Hegel and Marx

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

For Hegel we will study his Philosophy of Right and the crucial passages in his Phenomenology of Mind. In that last book Hegel shows how human beings and mankind itself developed and thereby became more complex and freer. In his Philosophy of Right Hegel argues that human beings benefit from societal structures, like the family, the economic order and the state. Particularly in his Phenomenology Hegel makes use of a new method of philosophizing: the dialectic. This method has three stages. In the first stage we think about the world and what we intend to do. In the second stage we act but the acting is not achieving what we hoped. In the third stage we must rethink our ideas about the world. In his reflections Hegel concentrates on what whole nations are thinking like Ancient Persia, Ancient Athens, Ancient Rome then the Middle Ages and finally modern times starting with Descartes. We will use human sciences (psychoanalysis, psychology, sociology and linguistics) to illustrate Hegel’s complex ideas. Marx was a student of Hegel and borrowed his dialectic method but made some changes. Instead of concentrating his reflections on states, Marx reflects upon the history of classes. Instead of being interested in the growth of freedom. Marx concentrates on the question as to how people in different classes earned their income and how the working class was exploited. Marx presented ten goals for his ideal society. Some of these goals are overlapping with the goals of Western democracies. Some goals are contrary to the goals of Western democracies. Three quarters of the course will be devoted to Hegel. One quarter will be devoted to Marx.