(1) It is widely accepted among Marxists and most scholars in general that Marxian theory was developed from Hegelian theory. While I agree that Marx's theories came about directly after Hegel's, they are completely contradicting of one another. Marx stated that life determines consciousness, while Hegel the opposite. Why is it that Marxian theory "sprung from the soil of a definite philosophical system, that of Hegel?"
(2) "The first premise of all human history is, of course, the existence of living human individuals." Can humans exist, fully, without first being consciously aware? Later Marx states that consciousness and religion separates man from animal, are we no more than animal without consciousness? And, if life is made by doing rather than thinking, are we not consciously aware of our actions before we perform them?
1. If found that interesting as well. Both of the beliefs sprouted from the same basic principles but slowly turned away from one another. This could Marx's natural resistance to some of the Hegelian theory.
ReplyDelete2. I think this cool but also frustrating because there is no absolute answer. Technically humans do exist without conscious awareness but without this awareness we wouldn't be aware of such existence. In the reading it also states that religion is just basically a cult of people with the same beliefs. Maybe animals have this too.