We have been restored, firstly, because other nations dared to make revolutions, and, secondly, because other nations suffered counter-revolutions on the one hand, because our masters were afraid, and, on the other, because they were not afraid. We have shared the restorations of modern nations without ever having shared their revolutions. Indeed, German history prides itself on having travelled a road which no other nation in the whole of history has ever travelled before, or ever will again. If I negate the situation in Germany in 1843, then according to the French calendar I have barely reached 1789, much less the vital centre of our present age. If I negate powdered pigtails, I am still left with unpowdered pigtails. Even the negation of our present political situation is a dusty fact in the historical junk room of modern nations. If we were to begin with the German status quo itself, the result – even if we were to do it in the only appropriate way, i.e., negatively – would still be an anachronism. The only reason for this is that it is concerned with Germany. The following exposition – a contribution to this undertaking – concerns itself not directly with the original but with a copy, with the German philosophy of the state and of law. 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. 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. It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself. 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. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.Ĭriticism 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. 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 abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world.
Man is the world of man – state, society. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man. 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, where he seeks and must seek his true reality.
ANY HUMAN HEART TITLE SEQUENCE PRO
The profane existence of error is compromised as soon as its heavenly oratio pro aris et focis has been refuted. It was proofed and corrected by Andy Blunden, February 2005, and corrected by Matthew Carmody in 2009.įor Germany, the criticism of religion has been essentially completed, and the criticism of religion is the prerequisite of all criticism. Works of Karl Marx 1843 A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Rightįirst published: in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, 7 & 10 February 1844 in Paris Transcription: the source and date of transcription is unknown. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right 1844
0 kommentar(er)
