Reflections On Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

Marx outlines in his introduction to The critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right a basic conception of historical materialism. One of the ideas he posits is that in order to keep progressing further, we must constantly beat back the tide of reaction that seeks to reinstate the old world, and that no matter how far we go there will always be remnants of the old world in the new. What we currently see is the remnants of patriarchy fighting desperately to remain relevant. Like, political and economic patriarchy has been effectively abolished. Women are able to participate in the economic and political sphere. All that remains is social patriarchy. And it’s fighting desperately to stay alive.

However, despite economic and political patriarchy having been pretty much done away with, the oppression of women remains. Here we can see a contradiction that can be analyzed dialectically; the contradiction between what is (the reality of the oppression of women in everyday life) and what appears to be (the trumpeting that occurs everywhere about the strives made by the women’s movement). It is through this discrepancy that women realize that it is not the institution of patriarchy that oppressed them; it is capitalism itself

**

    We must bring philosophy to the people. Marx says the revolution begins in the mind of the philosopher, but it must not stay there; the revolutionary philosopher must go to the people. The revolutionary philosopher gathers data from his experience with the people, and he organizes it in his mind in order to formulate a general theory which he then takes to the people. Lenin’s ideas would have gone nowhere if he had not taken them to the workers. Mao says theory arises from practice, that it can only be fully understood in the context of practice. But, he also says that without theory, practice is brainless. They are both necessary.

**

    “To be radical is to grasp things by the root, and the root of man is man himself.” So writes Marx. A truly radical revolution does not merely rearrange how society is structured; it does not merely change things; it transforms the present state of society and tears down the entirety of what currently exists. That is the only way for a revolution to truly be radical. Everything - and I mean everything - must be transformed. The army, the police, the family, schools, workplaces, resource distribution, even daily living and housing, must be transformed. Their current forms must be transcended. The police and army will be abolished and in their place the mass of armed workers shall rise. Not only must the environment be transformed, but how we perceive our environment must also be transformed, how we perceive ourselves and others must be transformed, and so too must we be transformed. How we perceive gender, race, and sex must be transformed.

Revolution is not just the transformation of society; it is the transformation of humanity itself.

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