Young Hegelians

Also known as the “Left Hegelians”. The radical faction among the Hegelians, formed in the 1830– 1840s. With the death of Hegel in 1831, the Hegelian school gradually divided into the Young Hegelians, who represented the interests of the bourgeoisie, and the Old Hegelians, who represented the interests of the Junker aristocracy. The chief representatives of the Young Hegelians were Strauss, Bauer, Ruge, Hess, and Feuerbach among others.

Young Hegelians opposed the feudal-despotic system and advocated the bourgeois revolution in Germany. They held that the core of Hegelian philosophy was not serenity but restlessness, not rest but development, not system but method. They pointed the spearhead of critique at Christianity, which was the ideological basis of the feudal-despotic system, openly declared that science and religion were at odds with each other, that the basic task of science was to radically criticize religion. They clearly pointed out that it was not God who created man in his own image, but instead the man who created God in his own image. As Engels pointed out, the Young Hegelians subjected every religious belief to the ordeal of a rigorous criticism, and shook to its foundation the ancient fabric of Christianity, they at the same time brought forward bolder political principles than hitherto it had been the fate of German ears to hear expounded, and attempted to restore to glory the memory of the heroes of the First French Revolution. On the one hand, the Young Hegelians played a certain progressive role in the early days of the bourgeois democratic revolution.

The reactionary character of Young Hegelianism was mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, upholding idealism and proclaiming that “it is the spirit that quickeneth”. Second, preaching the heroistic conception of history, holding that heroes are the creators of history, and denying that the masses make history. Third, opposing the combination of philosophy with revolutionary practical activity, proclaiming the so-called “purely theoretical critique”, and preaching “to dissociate themselves from any political party.” Fourth, proclaiming anarchism. Fifth, slandering the working class and opposing scientific socialism.

Marx and Engels have comprehensively criticized the Young Hegelians. First of all, they held that religion is by no means the root of social oppression, that private property is the root of social oppression, and that religion, religious forces and the influence of religious consciousness on people can only be eliminated by eliminating the private property in the means of production; religion is only the manifestation of secular narrowness, which can only be overcome by getting rid of secular restrictions. Next, historical action is the action of the masses, the real creators of history are not a handful of heroes, but the broad masses of people. It is the broad masses of people and their productive activity that is the basis for the existence and development of human history and society. Further, the working class is the practical element for the emancipation of mankind; the workers are rid of all the objects because the bourgeoisie exploits them cruelly. It is the historical mission of the working class to change its enslaved status by completely eliminating capitalist private property. Finally, philosophy should be combined with reality. The so-called “philosophy beyond reality” put forth by the Young Hegelians is detached from the reality of the mass movement and serves only to maintain the rule of a handful exploiting classes. Philosophy has a class character, and the chief characteristic of the proletariat is the combination of theory and practice, “as philosophy finds its material weapon in the proletariat, so the proletariat finds its spiritual weapon in philosophy.”