Marxism vs. Idealism: Understanding the Core Conflict
According to Marx’s theory, the basic problem of philosophy is the conflict between materialism and idealism. A simplified analysis allows us to separate objects and phenomena into material and ideal. For materialists, matter is primary, and awareness is a product of its complex development. Thus, reality can be explained in terms of matter in motion. Materialism asserts that the natural world can be explained without recourse to God or the Absolute, thus defending atheism. It believes that the mind does not cause the soul, but rather the brain. Throughout history, various types of materialism have emerged, from the Greek atomists to the 20th century. Due to the development of natural sciences and Darwin’s theory, a new form of materialism became rampant in Germany. Marx was influenced by and accepted Feuerbach’s materialism. However, compared to previous forms, Marx and Engels’s materialism is dialectical and historical.
Idealists, by contrast, believe that reality can be explained by consciousness and that matter is a product of mind or spirit. They explain the world through an external explanatory principle: the Absolute, the Idea of Good, which underlies God. Idealism reaches its maximum expression with Hegel, who attempted to rethink the entire Western tradition to develop a unified theory about reality, using the connection between nature and spirit. This reflection becomes an interpretation of human history as the evolution and development of the world spirit. Hegel views the world as an evolutionary process. This dialectical movement is based on elemental states of consciousness to achieve self-awareness and total knowledge. Hegel’s philosophy rests on rational sense, as the starting point is reason. But reason is a dynamic power, full of possibilities that unfold over time.
Marx’s Critique of Hegel
Marx takes from Hegel a radically historical philosophy, whose main vector is the teleological purpose that articulates and makes sense of historical events, and the dialectics of history as a process and method of knowledge. However, he rejects Hegel’s idealism. Marx’s main criticism of Hegel concerns the sentence: “Everything real is rational, and everything rational is real.” Hegel applied this phrase to the reality of nature, as well as social and political reality. According to Marx, the proletariat contradicts the reality of reason, as it represents an entire class that demonstrates the denial of it. But this can also be interpreted with a critical significance, with practical and revolutionary influence in its criticism.
The Hegelian Left included thinkers concerned with the criticism of theology, politics, and the theory of Hegelian philosophy. Marx’s thought would feed into the criticism that the Hegelian Left made of Hegel. According to Marx, the Hegelian Left hides an insidious form of idealism, as it holds the basic conviction that men’s genuine chains are in their ideas.
Marxism in the Modern World
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, it might seem that the prophecy of Marx’s philosophy—towards the end of prehistory, the end of the capitalist mode of production, and the bourgeois establishment of a socialist society—has fallen as well. Is Marxist philosophy outdated? Have socialist revolutions truly captured Marx’s theory? Did his theory entail the bureaucratization of all aspects of life and the lack of freedom that resulted in Communist countries?
In any case, seeing the more human aspects of his philosophy—his desire to end the exploitation of man by man, to overcome the alienation characteristic of capitalist society, to rationally clarify our social awareness, and to remove the ideological bandages that prevent us from understanding the historical, material, and economic roots of many of the ills of our society—then we cannot deny the validity and current relevance of Marx’s approaches.
Contemporary Marxist Thinkers
- We could cite the work of contemporary thinkers such as Adolfo Sanchez, who published “The Value of Socialism,” which demonstrates the emancipatory role of Marxist philosophy.
- We could also talk about Peter Singer, whose works retain the same features of classic socialist thought but adapt to the situation of our time.
However, the capitalist system against which Marx spoke now enjoys better health than ever, and those communist regimes that could have served as models have become extinct or are on track to do so.