The Communist Ideal in Hegel and Marx (RLE Marxism)

David MacGregor

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317485131
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Política

One reader has called this study, first published in 1984, 'easily the best book on the relation of Hegel to Marx'. With spirited argument, MacGregor demonstrates that Hegelian logic suited Marx's purpose so well because it already contained the unique elements that later appeared in Marx's social theory, including the notions of surplus value and the transition to communism. The most exciting thing about the book is the clear demonstration that the mature Marx gets ever closer to Hegel, and is increasingly indebted to him. In short, the author gives us a new Hegel and a new Marx. In a manner both original and penetrating, MacGregor shows that dialectical logic is pre-eminently social logic, a reconstruction in thought of social relationships and social structure. Central to the work is the examination of the Philosophy of Right, in which Hegel delineated a theory of modern capitalist society. MacGregor provides a compelling analysis of Hegel's importance for Lenin and a strong caveat that contemporary Marxism ignores Hegel to its own peril. MacGregor establishes that Hegel's absolute idealism is founded on a theory of the dialectics of labour similar to Marx's historical materialism. Another significant discovery elucidates Hegel's concept of poverty as the missing link which joins Marx's formulation to classical liberal theory.

The Communist Ideal in Hegel and Marx

David MacGregor

George Allen & Unwin

LONDON and SYDNEY

© University of Toronto Press 1984

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved.

George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd

40 Museum St, London WC1A 1LU, UK

George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd

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George Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd, 8

Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060 Australia

Printed in Canada

ISBN 0 04 909016x

DOI: 10.4324/9781315709185

Contents

• Introduction
• 1 Hegel and Marx
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Work and the Social Individual
  • 3 The Hegelian Idea
  • 4 Communism and the State
• 2 Religion, Philosophy, and the Development of Individual Consciousness
  • 1 Plato, the Idea, and the Social Individual
  • 2 Hegel’s Atheism
  • 3 The Idea of Christianity
• 3 From Theology to Absolute Idealism
  • 1 Theology, Enlightenment, and Absolute Idealism
  • 2 Ideality, Work, and Absolute Idealism
  • 3 Protestantism, Absolute Idealism, and Revolutionizing Practice
• 4 Alienation and Ideology
  • 1 Feuerbach and Alienation
  • 2 Alienation and Natural Science
• 5 Kant and the Bourgeois World of Abstraction
  • 1 Reality and Abstraction in the Generated World of the Categories
  • 2 Contradiction and Freedom
• 6 Capitalism, Class, and Profit
  • 1 Capitalism and Abstract Freedom
  • 2 Class and the Individual
  • 3 Profit, Private Property, and Freedom
• 7 The External Capitalist State
  • 1 The Corporation and the External State
  • 2 Class, Consumption, and Freedom
  • 3 Bildung and the Social Individual
  • 4 On Law and Justice
  • 5 Poverty, Imperialism, and the External Capitalist State
• 8 Dialectic and the Rational State
  • 1 The Dialectic Method
  • 2 Dialectical Exposition and the Rational State
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Index

Preface

Theoretical work is lonely by nature and thus the community and encouragement of friends and mentors is doubly important. I welcome the opportunity to thank Patricia Bishop without whose intelligent and perceptive criticism this book could not have been completed. I am also pleased to acknowledge the guidance and interest of Donald G. MacRae, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, who supervised the PhD dissertation that forms the basis of this book. R.I.K. Davidson, my editor at the University of Toronto Press, offered his cheerful and generous support at all the arduous stages of the publication process and made my life considerably easier and happier than it otherwise would have been. C.B. Macpherson at the University of Toronto read an early version of the manuscript and helped it along to publication; and John Keane gave valuable comments and advice.

This is the place to express my appreciation for the insightful criticism and patient editing of the anonymous reader at the University of Toronto Press. In addition I would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of the reviewer at the Social Science Federation of Canada.

My friends Lesley De Pauw, Mark De Pauw, Stan Marshall, Gerry Nixon, and Sheila Zurbrigg gave me support and confidence in the long days of writing this book. My colleagues at King’s College, Bernie Hammond, Kathy Kopinak, and Alan Pomfret, read and commented on the manuscript; Al Koop, David Flynn, and Dante Lenardon extended important assistance. At the University of Western Ontario, Tom Sea provided helpful advice on the historical context of the writings of Hegel and Marx, and James Rinehart gave me lots of arguments on Marxism. Sean O’Hegarty read the various drafts of this study and offered useful suggestions. The debt I owe to my sister Betty is immense.

The Research Grants Committee at King’s College provided crucial financial assistance, and the Dean and the Principal of the College have been most supportive. My years at the LSE were amply funded by the Canada Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

I would like to thank David Boudreau and Cathy Mendier for their assistance in editing the manuscript. Jean Fyfe, Jean Murphy, Lynda Laird, Miff Lysaght, and Cathy Mendier have all at one time or another and with great forbearance and skill transformed my awkwardly typed pages into a legible product.

A special acknowledgment goes to my friend who sees in black and white; Patricia will know whom I mean.

D.M.

The Communist Ideal in Hegel and Marx

He You are right. The main thing is that you and I should exist, and that we should be you and I. Apart from that let everything go as it likes. The best order of things, to my way of thinking, is the one I was meant to be part of, and to hell with the most perfect of worlds if I am not of it. I would rather exist, even as an impudent argufier, than not exist at all. I There is nobody who doesn’t share your opinion and criticize the existing order of things without realizing that he is thereby denying his own existence.

Diderot, Rameau’s Nephew

What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational. On this conviction the plain man like the philosopher takes his stand, and from it philosophy starts in its study of the universe of mind as well as the universe of nature. If reflection, feeling, or whatever form subjective consciousness may take, looks upon the present as something vacuous and looks beyond it with the eyes of superior wisdom, it finds itself in a vacuum, and because it is actual only in the present, it is itself mere vacuity.

G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right

Introduction

Lenin was among the first to realize that a profound understanding of Marx demands a th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Title Page 1
• Copyright Page 1
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Frontmatter 1
• Frontmatter 2
• Introduction
• 1 Hegel and Marx
• 2 Religion, Philosophy, and the Development of Individual Consciousness
• 3 From Theology to Absolute Idealism
• 4 Alienation and Ideology
• 5 Kant and the Bourgeois World of Abstraction
• 6 Capitalism, Class, and Profit
• 7 The External Capitalist State
• 8 Dialectic and the Rational State
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Index