Marx: Economic Estrangement

In Section 3.6 we examined Marx’s critique of Hegel’s integrationist conception of the relation between civil society and the state. We noted the implication of that critique that Hegel’s proposals are incapable of overcoming the estrangement he finds in abstract right and the moral will. To appreciate how Marx develops the concept of economic estrangement, we need to note a second criticism of Hegel’s political philosophy that one finds in Marx’s early work, namely that Hegel’s doctrine contains an ‘inversion’ that amounts to a mysticism of reason. My concern in this section is not to defend this criticism but to explain its role in the genesis of Marx’s conception of economic estrangement. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.