CU Course on Hegel, Part 0, Introduction
Introduction to “Hegel”
This is the Introduction to
the first course for the YCLSA and WFTU in 2014.
Why do we need this course on
Hegel among the twelve Communist University courses? Because
The giant upon whose
shoulders Marx and Engels stood was Hegel.
Lenin wrote:
“It is
impossible completely to understand Marx's Capital, and especially its first
chapter, without having thoroughly studied and understood the whole of Hegel's
Logic. Consequently, half a century later none of the Marxists understood
Marx!!”
Hegel was born in 1770 and
died in 1831. The highest period of “Hegelianism” was the ten years after
Hegel’s death, between 1831 and 1841. It was followed by a turbulent
contestation of philosophies, in which both Marx and Engels, as Hegelians, played
prominent parts, leading up to the multiple revolutions of 1848, which came out
of the period of philosophical turmoil.
Philosophy was and still is
crucial, but it is lightly treated in the Marxist canon. Marx got his doctorate
for philosophy, and all his writings are conditioned by that study, yet, after
his doctoral thesis on Epicurus, he wrote no overt philosophy. Engels did his
best, but his philosophical output is scant in comparison to what is really
needed.
The problem that Lenin points
to, remains. It does not necessarily arise because the Marxists are lazy. It
could also arise because:
·
There is too
little directly philosophical material within the Marxist canon
·
Hegel’s work is
comparable in volume to Marx’s, and is far more difficult to understand
·
The “Logic” is
even more difficult to understand than other parts of Hegel
·
Hegel’s work is
full of special terms that are not found in that form anywhere else
·
Such
popularisation of Hegel’s work as exists, is more often than not, misleading
We need a study of Hegel to
remedy some of the above problems.
Good Hegel, Bad Hegel
Another difficulty is that
although Hegel may have been the giant upon whose shoulders Marx was able to
stand, yet Hegel was not Marx, and Hegel was prone to errors, as we (being
Marx’s successors) may see it. Hegel is accused of idealism, misogyny, and
racism, to name only three such cardinal sins.
Consequently, and whether
these accusations are right or wrong, any student of Hegel must hear and discriminate
between the criticisms, some of which are actively misleading.
Hegel Resources
Andy Blunden’s “Hegel by Hypertext”
is the best and biggest easily-available collected resource. It includes a lot
of Hegel’s works and lots of helpful explanatory material, by others and by
Andy himself.
Other resources include
Marx’s and Engels’ writing on Hegel; Jon Stewart and James Heartfield to debunk
myths about Hegel; Evald Ilyenkov for the relationship with Marx’s work; and
the existing CU course on Philosophy and Religion.
What do we want to get out of this course?
After Capital, Volume 3,
Hegel is the last frontier. There is nothing else that is more difficult. Everything
else will be less difficult. Purely from a subjective, studying point of view,
Hegel is the highest measure of what we have to achieve.
But in substance, Hegel is
much more than that. For example, Andy Blunden, writing of Hegels’ motivation
as a youth, says: “Hegel drew the
conclusion that the German Revolution would have to be made with philosophy
rather than with guns and mobs.”
To a great extent, this came
to pass. And it appears certain that our future revolution will also have to be
made of philosophy. It will not be possible to have a revolution without first
securing the philosophical front.
We are looking to capture the
salient features of Hegel’s work, because Hegel, Marx’s master, is still to
this day the most advanced of philosophers in history.
These features will include a
fundamental theory of human development (dialectics); a unified conception of
human history; and a full theory of the individual and collective Subjects of
History, with a consequent theory of Freedom. These prizes will be enough, for
one course, if we can achieve them.
·
Image: Alleged,
possibly apocryphal, doodle of Hegel’s, showing a triad, found on the Internet.
This may well be part of the misleading mythology around Hegel with which we
must do battle.
