Phil3395: Marx

Novy SP09

Notes on “On the Jewish Question” Part I

Quickie version of Bauer:

1. Claim: German’s are not free, so Jews should work for German freedom rather than their particular freedom

2. B’s response: To have the same status as Christians (the Germans) is to accept the Christian (German) State in which neither Jew nor Christian are free

3. So long as Jews and the State cling to religious prejudice, neither is capable of emancipation

4. Thus, the Christian state must be emancipated from Christianity before any progress is possible

1. Only then can we meaningfully speak of Jewish emancipation

Marx characterizes Bauer’s response as a call for political emancipation

5. Political emancipation of the Christian state from religion means according to Bauer (a la Marx)

1. Disestablish Christianity as an official state religion &

2. Relegate religion from the public (political) sphere to the private sphere (civil society)

6. Marx’s criticism: “What kind of emancipation is involved? What are the essential conditions of the emancipation which is demanded?”

Species Being

7. Schizophrenic living: “He lives in the political community, where he regards himself as a communal being, and in civil society where he acts simply as a private individual, treats other men as means, degrades himself to the role of a mere means, and becomes the plaything of alien powers”

8. “Community” and “universality” of the political state requires ceasing to be one’s self in that sphere

Political emancipation ≠ human emancipation

9. Not arguing against political revolution / political emancipation, but beyond it

10. Since we are a species being, in all situations in which real life is less than fully human, we will have to compensate by relating to some unreal, theoretical being outside ourselves

1. Until now, this could only be conceived religiously,

2. For modern, rational people, the state is this alien force providing that mix of dominance and release

God is dead, long live the political state

11. The State, like God, is outside of us; offering political universality w/o addressing defects of life in civil society

1. The modern Christian state is the convergence of God-as-alien-being and State-as-alien-being

2. “The emancipation of the state from religion is not the emancipation of the real man from religion”

The Rights of Man

12. “According to Bauer, man has to sacrifice the privilege of faith in order to acquire the general rights of man. Let us consider for a moment the so-called rights of man”

Historical understanding of bourgeois political revolution

13. Feudal society: no distinction in life or consciousness between public and private in lord/ vassal relationship

14. Modern society: separation of public sphere/ state from private sphere/ civil society

15. Human emancipation will be complete when

1. The real individual man has absorbed into himself the abstract citizen

2. When as an individual in his everyday life/ work/ relationships he has become species being; and,

3. He recognizes and organizes his own powers as social powers and

4. no longer separates this social power from himself as political power