Hegel's Idealism, The State, Dialectics and Karl Marx

In Hegel's idealistic philosophy consciousness was the Being, every other form of reality was only a manifestation of consciousness. Consciousness passed through different stages through dialectics, and the manifestations of them were the different stages in human history. In this way consciousness was enriched, achieved self-knowledge, and finally, will reach The Absolute!

For Hegel, there were two spheres of the existence of society - the civic sphere and the political sphere. The civic sphere was the life of the individuals which was full of greediness, the different egoisms, conflicts. It was messy. On the other hand, the other sphere of existence of society was the state, the government. It was above the individuals, it was taking care of them, and only through its control the society could become better. The state had the right to force individuals to act in a certain way for the "common good", which the state specified.

Marx accepted from Hegel that those two spheres exist in society, but he did not accept the ideal, separate existence of the state, independant from and above the individuals. He insisted that the state is the individuals and the state should serve the real individuals. A state, that is forcing individuals, that is violent towards individuals, is not a real state, Marx said. Also, he specified the duality of the human existence - a real, living person in the civic sphere, and an ideal citizen in the political sphere, which was an unreal person. In the political sphere the citizens are equal, there are no qualifications for property in order to vote or be elected. But this did not relate to the reality of life in the civic sphere. Individuals who possessed the means of production, could exert influence and control over other persons, they were the ones who were elected into government office, hence - no real equality! Same thing with religion - the state rids itself from the conflicts of religion, but in real life people are still in the shackles of religion.

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• Karl Marx
• Hegel
• idealism
• materialism
• dialectics
• religion
• Christian philosophy
• the state
• government
• political sphere
• civic sphere
• freedom of religion
• freedom from religion
• citizen

[Zuberi1989]

Thank you for this video. I have a test tomorrow about Hegel and I did not fully understand the notion of the consciousness but I do now. Thanks!

[dewinthemorning]

@Zuberi1989 You are welcome. :)

Success tomorrow!

[JoshAlfred27]

3:10 Do mean since Heraclitus?

[dewinthemorning]

@JoshAlfred27 I talk about Heraclitus in my older video about dialectics.

[JoshAlfred27]

Why is the antithesis negated?

[dewinthemorning]

@JoshAlfred27 There is always contradiction between thesis and antithesis, from that struggle a new thesis emerges Hegel calls it a sublimate or something like that), that keeps elements from the thesis and antithesis, is enriched by them, but, in its turn, brings about its own negation, an antithesis, and the striving begins again... (like when capitalism, the new way of production with its production relations, brings about the proletariat, which is its negation - that's how Marx described it

[JoshAlfred27]

This is a magnificent explanation.