Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 1843-4

content only as a differentiated activity, as the existence of various powers, as an organically structured power. Certain things should be noted concerning Hegel’s presentation. 1. Abstract actuality, necessity (or substantial difference), substantiality, thus the categories of abstract logic, are made subjects. Indeed, abstract actuality and necessity are called ‘its’, the state’s, actuality and necessity; however (1) ‘it’ i.e., abstract actuality or substantiality is the state’s necessity; (2) abstract actuality or substantiality is what is divided into the distinct spheres of its activity which correspond to the moments of its concept. The moments of its concept are, ‘owing to this substantiality ... thus actually fixed determinations, powers. (3) Substantiality is no longer taken to be an abstract characteristic of the state, as its substantiality; rather, as such it is made subject, and then in conclusion it is said, ‘but this very substantiality of the state is mind knowing and willing itself after passing through the forming process of education’. 2. Also it is not said in conclusion that the educated, etc., mind is substantiality, but on the contrary that substantiality is the educated, etc., mind. Thus mind becomes the predicate of its predicate. 3. Substantiality, after having been defined (1) as the universal end of the state, then (2) as the various powers, is defined (3) as the educated, self-knowing and willing, actual mind. The real point of departure, the self-knowing and willing mind, without which the end of the state and the powers of the state would be illusions devoid of principle or support, inessential and even impossible existents, appears to be only the final predicate of substantiality, which had itself previously been defined as the universal end and as the various powers of the state. Had the actual mind been taken as the starting point, with the universal end its content, then the various powers would be its modes of self-actualisation, its real or material existence, whose determinate character would have had to develop out of the nature of its end. But because the point of departure is the Idea, or Substance as subject and real being, the actual subject appears to be only the final predicate of the abstract predicate. The end of the state and the powers of the state are mystified in that they take the appearance of modes of existence of the substance, drawn out of and divorced from their real existence, the self-knowing and willing mind, the educated mind. 4. The concrete content, the actual determination appears to be formal, and the wholly abstract formal determination appears to be the concrete content. What is essential to determinate political realities is not that they can be considered as such but rather that they can be considered, in their most abstract configuration, as logical-metaphysical determinations. Hegel’s true interest is not the philosophy of right but logic. The philosophical task is not the embodiment of thought in determinate political realities, but the evaporation of these realities in abstract thought. The philosophical moment is not the logic of fact but the fact of logic. Logic is not used to prove the nature of the state, but the state is used to prove the logic. There are three concrete determinations: 1. the universal interest and the conservation therein of the particular interests as the end of the state; 2. the various powers as the actualisation of this end of the state; 3. the educated, self-assured, willing and acting mind as the subject of this end and its actualisation. Notes for a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, by Karl Marx http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/ch01.htm (10 of 11) [23/08/2000 18:48:53] These concrete determinations are considered to be extrinsic, to be hors d’oeuvres. Their importance to philosophy is that in them the state takes on the following logical significance: 1. abstract actuality or substantiality; 2. the condition of substantiality passes over into the condition of necessity or substantial actuality; 3. substantial actuality is in fact concept, or subjectivity. With the exclusion of these concrete determinations, which can just as well be exchanged for those of another sphere such as physics which has other concrete determinations, and which are accordingly unessential, we have before us a chapter of the Logic. The substance must be ‘divided into the distinct spheres of its activity which correspond to the moments of its concept, and these spheres, owing to this substantiality, are thus actually fixed determinate characteristics of the state’. The gist of this sentence belongs to logic and is ready-made prior to the philosophy of right. That these moments of the concept are, in the present instance, distinct spheres of its (the state’s) activity and the fixed determinate characteristics of the state, or powers of the state, is a parenthesis belonging to the philosophy of right, to the order of political fact. In this way the entire philosophy of right is only a parenthesis to logic. It goes without saying that the parenthesis is only an hors d’oeuvre of the real development. Cf. for example the Addition to § 270.: Necessity consists in this, that the whole is sundered into the differences of the concept and that this divided whole yields a fixed and permanent determinacy, though one which is not fossilised but perpetually recreates itself in its dissolution. Cf also the Logic. § 271. The constitution of the state is, in the first place, the organisation of the state and the self-related process of its organic life, a process whereby it differentiates its moments within itself and develops them to self-subsistence. Secondly, the state is an individual, unique and exclusive, and therefore related to others. Thus it turns its differentiating activity outward and accordingly establishes within itself the ideality of its subsisting inward differentiations. Addition: The inner side of the state as such is the civil power while its outward tendency is the military power, although this has a fixed place inside the state itself