Marx’s Integration of Hegel’s Ideas

Philosophers are constantly in the process of stealing ideas from one another and subsequently their ideas are many times a collaboration of their predecessors, an adaptation, or even a dichotomy of their own ideas and those of other thinkers. The process leads to the progress and accumulation of more and more works, and in the realm of philosophy, more philosophies for societies and individuals to gain access to and insulate into their ways of life. In the case of Hegel and Marx, Marx adopted concepts from the works of Hegel and adapted them into his theory with a bit of adjustment and supplementation, and the philosophy created from this courtship of ideas lead to one of the most influential revolutions of all time – Communism.

Hegel’s concept and opinion of the State was greatly borrowed from by Marx in the creation of his Socialist philosophy on the State and its economy. Hegel pointed to the existence of a conflict between the individual of a society and the society that it served and contributed to – the individual’s spirit was enslaved by the schemata that controlled it. The political economy of the State forces humanity, to become the slave of his master, (the master being the State), and the work of the slave benefits that of the Master more so than it benefits the slave him/herself. The relationship between the Master and the Slave in a society is one in which the Slave works for the Master, and since the Slave’s life revolves around this work for the Master, the spirit of the Slave and his identity becomes defined by the work that he accomplishes for the Master, while the Master, according to Hegel lives life trying to find his identity in vain, as he becomes alienated from himself while trying to organize his community.

Thus, the slave is credited with progressing closer and closer to truths in relation to mankind, while the master sacrifices this knowledge in the quest to maintain authority and power over the slaves. The slaves, as all other persons, in their quest for knowledge attempt to reach a point of Absolute Knowledge, an understanding and knowledge of God, as this is true mastery according to Hegel. Hegel sees a conflict existing within the State, being the relationship between Master and Slave one that treats Slaves as material objects, and one in which the idea of freedom for the Slave is not realized by the Master. Hegel thought there existed a solution in saving the State and it is one that embraces idealism and rejects materialism. The ideals of freedom, community values and ethics, and above all the ideal of Absolute Truth (God) should be upheld by the State, as the State should now be looked upon as a beacon of God’s will. The State should be ruled by individuals with the will of God in mind and subsequently the State’s actions would be guided by divine power, thus instilling and ensuring the State be guided by Absolute Truth, the ideal that Hegel felt was the essence of all humanity.

Marx agreed with some of Hegel’s theories and philosophies regarding the state and the master/slave dilemma, while he adapted much of it into his own theory, but at the same token, Marx discarded and adjusted much of Hegel’s conceptions and added his own unique ideas. Marx agreed that there was a decisive conflict between the rulers of societies (masters) and the ruled (slaves), which involved the dehumanization of slaves into machines that spew out capital for the masters who rule over them. Marx agreed intently with Hegel on the notion that the slave’s work in turn begins to identify them as individuals and emphasized the notion of the product of the slave controlling the slave itself (another twist in the master slave relationship). Marx also agreed with Hegel that despite the slave’s misfortunes, the slave has a sp
ecific vantage point over the master, that which is the slave’s proclivity to gain knowledge concerning truth’s concerning mankind is much more advanced than that of the master.

Marx however differed with Hegel on their epistemologies concerning the importance and value of ideas versus that of material objects – Marx was a materialist and Hegel was an idealist – this discrepancy in philosophies altered both of their following theories on how the crisis between the master and the slave should be solved and thus, major parts of Marx’s theories disagreed with those of Hegel. First, the idealism of Hegel carried over in his thesis on the practice of a state that utilized the pursuit of the Absolute Truth and the divine will of God. Consequently, Hegel’s idealism in addition to his belief and implementation of God in his work stand in stark contrast to Marx’s materialism and disbelief and discredit in a God. For Marx, everything in life concerned the relationships between physical things, not ideas. Thus, Marx felt this deep-rooted materialism was invested in the core relationships individuals in societies maintained. The relationship between the master and the slave is one based on the master’s desire to attain the most material wealth possible, while the slave tries to maintain survival by working for his master in order to survive; according to Marx, humans tend to be driven into a vicious and dehumanizing society dominating by Capitalism, one where a few people control most of the wealth, while most other people work to survive and in turn are also supporting the welfare of these few, instead of themselves. In order to solve this crisis, all material wealth must be divided amongst all individuals of a society and communal work to maintain survival should ensue, where the work is equally divided amongst individuals as well.

Marx thus, discarded Hegel’s idea of a State run by divine commands, as he detested the idea of a State run by few. Marx was also very weary of the implementation of God and theology into the state of affairs of a community. According to Marx, religion split up and divided communities, in addition to creating another master and slave relationship (God/follower of God) that Marx felt would work against the communal ideas of his philosophy. Marx felt that God was created by man and was an avid atheist. Hegel, however, embraced and valued God in all his theories. Both differed on their interpretations of the term dialectic, as well, although Marx did borrow the main idea from Hegel essentially, he manipulated it in accord to his philosophy of communism. A dialectic, the idea that history moves only by conflicts between opposing forces, a ‘thesis’ versus an ‘antithesis’ evolving a ‘higher synthesis’ was used by Marx in the material sense -Marx viewed history as culminating towards the verge of the revolution of communism- while Hegel maintained the dialectic of idealism where history strives to reach a point in which the kingdom of God is realized.

Although both philosophers were advocates of a similar relationship between individuals in society, and the roles, responsibilities and difficulties the State endures, their conflicting opinion on how they saw the world, one through idealism the other through materialism, completely altered their perceptions and expectation from the State. Also, Hegel’s theological ideals and Marx’s atheistic ideals lead to a completely different interpretation of the world around them and the goals societies should transpire to.