[lbo-talk] "Theory's Empire," an anti-"Theory" anthology

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Wed May 28 09:10:31 PDT 2008


On May 28, 2008, at 11:43 AM, Charles Brown wrote:
> Marx...
> "My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is
> its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain,
> i.e., the process of thinking, which, under the name of “the Idea,”
> he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of
> the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal
> form of “the Idea.” With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing
> else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and
> translated into forms of thought "

But what is a "direct opposite?" In the world of experience there is one and only one example of a "direct opposite"-- a *mirror image*. Marx's image of his "world" standing on its "feet," rather than on its "head" as in Hegel, restates the simple inversion in an even more accessible form though without the precision of "direct opposite." Both of these images deal with external appearance only. The inner essence, the dialectical process, is untouched by them. On this, Marx is a Hegelian.

Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things...it consents and does not consent to be called Zeus."

Herakleitos of Ephesos



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