Hegel and Marx: Philosophy of Spirit and State

Hegel's Concept of Spirit and Consciousness

According to Hegel, spirit is the certainty that human beings have power over the sensible and external elements. These elements have value only insofar as man concedes it. All that has value is not dependent on my giving value to the rest. The self can be represented inside an ideal and perfect reality. There is a tension between human beings, the world they know, and an ideal of the interior that should be. This consciousness, which leads to tension, desires to change reality to coincide with its ideal.

Marx and German Philosophy

The expression "German Philosophy" which Marx refers to, relates to the philosophy advocated by the Left Hegelians.

In this work, Marx criticizes Max Stirner, Bruno Bauer, and Ludwig Feuerbach, but especially Stirner.

Marx was influenced by Feuerbach's critique of Hegel but eventually concluded that these thinkers had fallen into the same mistakes they criticized in Hegel (giving priority to ideas). They forgot that reality will become real only through action.

Hegel's Philosophy of Right

Hegel's Philosophy of Right is a work dealing with the objective spirit. He distinguishes three stages in this spirit:

• Abstract Right: Which includes property and legal relations.
• Morality
• Ethical Life: Which encompasses the Family, Civil Society, and the State.

Hegel's idealism defends that the legal relationships between people, civil society, and the state in which they are organized, are concretions of the human spirit in its desire to realize its ideal.

Forms of the State

For Hegel, Family, Civil Society, and the State are the three manifestations of the human spirit when establishing relationships with others, i.e., when it falls within the ethical sphere. The state arises to order, manage, and plan the economic relations that compose civil society. Its rationalizing principle avoids the mismatches that arise from market conditions and ensures basic needs are met. The State is a protector of the universal family, which is civil society.

The state can organize in different ways (constitutional monarchy, republic, etc.), which is why there are different types of state forms. But for Marx, the state's function is to ensure the dominance of one class over others.

Ideological Forms

Ideological forms are certain forms of social consciousness.