summer months

lock's produced the work which is now called the economic and philosophic manuscripts or the 1844 manuscripts and these manuscript is contained Marx's economic interpretation of history. A key concept of Marxism which received its full treatment only in his last great work capital. Meanwhile the French German annals the radical Journal which Marx and ruga co-edited was seized in Germany and warrants were issued for the arrest of Marx and ruga. The first issue of the journal was also its last. Soon afterwards Marx became a contributor to another radical journal called forward. And this led to Marks's being expelled from France. Marx was given 24 hours to leave Paris Jennys sold furniture and left the city a few days later. Next stop on the refugee trail. Brussels in Belgium in the Brussels period from 1845 to 1848 marks began to

organize an international revolutionary group and he soon joined with English radicals in an organization called the communist lead. Marx became the leader of this rapidly growing revolutionary organization and in 1847 the Communist League commissioned him to write a document which would state the aims of the organization. Marx completed the statement of principles for the Communist League. And it was published a month before the outbreak of the power revolution of 1848. It was the now famous manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx was soon expelled for this from Brussels returned to revolutionary powers and moved on to Germany with the Revolution of 1848 was just now breaking out. But with the failure of the German revolution Mock's was deported once again from Germany. Jenny pawned the silver she had inherited from her aristocratic English grandmother. And with this money they left Germany for the

last time they tried to go back to France but were forbidden to live in Paris. And so the Marks's moved to London. Marx was now 31. Jenny was thirty five. London was to be their home for the rest of their lives. They lived in poverty misery and ill health. Three of their children died for lack of money to pay for medical care. Yet Mock's continued to write and plan for the world revolution which he did indeed bring about but was fated never to see what is the power of Marxism. Next time a probe into the developed thought of Karl Marx. Now. Now.

Go. On. All I. Ever. Rubios of the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting