[lbo-talk] Appeal to Ignoranc

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 13 13:24:58 PDT 2005



> "...Man, who has found only the reflection of himself in the fantastic
> reality of heaven, where he sought a superman, will no longer feel disposed
> to find the mere appearance of himself, the non-man [Unmensch], where he
> seeks and must seek his true reality.
>
> The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion
> does not make man. ...

A lot of the rest of this 1843 "Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right" gives us an idea of where Marx was going with the passage that Charles quotes:


>The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is
the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.


>Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order
that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.


>It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth
has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics. < [emphasis suppressed]

he's saying that the critique of religion is simply a weak version of what's really needed, i.e., a critique of social reality.

-- Jim Devine "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list