(I recognize that I have a bad relationship with the phone, I often answer immediately, I call a few times after hours, but I am not proud of one thing: that I have never changed my number after so many elections and that I have given it to everyone without problems. Lanfranco Zappalà, from his facebook wall.)
ARE YOU EXPERIENCING A MOMENT OF EXISTENTIAL DOUBT?
DO YOU FEEL ALONE AND WANT COMFORT?
DO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF LIFE?
DO YOU NEED A LIFE MASTER?
AND ABOVE ALL YOU WANT TO EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING …
WHO LOVES!
A) The dialectic, the dominant idea in Hegel and Marx
The concept of dialectics, of dialectical development of history, is undoubtedly what links Hegel’s and Marx’s thought most profoundly.
What is dialectic in synthesis? It is a way of progressing in historical development, based on three consecutive positions, which return cyclically until the dialectical process is exhausted, when it is completed.
Thesis: one position -> Antithesis: a second position that contradicts the first, but which arises from it -> Synthesis: a third position that resolves the conflict, the opposition between the two previous positions and which in turn constitutes the first moment of a subsequent triad (hence a new thesis).
| Dialectic idealist by Hegel: For Hegel the absolute Idea comes out of itself (gets alienated) thus creating a reality, the natural or material one, which denies it, and then gradually returns – through a dialectical process – to itself. History is concretely constituted by the evolution of the political, religious, artistic and philosophical forms of human societies. This evolution is the expression of the return of the Idea to itself, to the full realization and understanding of itself, in spite of the obstacles that material reality as such poses to it. Even if this whole process actually happens in nature and in matter, the deep essence of it therefore has a spiritual, ideal and character Not material (that is, this process is the dialectic of the Idea in its gradual return to its true essence, its progressive liberation from the “burden” of materiality). | Dialectic materialist by Marx: For Marx, history is, in its most profound aspects, the progress of the modes of economic organization of humanity. Such forms or “modes of production” (reality concrete, instead of – as for Hegel – ideal and abstract moments of a purely logical progress) they generate both the political-institutional superstructures and the more peculiarly spiritual or cultural ones (religion, art, philosophy) of human societies in their various historical phases. The Marxian dialectic therefore has a materialistic character because it confers on material and economic factors (i.e. perpetuation the existence of the members of the community) a substantial priority over the political-juridical ones (institutional and coercive) and those, even more intangible, of a spiritual nature or – as Marx says – ideological, that is, aimed at the representation of reality. The first (economic) elements are called structuresthe others superstructures (i.e. structures derived from the former). |
| Hegelian history in its (a) political and (b) spiritual aspects: The political sphere of dialectical becoming comes true in Statewhich in fact constitutes the “practical” expression of this becoming (ie that concerning the concrete organization of human life in history). The spiritual sphere, on the other hand, is embodied in higher and abstract activities such as the religionL’art and the philosophy. Through these activities the Spirit, rather than concretely realizing himself, acquires self-awareness, in every single dialectical phase obviously according to those that make up its particular characters. Among these higher or spiritual forms of human action, religion is the most instinctive, the most immediate and therefore most obscure expression from a rational point of view of the spirituality characterizing a specific historical-dialectical phase; philosophy, on the other hand, is the most analytical, clear and rational expression. In philosophy, therefore, the self-awareness of the Spirit is accomplished in its most complete, highest form. However, such a discipline is also fundamentally the expression of what exists implicitly in religion. Religion, therefore, like and more than art, is a more popular and accessible form of spirituality (the most immediate manifestation of the spirituality that characterizes the people who bear it), while philosophy is an activity that concerns a minority of people. |
B) The functioning of the dialectic in Hegel and in Marx
We now come to the discussion of how concretely articulate Hegel’s and Marx’s visions of dialectical becoming: we have already said that Hegel’s is an idealist vision of dialectics, Marx’s as materialist. We will now try to describe what these two concepts mean concretely in their way of analyzing historical evolution … ..
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Politics & Meaning of Life: Hello, Lanfranco? – Sicilian hyenas