(31) What is Marx's Utopia, which develops from idealism to materialism - from "German Ideology.

German Ideology" - From Idealism to MaterialismMarx's Ideal World "Learning from the Life and Thought Background of Marx Engels" (31)

In the above article, we have provided a brief chronological overview of the lives of Marx and Engels, but in this series, "Learning from the Life and Thought Background of Marx and Engels," we will look at the lives and thought of Marx and Engels in more detail.

I will now refer to the book by Tristram Hunt.'TheEngels, The Man Marx Called General."This is a biography of Engels called.

What makes this book excellent is that it explains in an easy-to-understand manner which ideas influenced Engels and how his writings were produced from them.

It is very easy to understand the flow of history because you can learn along with the historical background of the time and the ideas that were popular at the time. It is easy to understand how the ideas of Engels and Marx were developed. The book also gives me a road map of what to read next to learn more about Marx and Engels. I appreciated this.

And this book made me realize how much Engels had influenced Marx's writings. It is quite amazing.

Although this book is a biography of Engels, it also goes into great detail about Marx. It was such a great biography that I thought I could learn more about Marx by reading this book than by reading a biography or commentary on Marx.

We may use other Marx biographies to supplement some of Marx's life and interesting episodes, but basically we will focus on this book and take a closer look at the lives of Marx and Engels.

For other reference books, see the following articles"List of 12 recommended Marx biographies--to learn more about the life and thought of Marx Engels."Please refer to this page for a summary.

So let's get started.

What is "German Ideology"?

In our last article, we told you about Marx Engels' life in Brussels after his return from a research trip to England.

It was during his time in Brussels that a work of art was created. It was "German Ideology.

Out of this intimate and sometimes tense social relationship, something very great was born. The German Iterology, a book that Marx and Engels had collaborated on. This book, also co-written by Marx and Engels, was never published in their lifetime. The work was famously abandoned "in the face of criticism from scrawny, gnawing rats," and only found a readership in 1932.

Nevertheless, the book also served its purpose of giving the authors an opportunity to clarify their thinking, and showed that they had taken a further step forward from idealism to materialism.

It is a further conscious act of distinguishing themselves from the legacy of the youth Hegelians. As is often the case with Marx and Engels, they secured their position by persistently attacking their ideological competitors.

The thinker they had their sights set on at this time was the philosopher Max Steirner. And just as often, the level of venom with which Steirner was bombarded was at precisely the same level as the intellectual benefits Marx and Engels received from him.
Some line breaks have been made.

Chikuma Shobo, Tristram Hunt, translated by Erika Togo, Engels: The Man Called General by Marx, p. 171

The German Ideology was not published during their lifetime and only saw the light of day in 1932.

What kind of person, Stirner, was chosen as the target of this criticism in this work, and what was his ideology?

The German Ideology as a Critical Book for Max Stirner.

Stirner, a leading figure in the young Hegelian fraternity in Berlin, was not convinced by Feuerbach's criticism of Hegelianism. Feuerbach argued that idealistic philosophy, or Hegelianism, was little different from Christian theology.

In both cases, a person is something other than himself, which is what Hagel says [Joon] is.spiritspirit), or the Christian God, demanded to be worshipped, and thus both aggravated man's spiritual condition. According to Feuerbach, the solution, so to speak, was for man to "worship humanity.

But Steilner believed that Feuerbach's criticism of Hegel also applied to Feuerbach himself. Like Hegel, Feuerbach manifested in his mind another god who enslaves man in place of the God of Christ. In Hegel's case, it was "spirit"; in Feuerbach's case, it begins with a capital "M.human beingmanIt's a good thing.

But in Steirner's view, this "HUMAN religion was merely the last transformed form of Christianity.

Steirner's "The One and His Possession" (1845), on the other hand, argued for absolute egoism, unaffected by alienation through devotion to God, man, spirit, or nation.

It is a supremely atheistic, materialistic, and ultimately nihilistic disposition, in which the egoist "does not consider himself an instrument of ideas or a vessel of God, does not feel the call of God, and has no delusion that he exists for the further development of mankind and that he must devote himself to that end. He has no delusion that he exists for the further development of mankind, and that he must devote his small resources to that end. Still, the egoist lives his life to the fullest and does not care how much prosperity he may or may not bring to mankind.

Although Marx and Engels had no interest in discussing Steirner's claims of personal rebellion or his personal aristocratic qualities, their materialist tendencies were heightened by his criticism of Feuerbach's man-centered philosophy, which he said was no different from an improved religion.

But while Steilner remained committed to his own ethics, the two men were determined to move from his philosophy of individualism to a politics of mass action.

Engels explained in a rather taut letter to Marx: "We must break away from the ego, from its empiricism, from the flesh-and-blood individual. We need to break away from the ego, from its empiricist, flesh-and-blood individual. If, like Stirner, we intend to elevate ourselves to a "person," rather than continue to dwell on this point, then ...... In short, if our concepts, and especially our "persons," are to become real, we must depart from empiricism and materialism. We must deduce the general from the particular. Not from itself, or from the thin air of the Hegelian style.
Some line breaks have been made.

