Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy

This dissertation aims to understand, in the light of Wittgenstein’s Investigations, language as a match or a game, whose performance is trained by using certain rules, taking in traditions and those techniques that propel the young shoots to the integration in the world. In order to this, it will be developed the argument that sustains that the learning process, which is incompatible with an automatic system of direct and instantaneous print of information – considering that there is no way that children resemble programmable automata, such as the film Kynodontas simulates –, should go hand in hand with the manner of doing philosophy, given its irreplaceable role in the formation and development, on the one hand, of perspicuity and elucidation, on the other, of thinking, imagination and personality of children. At this point, it must be clear that what is up to educators and tutors is nothing more than introduce the world to the young shoots as it is seen and conceived, through what is known and actually it is, but mainly to invite them to participate in it.

In this essay I seek to explore the nucleus of Vasco de Magalhaes-Vilhena’s tought, a predecessor of historical materialism in philosophy in Portugal. For that, I will begin by giving an historical contextualization of the philosopher, followed by the analyses of two of his works. The first corresponds to the book that the author wrote about Antonio Sergio’s philosophical thought, another contemporary thinker. In it, we find one of the main theses of Magalhaes-Vilhena’s critique of philosophical idealism, a distinctive element of Marxist philosophy. The second corresponds to Fragmentos Sobre Ideologia ( Fragments about Ideology), a collection of texts written by the author while in his exile in France about the role of ideology in science and in society. In this collection we may find another of Magalhaes-Vilhena’s main theses concerning the unity of science. Lastly, I will make a few final considerations incorporating the historical analysis with both book analyses.

Hegel conceptualized the capitalist economy as a system of needs, with commodities and money serving as means to human ends. While anticipating Marx’s criticisms of certain tendencies in capitalism, Hegel insisted that higher-order institutions, especially those of the modern state, could put them out of play and establish a reconciliation of universality, particularity, and individuality warranting rational affirmation. Hegel, however, failed to comprehend the emergence of capital as a dominant subject, subordinating human ends under its end (“valorization”). The structural coercion, domination, and exploitation inherent in the capital/wage labor relationship illustrate that point, as does the depoliticization of inherently political matters in capitalist market societies. The reconciliation of universality, particularity, and individuality Hegel endorsed requires a form of socialism incorporating deliberative democracy in local workplaces and communities, conjoined with representative bodies on regional, national, and ultimately global levels.

Hegel is sometimes regarded as a defender of the market system. Recently, Heisenberg (2018) argued that the prevailing view of Hegel is incomplete, as it overlooks a fundamental advantage of the market: its educational role. In his reading, the Hegelian defence of the market system includes seeing the market as the sphere where persons learn both to regard others as individuals with equal standing and equally relevant desires and to see the well-ordered civil society as the space where all social members can find protection and fulfil their needs. I argue that this focus, while inadequate as a sole ground for a critique of today’s market systems, can potentially bring forward new normative critiques of the market. These in turn require departing from Hegel’s baseline assumptions regarding the market sphere and applying this analysis to the locus where the educational impact of markets arguably subsists: the local or national levels.

We intend to analyse the materialistic approach to the category of totality developed by Marx, namely in its theoretical application to the dialectical interpretation of the concept of production in the capitalist economic system.

My article does not aim at a comparison between Hegel’s and Marx’s points of view on Asia as such. The Hegelian motives are employed to understand the place and the significance of the Orient in Marx’s writings from the 1850s onwards. The more Marx learns from original and/or updated sources on the Oriental societies, the more Hegel’s authority seems inadequate to provide a reliable and comprehensive account of their history and social organization. Yet his “spirit” still holds together the different perspectives from which the subject is approached by Marx (economy, history and praxis, above all). In other words, Marx’s interest in Asia is here considered through the lens of Hegel’s legacy in order to reflect on the endless effort of the materialistic dialectic to encompass the complexity of reality and global history.

Taking its cue from the untimely paradoxes manifesting themselves in some of the most visible instances of Hegel’s and Marx’s reception in the twentieth century, this essay proceeds to explore the ground between the two thinkers with particular reference to their philosophico-historical grasp of repetition. After a number of preliminary observations on the ideological subtext involved in Marx’s reference to Hegel in the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and the temporality their intertextual conjuncture stages, I focus on four major complications that attend the comparison of Hegelian and Marxian notions of repetition, as well as on their correlation to the historical events of Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Restoration. I conclude with some reflections on the “exit strategies” Marx and Hegel adopt vis-à-vis the specter of iteration as a sign of submission to the gravitational pull of the past upon the present and future.

Hegel’s theory of reflection plays both a logical and ontological role in Marx’s theory of labour and private property. What is the point of comparison between a Hegelian and a Marxian theory of reflection? The theory of alienation. In Hegel, one has the alienation of thought in reflective thinking – the understanding’s mode of operation; in Marx, the alienation of labour under private property. As an activity, labour has, according to Marx – like the activity of thinking, in Hegel – the structure of negativity: the structure of externalization and return to the self. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844), in particular, Marx developed a theory of the externalization of labour in which alienation prevents the latter from fulfilling its return to itself. Labour becomes alienated, leaves itself and remains outside of itself, for it is appropriated by private property.

The present text focuses on the cultural representations of the feminine and on feminine exploitation practices in Western culture, labour and society, through deformed concepts and discriminatory mechanisms within a framework of capitalist production relations. Throughout history, and in light of the confrontation between capital and wage labour, women’s social emancipation has been the subject of debate and reflection, in particular through a materialist and dialectical approach, whose political and ideological implications are still relevant today Using as reference Marx’s “Theses on Feuerbach”, I intend to contribute to the reflection on this theme, starting from thesis 8, which states that “social living is essentially practical”. My aim is to demonstrate the pertinence of Marx’s thesis with regard to social class relations, and its connection with the issues of the feminine and the social status of women in contemporary society. In my view, Marx’s contribution can help contextualize the feminine question, conceptualize key theoretical and practical aspects, arrive at an understanding of the problem and contribute to a transformative practice, aiming at the social emancipation of human beings.