Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy

by Daniel Brudney

Overview

Daniel Brudney traces the development of post-Hegelian thought from Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer to Karl Marx's work of 1844 and his Theses on Feuerbach, and concludes with an examination of The German Ideology. Brudney focuses on the transmutations of a set of ideas about human nature, the good life, and our relation to the world and to others; about how we end up with false beliefs about these matters; about whether one can, in a capitalist society, know the truth about these matters; and about the critique of capitalism which would flow from such knowledge.

Brudney shows how Marx, following Feuerbach, attempted to reveal humanity's nature and what would count as the good life, while eschewing and indeed polemicizing against "philosophy"--against any concern with metaphysics and epistemology. Marx attempted to avoid philosophy as early as 1844, and the central aims of his texts are the same right through The German Ideology. There is thus no break between an early and a late Marx; moreover, there is no "materialist" Marx, no Marx who subscribes to a metaphysical view, even in The German Ideology, the text canonically taken as the origin of Marxist materialism. Rather, in all the texts of this period Marx tries to mount a compelling critique of the present while altogether avoiding the dilemmas central to philosophy in the modern era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674028951
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	445
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Daniel Brudney is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Themes from the Young Hegelians

2. Feuerbach’s and Marx’s Complaint against Philosophy

3. The Interest of These Texts

4. Chapter by Chapter

1. Feuerbach’s Critique of Christianity

1. The Content of the Critique of Christianity

2. The Method of the Critique of Christianity

3. Comparisons

4. The Natural Scientist of the Mind

2. Feuerbach’s Critique of Philosophy

1. The Status of Philosophy

2. The Method of the Critique of Philosophy

3. The Goal of the Critique of Philosophy

4. Problems

5. Antecedents

6. Final Comment

3. Bruno Bauer

1. Self-Consciousness

2. State and Civil Society

3. The Critique of Religion

4. Taking the Critic’s Standpoint

5. Assessment

4. The 1844 Marx I: Self-Realization

1. Species Being: Products

2. Species Being: Enjoyments

3. The Human Relation to Objects

5. The Human Self-Realization Activity

1. Completing One Another

2. Mediation with the Species

3. Digression on Community

6. The 1844 Marx III: The Problem of Justification

1. The Workers’ Ignorance of Their True Nature

2. The Problem of Justification

3. The Problem of Communists’ Ends and Beliefs

4. Marx’s 1844 Critique of Philosophy

5. The Problem of the Present

7. The Theses on Feuerbach

1. Fundamental Relations/Orientations

2. Thesis Eleven

3. Labor

4. The Practical-Idealist Reading

5. The Problem of the First Step

6. Thesis Six

8. The German Ideology I: More Antiphilosophy

1. Some General Comments

2. The Attack on the Young Hegelians

3. Empirical Verification

4. Antiphilosophy I

5. Antiphilosophy II

6. Transformation

1. Division of Labor

2. Community

3. Self-Activity

4. The Change from 1844

10. The German Ideology III: The Critique of Morality (and a Return to Philosophy)

1. What Is the Problem with Morality?

2. The Sociological Thesis

3. The Strong Sociological Thesis and the Structural Thesis

4. Morality and Moral Philosophy under Communism

5. Can The German Ideology Justify a Condemnation of Capitalism?

6. Returning to Philosophy

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

[Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy] is plainly the work of a thoughtful and intelligent philosopher. The discussions of Bruno Bauer and Marx's writings of 1844-6, in particular, are valuable resources for students of German philosophy of the 1840s.
-- Brian Leiter Times Literary Supplement

Brudney's work offers some fascinating insights into the world of the Young Hegelians from whence Marx came. It also makes some subtle points about the epistemology of moral theory and about the communitarian aspects of Marx's vision that are important for contemporary philosophy.
-- R. Hudelson Choice

From the Publisher