Marx’s inversion of Hegel is oppositional, not a simple turn from idealism to materialism

Evidence

See Marx’s Afterword to the Second German Edition of Capital , where he argues that in Hegel the dialectic stood on its head and that in order to make it stand properly on its feet it is necessary to extract the rational kernel from the mystic shell. The rational dialectic, therefore, is defined in specific opposition to the way it was developed by Hegel, but this is not tantamount to saying that from “idealist” it should become “materialist”, which is a Feuerbachian rather than a Marxist conception. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2774

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘rational’ vs ‘mystic’ dialectic means in Marx: defined in opposition to Hegel, and explicitly NOT a Feuerbachian materialism.

Related

• Gramsci distinguishes Marx’s rational dialectic from a merely materialist inversion of Hegel (similarity 0.91)
• Marx planned a separate work on dialectics stripping Hegel’s mystical form. (similarity 0.85)
• Idealist and orthodox-Marxist critics alike denied Marx’s Hegelian dialectical lineage (similarity 0.84)
• Castoriadis believes Marx’s dialectics must be destroyed, not inverted (similarity 0.83)
• Marx’s core socialism can stand without his Hegelian dialectic (similarity 0.81)
• Marx’s materialist ideology theory built on Feuerbach but added revolutionary practice. (similarity 0.81)
• Post-Marxism is built on abandoning the dialectic as a mystification (similarity 0.80)
• Marcuse’s Reason and Revolution defined Marx’s dialectic as historical rather than ontological. (similarity 0.79)
• Marx read Hegel’s Philosophy of Right as both critical analysis and negation. (similarity 0.79)
• Marxism is essentially Hegel’s philosophy combined with Ricardo’s economics. (similarity 0.79)
• Hegelian idealism is a psychological distortion, not a class ideology (similarity 0.79)
• Horkheimer’s materialist dialectic came close to Hegel’s idealist determinism. (similarity 0.79)
• Marx’s faith in productive forces echoes the Hegelian World Spirit (similarity 0.79)
• Marx distinguishes material economic transformation from ideological forms of consciousness (similarity 0.79)
• Marx applied his own dialectic to his theory, rendering it provisional (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Marx’s core socialism can stand without his Hegelian dialectic #complicates (0.75) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2857