Chikuma Shobo, Tristram Hunt, translated by Erika Togo, Engels: The Man Called General by Marx, p. 172-173

Stirner's criticism of Feuerbach is indeed "I see.

Feuerbach states that "religion is only a creation of man," but the doctrines that Feuerbach preaches are likewise "only a creation of man," he says.

However, the egoist theory that Stirner preaches also seems quite extreme, doesn't it?

Marx and Engels develop their arguments in a way that further criticizes these "Feuerbach criticisms of Stirner.

The Ambition of "German Ideology

This materialist ambition was the basis for The German Iterology. It was the first articulation of Marx and Engels' view of social structure-religion, class, political institutions-as the product of various economic and technological forces. The production of ideas, concepts, and consciousness is initially directly interwoven with human material activity and material exchange. ...... consciousness does not define life, but life defines consciousness."

Each stage of production took different "forms of exchange" within society, from the primitive communism of prehistoric peoples to the feudalism of the Middle Ages and the industrial capitalism of the 19th century. The most prominent of these was the property system, followed by social classes, political forms, religions, and cultural movements.

As Marx later stated, "Social relations are intimately connected with the productive forces. By acquiring new productive forces, people change their mode of production. And in changing their mode of production, in changing the way they earn their living, they change all social relations. Grind by handmillstonemillThen it would be a society with feudal lords. The steam-poweredplantmillIf so, it will be a society with industrial capitalists."
Some line breaks have been made.

Chikuma Shobo, Tristram Hunt, translated by Erika Togo, Engels: The Man Called General by Marx, p. 172-173

Consciousness does not define life, but life defines consciousness."

This seems to be a very important point in this work.

Materialist Interpretation of History and the Necessity of Revolution

A materialist interpretation of history suggested that each civilization is ultimately an expression of the mode of production that shaped it.

In other words, the political and ideological superstructure is determined by the economic base mediated through the so-called "relations of production," a form of property.

This is especially true when it comes to the political superstructure of the state. It is simply "a form in which the people of the ruling class assert their common interests and in which the entire civil society of a period is condensed.

However, at certain stages of development (such as during the English Civil War [the Puritan Revolution], when Charles I, a very medieval monarch, clashed with the rising bourgeois class), the material forces generated by production came into conflict with existing property-based relationships and their attendant political, social, and ideological superstructures, ideological superstructure.

And so, in the fullness of time, revolutions occur. When political institutions become incompatible with the economic base, they must be readjusted to the new base in a series of often painful transformations.

None of this meant that the political change occurred spontaneously or unintentionally. Given the inevitable opposition of the ruling class, progress could only be won through political organization, mass movements, and real agitation. Neither the English Republic nor the French Republic was willingly handed over power.

Revolution is therefore necessary, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way. Marx and Engels explained, "Not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class that overthrows them can only succeed in removing all traditional ties and create society anew through revolution.
Some line breaks have been made.

Chikuma Shobo, Tristram Hunt, translated by Erika Togo, Engels: The Man Called General by Marx, p. 173-174

We often hear the terms superstructure and substructure, but this is where they came from.

And it was here that Marx Engels concluded that revolution was necessary to change history.

What is the ideal world of communism?

For the first time, German Ideology made it clear that the historical impetus for change that would usher in such a new era was the class struggle. In the context of the industrialized 1840s, it was the role of the new proletarian class to provoke revolution and usher in a communist future.

It is a future that not only promises their emancipation, but changes the situation of all mankind. As competition and private ownership are replaced by communism, man will regain "control over the mode of exchange, production, and relations among men," and "the situation in which man is alienated from his own production" will be eliminated.

Unlike capitalist societies, where the division of labor forces man into a "specific, exclusive sphere of activity," communist societies coordinate production so that "no one has an exclusive sphere of activity and each person can become proficient in any field he wishes.... ... it becomes possible for me to do one task today and another tomorrow, for example, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, take care of the cattle in the evening, and critique after dinner. Just as I would like to do, even if I never become a hunter, fisherman, cowboy, or critic. But somehow this desirable future had to be embraced.
Some line breaks have been made.

Chikuma Shobo, Tristram Hunt, translated by Erika Togo, Engels: The Man Called General by Marx, p. 174

This brings me to a very important point in considering the thought of Marx Engels.

The utopia of the communist world envisioned by Marx and Engels as of 1845 is described here.

Because communist society regulates production, "no one has an exclusive sphere of activity, and each person can become proficient in whatever field he wishes ...... to do one task today and another tomorrow, for example, hunting in the morning, catching fish in the afternoon, tending cattle in the evening, and critiquing after dinner. For example, I can hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, take care of the cattle in the evening, and critique after dinner. Just as I would like to do without ever being a hunter, fisherman, cowboy, or critic.

We will see whether he continued to hold on to this utopia at the time of his later "Capitalism" or throughout his life, but this gives us an idea of what the young Marx Engels' communist thought was like before the "Communist Manifesto" was written.

Next Article.

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