Kant, Marx, and Hegel: A Comparison of Philosophical Ideologies

Transcendental Idealism

Transcendental idealism is an epistemological and metaphysical conception developed by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century.

Briefly stated, transcendental idealism posits that all knowledge requires two elements: first, something external to the subject (given, or material principle), i.e., an object of knowledge. Second, something internal to the subject (the job or formal principle), which is the individual who knows. Kant claims that the conditions of all knowledge are set not by the object known, but by the knowing subject. The knowing subject introduces ways of understanding that are not pre-existing in reality. For Kant, knowledge is born from the union of sensibility with understanding; the forms themselves do not produce knowledge, nor do insights alone. Thus, Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason: "Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind." In other words, without feeling, nothing would be given, and without understanding, nothing would be thought.

Marxist Philosophy

Marxist philosophy, in its essence, deals with the nature of Marxism itself, exceeding the field traditionally occupied by philosophy. Marxist dialectical materialism is presented as a struggle against idealistic and dualistic philosophies, considered tools of the bourgeoisie to weaken the power of the proletariat. Key theses include:

• The existence of a separate subject of thought, considered as a conscious subject.
• The development of conscious matter is denied by successive oppositions.

An extension of dialectical materialism is historical materialism, which posits that social life is determined by contradictions in the mode and relations of production, leading to the class struggle. This concept, applied to the economy, is advocated in Marx's scientific socialism.

Marx and Engels applied this new conception of history to analyze political and social events of the past and their time, creating a new wave of socialism. This involved taking sides with communism and proletarian class struggle, combined with the scientific study of bourgeois society and its transition to a communist society. By explaining political and social revolutions through the contradiction between productive forces and production relations, and the class struggle, Marx and Engels fought against both the bourgeois view of history based on the history of ideas and "great men," and socialist currents that deduced the struggle for socialism from abstract ideals of justice, freedom, and equality. The revolutionary development of productive forces under capitalism made it possible to meet all human needs and to dispense with the division of society into exploiting classes (owning the means of production) and exploited classes (required to maintain the exploiting classes through surplus labor). With this perspective, communism was conceived as a historical necessity rather than a utopian aspiration, as the internal contradictions of capitalism generate the need to revolutionize bourgeois relations of production and create the historical subject trained for this mission: the proletariat.

Hegel's Absolute Idealism

Hegel's absolute idealism is a philosophical conception developed by Hegel, according to which the whole of reality must be understood as a historical reason. It is, in essence, an idea or spirit that unfolds and exhibits itself along metaphysical time. Hegel's philosophy is a teleological description or study of the process of the constitution of all reality, from God to his self-consciousness in man.