Marx’s Philosophy: Materialism, Dialectics, and Critique
Relationship:
Some sources of Marx’s thinking are:
- German idealist philosophy: Hegel.
- Feuerbach.
- French utopian socialism.
- English Economists: A. Smith and Ricardo.
To Marx, all the above materials, including that of Feuerbach, are contemplative and metaphysical, since they interpret reality. Marx’s materialism will criticize all previous materialism; reality must be transformed according to Marx, not merely understood.
The fundamental problem of philosophy for Marx was the contradiction of two antagonistic philosophical positions: materialism and idealism. Consider the different points of each:
Fact:
- Materialism: The whole of reality can be expressed in terms of matter in motion.
- Idealism: The whole of reality can be understood from consciousness, which comes first. Matter is a product of mind or spirit.
World:
- Materialism: Can explain the natural world from itself, without reference to external explanatory principles such as God or the absolute.
- Idealism: Refers to an explanatory principle external, absolute, universal will, the idea of goodness, which is the idea of God.
Religion:
- Materialism: Defense of atheism.
- Idealism: Belief in God.
Idealism:
Idealism is consumed and reaches its maximum expression with Hegel, who tried to rethink the entire Western tradition to develop a unified theory of reality, showing the internal connection between two concepts: nature from Greek philosophy and spirit and the contribution of Christianity.
We also find in Hegel an interpretation of human history as the evolution and development of the mind (reason). The whole world is therefore interpreted as an evolutionary process which is the internal law of absolute spirit. This movement is dialectical. For Hegel’s philosophy, the starting point is reason; everything else are manifestations of this dynamic reason; therefore, everything can be explained through it. We see this approach in Hegel’s famous phrase: “The ideal is rational and the rational is real.”
Marx makes a critique of Hegel from the foundations of Feuerbach. It is observed by both a materialist critique of idealism, maintaining a dialectical conception of reality. This dialectical movement’s legacy will go from Hegel to Marx, who will change the idealist dialectics for a materialist dialectics.
The three moments of dialectics are:
- Thesis (affirmation)
- Antithesis (negation)
- Synthesis (negation of negation)
Criticism of Marx to Hegel:
- The main criticism of Marx to Hegel is about the concept of reality. The phrase “Hegelian what is rational is real and what is real is rational,” could be interpreted in a dogmatic and reactionary sense. If reality is rational, then it can be reduced to thought. This sentence contains an ontological thesis that also provides the basis or justification of a social and political order or state. However, for Marx, the proletariat’s existence contradicts the supposed reality of reason.
- For Hegel, the nature of man is reason or spirit; in Marx’s words, “the human essence is equal to self.” Hegel, however, Marx and Engels defined the essence of man by work.
- The story is interpreted by Hegel as governed by the spirit, the subject of history. According to Marx, this interpretation would be “action” of imaginary subjects. The motor of history is therefore not the rational evolution of the real, but the struggle of the productive forces and production relations, class struggle.
- The philosophy of Hegel, according to Marx, consists of pure theory. Marx proposes the elimination of idealist philosophy and tries to show that knowledge is not just theory but practice.
- Reality is dialectical, but there are conditions that determine thought.