Abstract
This chapter briefly comments on Marx’s concept of the individual. It focuses on two main tasks. First, it assesses the role of the concept of the individual in Marx’s philosophy by suggesting that this concept is one of the most important themes of Marx’s philosophy. Second, it assesses the role of Marx’s concept of the individual in Western philosophy by arguing that this concept serves as a dividing line between Marx’s philosophy and other Western philosophies. This chapter ends with a reference to Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of the individual, and notes that Marx’s concept of the individual is distinctive and radically different from the existentialist concept of the individual as a single and isolated person.
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Notes
- 1.
The assessment here mainly revolves around “real individuals” and “class individuals,” while also taking into account the concept of the individual before the birth of historical materialism.
- 2.
The section “Criticism from Max Stirner” is preceded by an analysis of the concept of the individual in Marx’s political critique, and is followed by an analysis of the concept of the individual in Marx’s theory of estrangement. This latter analysis is covered in Part three.
- 3.
See Ludw Feuerbach, “‘The Essence of Christianity’ in Relation to ‘The Ego and Its Own’,” Philosophical Forum 8, no. 2 (1976): 81–91. https://philpapers.org/rec/FEUTEO.
- 4.
See Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “The German Ideology. Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner, and of German Socialism According to Its Various Prophets,” in Marx–Engels, Collected Works, vol. 5, (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 448.
- 5.
See Marx and Engels, “German Ideology,” 37.
- 6.
See Susan Leigh Anderson, On Kierkegaard (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2000), 24–28.
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Li, Z. (2023). The Concept of the Individual and Marx’s Philosophy. In: The Concept of the Individual in the Thought of Karl Marx. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22591-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22591-8_7
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