Learning to Travel in the Sea (Part 2) - Marx's Great and Brilliant Life (Part III)

In order to find the philosophy he needed, Marx studied more diligently, especially he read and obsessively studied all of Hegel's works of logic, metaphysics, natural philosophy, spiritual philosophy, philosophy of law, and religious philosophy almost every day.

In one of his poems, he said:

I'm going to go forward,

Never rest, never idle,

Don't be silent,

Nothing to desire, nothing to do!

Do not be wordless and timid,

Crawling under the low yoke,

To know aspirations, aspirations and careers

Will still stay with us.

The overwork of hard reading day and night made Marx fall ill. On the advice of his doctor, he went to the scenic fishing village of Stralau on the outskirts of Berlin for recuperation. Here, Marx was given a broader space for theoretical exploration.

(i)

In Stralau, Marx met Gans, a professor at the University of Berlin whom he greatly respected. When Gans taught Marx's law course at the University of Berlin, he appreciated Marx. Professor Gans suggested that Marx reread Hegel.

During his convalescence, Marx resumed the intense mental struggle, and he carefully studied not only hegel's writings from beginning to end, but also the works of most of Hegel's disciples. This took a turn for the young Marx's thinking: from disgust with Hegel to turn to Hegel.

Hegelianism became the starting point for the development of Marx's thought. He wrote:

Discovered the noblest of ingenuity,

Comprehend his deep mysteries,

I'm amazing like God.

Cloaked in obscurity like God,

I've been exploring for a long time,

Drifting in a raging sea of thoughts,

And there I found the language of expression,

Just grasp to the end.

Marx once again plunged into the sea of Hegel's philosophy, taking a dip while searching for treasures to be excavated.

Hegel declares his theoretical system to be absolute truth, and the theoretical view that things develop "to the top" is irreconcilablely contradictory to his own profound dialectics, namely that all things exist and at the same time do not exist; for everything flows, everything is constantly changing, constantly producing and disappearing. The system of objective idealism he established, in turn, regarded all development as the self-development and self-improvement of the absolute concept. Thus, in his philosophy there is both the element of conservatism, the idealistic thing, and the element of revolution, i.e., dialectics.

Hegel's dialectics had a profound influence on Marx, which was of great significance to his later construction of historical materialism, and became an important theoretical source of his dialectical materialism.

Because of this, Marx had a deep respect for Hegel throughout his life. Even when Das Kapital was published decades later, Marx was still saying:

I want to openly admit that I am a student of this great thinker (Hegel – author's citation), and in some places in the chapter on the theory of value I even tout Hegel's peculiar way of expression. 【1】

(ii)

In Stralau, Marx also met another guide, the geography teacher Rutenburg, who introduced Marx to the doctoral club, the academic group of the Young Hegelians.

After Hegel's death in 1831, due to the contradiction between his philosophical system and the method of thought, his descendants also divided into two factions: one was called the old Hegelians, and this faction was the Hegelian right, which inherited the conservative elements of Hegel's philosophical system, defended the feudal autocracy with its objective idealist ideas, defended the feudal state of Prussia, regarded it as the embodiment of world rationality, and also tried to support all the reactionary laws and feudal hierarchies of Prussia; the other was called the Young Hegelians. This school is the Hegelian left, which adheres to the revolutionary element of Hegel's philosophical system, criticizes feudal absolutism and religion with dialectics, and tries to draw atheistic and revolutionary conclusions from them.

In the form of a philosophical struggle, the struggle against feudalism was determined by the special political and theoretical environment in Germany at that time. For the German bourgeoisie at that time had neither the political power nor the economic power of the English bourgeoisie, it could only struggle under the yoke of the feudal gang system. It was both dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of the Prussian government, intimidated by the contradictions brought about by the capitalist mode of production in England and France, and feared the increase in the strength of the proletariat, and its weakness and cowardice made its struggle against feudalism only through the obscure and indirect form of philosophical struggle.

The Doctoral Club is a very active academic organization, its members are young Hegelians who are sharp-minded, learned, have unique insights and are fond of arguing, who sometimes meet in cafes and sometimes in private apartments to argue about important philosophical issues of our time, to ruthlessly criticize religion, to pay attention to and draw on Hegel's dialectics, and to draw atheistic conclusions.

For at that time the question of religion was still prominent in Germany, religion was still the political and spiritual pillar of the Prussian secular regime, the critique of religion was the premise of all other criticisms, and the religious struggle was an indirect political struggle. The young Hegelians also exchanged views and opinions with each other in the debate.

Marx, who was only 20 years old at the time, was the youngest member of the Doctoral Club and the only college student. During his time at the Doctoral Club, Marx became acquainted with Strauss, Bruno Powell, Edgar Powell, Mei Ying, Luger, Feuerbach, Coburn, Hess and a number of other talents who were very influential at the time.

(iii)

Among these young Hegelians, the first to express doubt about Hegel's religious philosophy was Feuerbach, who in 1831 anonymously published an article on death and immortality, opposing the immortality of the individual soul and acknowledging only the immortality of the entire human soul, which is an unorthodox theological view that emerged in Hegelianism.

After Hegel's death, the first to stand up against Hegel's religious philosophy was his other student, Strauss, who in 1835 published the Biography of Jesus, which regarded Jesus, as the savior at the center of the entire Christian faith, as an ordinary mortal, thus fundamentally shaking the foundations of Christianity, pointing the finger at religion and Hegel's religious philosophy, and opening a gap in Hegel's system. The publication of the biography of Jesus sparked a critique of religion.

The Young Hegel Movement was a bourgeois revolutionary movement, which played a good role in breaking the monopoly of Hegel's philosophy, opposing religion and propagating atheism, and spreading radical political views.

Later, of course, there was also a division within the young Hegelians, represented by Powell and Strauss, from objective idealism to subjective idealism; and Feuerbach as the representative, to materialism, but he only took the first step towards natural materialism, and stopped at the door of historical materialism.

The open mind and lively discussion of the Doctoral Club helped Marx a great influence, and its spiritual life opened the way for Marx to Hegel's philosophy.

During Stralau's convalescence, Marx's theoretical orientation also underwent a major change, beginning to change from jurisprudence to philosophy, from the subjective idealism of Kant and Fichte to the dialectical dialectics of Hegel's objective idealism.

This latter transformation is consistent with the course of the philosophical revolution that took place in Germany, namely that the revolution began with Kant, with the transformation of Therjunct Andcher Schelling in the middle, and finally the completion of a huge new system by Hegel.

Marx attached great importance to his turn to Hegel, and wrote a letter to his father about his inner excitement after turning to Hegel, and regarded it as a boundary marker marking his new direction. Indeed, the turn to Hegel's philosophy made it possible for the young Marx to use dialectics to sum up his own fluctuating thoughts, greatly shortening the process of groping.

In a sense, without Hegelian philosophy, there could be no Marxism. But Marx inherited both Hegel and surpassed Hegel. After returning to school after recuperation, Marx became more "insatiable to study" and spent a lot of time and energy deepening philosophical research, especially strengthening the study of the history of philosophy and enriching his theoretical thickness.

Marx chose to start his research from the source of Western philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy, and he read a large number of works on the history of ancient Greek philosophy and wrote 7 major diaries.

exegesis:

[1] Capital, vol. 1, p. 24.