Karl Marx’s critique of the state as an alienation of society in his 1843 Critique of Hegel’s Doctrine of State

Bibliographic Data

ID12848366
AuthorsMikkel Flohr (0000-0002-6465-9870, Roskilde University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume25
Issue3
Pages361-385
Publication date2023-02-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDistinktion Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1600-910X • E-ISSN: 2159-9149
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1600910x.2023.2173268
OpenAlexW4320169398
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

Alienation became a central but controversial concept in the reception and interpretation of Karl Marx’s thought after the posthumous publication of the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1932. Numerous interlocutors debated the content and configuration of Marx’s concept of alienation and its relationship to G.W.F. Hegel and Ludwig Feuerbach, as well as his own subsequent critique of political economy. But these debates inadvertently ignored Marx’s prior Critique of Hegel’s Doctrine of State. This article aims to remedy this omission. Through close textual analysis and theoretical recontextualization I reconstruct and reinterpret Marx’s elaborate critique of the modern sovereign state as an alienation of civil society rooted in the dynamics of the modern system of private property, which also sheds new light on Marx’s concept of alienation, its relationship to prior political philosophy, (post-)Hegelian philosophy and his subsequent critique of political economy

Alienation · Doctrine · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Political science · State (computer science · Theology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Global Economic and Social Development · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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