Kant s Philosophy Of The State And Analysis Of Historical...

Compromised largely in Kant s ideas, Hegel s systemic philosophy of the State and analysis of historical summit of the body politic provides the foundation of Marxism and alike. Hegel declares the concept of state as superior to the individual. In his book Philosophy of History, he establishes Reason as the rational manifestation of world history which subsists in both natural and spiritual realms; But the Spirit, and the course of its development, is the substance of history (20). Reason as the core of Spirit is the self-contained existence of itself as that which is free and autonomous. Thus the Idea is that world history is Spirit attempting to find its own nature. Hence, the union and harmony of the Idea and human private†¦show more content†¦Hegel presents the State as the epitome of individual freedom in a set of institutions, just like Christ is represented as the epitome of God in Christian history. The more a State is free, insofar it is rational and the highest fo rm of Spirit, the closer it is to the State itself. Marx critiques Hegel’s conception of the State in his book Capital as â€Å"standing on its head† (302). He refutes the claim that the state sustains civil society; rather, Marx stresses, it is the most natural interdependent bond of the family and civil society which are the necessary essence of the state. His assertion that â€Å"...the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought† (301) reestablishes Hegel’s idealist approach. The state is incapable of maintaining itself without social consciousness produced by production, which Marx takes to be the legal, political, and intellectual structure of society. Hence it is the economic life of free mankind in civil society which manifests the state. Democracy is the only true harmony of the particular and the general. Marx explains that â€Å"In democracy, the constitution, the law, the state itself, insofar as it is a political constitution, is only the self-determination of the people, and a particular content of the people† (21). Marx explains that until now the political constitution has been the religious