Hegel and Marx After the Fall of Communism

306 Pages·2014·2.51 MB·English

by  David MacGregor

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY NOW
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Chief Editor of the Series:
Howard Williams, Aberystwyth University, Wales
Associate Editors:
Wolfgang Kersting, University of Kiel, Germany
Steven B. Smith, Yale University, USA
Peter Nicholson, University of York, England
Renato Cristi, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
Political Philosophy Now is a series which deals with authors, topics and
periods in political philosophy from the perspective of their relevance to
current debates. The series presents a spread of subjects and points of view
from various traditions, which include European and New World debates
in political philosophy.
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Don Dombowsky
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Identity Politics and the Novel: The Aesthetic Moment
Ian Fraser
Kant on Sublimity and Morality
Joshua Rayman
Politics and Metaphysics in Kant
Edited by Sorin Baiasu, Sami Pihlstrom and Howard Williams
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POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY NOW
Hegel and Marx
after the Fall
of Communism
David MacGregor
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS • CARDIFF
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© David MacGregor, 1998
New edition, 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by
electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some
other use of this publication) without the written permission of the
copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright
owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication
should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus
Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78316-072-3
eISBN 978-1-78316-073-0
The right of David MacGregor to be identifi ed as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire
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For Ethan and Rachael
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9781783160723 Hegel and Marx (133i) final pass.indd vi 01/07/2014 10:02:30
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Introduction xi
1 Marx’s Relationship with Hegel 1
2 Dialectics of Youth and Maturity 31
3 Hegel’s Development, 1770–1801 48
4 Hegel and Tom Paine in the Age of Revolution 63
5 Revolution, Despotism and Censorship, 1801–1831 89
6 Property and the Corporation 112
7 Labour and Civil Society 141
8 The State in Time 174
Afterword 209
Notes 234
Bibliography to the Preface and Afterword to the
Second Edition 271
Index 277
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Acknowledgements for the Second Edition
Howard Williams generously invited me to contribute this volume to
the Political Philosophy Now series, and even suggested the title.
Acquisitions editor Sarah Lewis kindly recommended this new edi-
tion. Joe Hermer, Paul Werstine, Betty MacGregor, Sandy Anderson,
Kathy Kopinak, Sandy Aylward, Jacques Goutor, Jim Kow, Jane
Borecky, Ted Winslow, Norma Jo Baker, Ken Westhues and Patricia
Bishop offered advice and criticism. My friend Gillian Watts prepared
the index for the book. The Research Grants Committee of King’s
College extended helpful fi nancial assistance. Krista Patterson, Neisha
Cushing and Dorothy Kessler provided invaluable assistance in prepa-
ration of the Preface and Afterword. I must also express gratitude for
the painstaking work of the editorial staff of the University of Wales
Press. The second edition of this book is dedicated to my children,
Ethan MacGregor Bishop and Rachael MacGregor Bishop.
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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
(22 November 2013)
Not long ago most commentators attributed Hegel’s importance for
political thought largely to his infl uence on Marx.1 Today Hegel’s
colossal legacy is only just beginning to receive the attention it deserves.
Acknowledgement of Hegel’s importance for Marx – and for an
understanding of modern politics – has occupied my writings on these
two great nineteenth-century German thinkers.
The second edition of Hegel and Marx after the Fall of Communism
provides an opportunity for me to pay homage to Lukács, whose
epochal works on the young Hegel, and the relationship between
Hegel and Marx constitute an extraordinary model of incisive schol-
arship. Indeed my writing is guided by Lukács’s dictum that ‘a correct
view of the intellectual confl icts of the past can also act as a compass
for the future’.2 In The Young Hegel, Lukács’s makes a persuasive
argument for the profound infl uence of Hegel’s Phenomenology of
Spirit on Marx. Consequently in my own books I have paid more
attention to the impact of Hegel’s entire body of writings on Marx,
especially Hegel’s supposedly more arcane and conservative works,
such as The Logic and The Philosophy of Right.
Lukács declared that his own books became alien to him as soon as
they were issued into the world.3 I would not claim the same loss
regarding Hegel and Marx after the Fall of Communism. My belief in
the pre-eminence of Hegel as a political thinker has not faltered.
However, Marx – like Hegel – has taken a different, unexpected shape
in my mind.
Marx, and scholars of Marx, perpetuated a questionable version
of the Hegelian legacy. The Afterword to this edition confronts an
enigmatic Marx, in thrall with British free trade and its ideologues,
Adam Smith and David Ricardo. In doing so, I highlight Marx’s
odd political loyalties, especially his anglophilia and blind dislike
for Tsarist Russia – America’s lone ally during the US Civil War.
Marx’s Capital claimed to examine the most advanced form of
world capitalism, as achieved in England. However, with its solidly
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