Angelus Novus quoted Horkheimer summarizing Marx's idea of the social origin of the "fully developed Individual" capable of fully rational self-determination:
> "The absolutely isolated individual has always been an
> illusion. The most esteemed personal qualities, such
> as independence, will to freedom, sympathy, and the
> sense of justice, are social as well as individual
> virtues. The fully developed individual is the
> consummation of a fully developed society."
>
> - Max Horkheimer, The Eclipse of Reason
Marx's ontology is an ontology of "internal relations."
This doesn't mean it's not "individualist." In fact, it treats "individuals" as the only locus of agency and the realization of value.
The "individuality" that defines human "individuals" is, according to Marx, the potential to develop and actualize the full rational self- determination elaborated by Engels in theAnti-Duhring passage summarizing and endorsing Hegel's idea of full rational self- determination as "the unity of the universal and individual," the identity of "freedom" and "necessity."
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But, according to Angelus Novus, Engels didn't understand Marx very well.
Anyway, thanks for this exposition, Ted. It's put content into the concept of the communist individual and the creation of socialism.
Mike B)
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