![]() ![]() But many, and probably most, German peasants were personally subject to one or more lords they lived in Erbuntertänigkeit, hereditary subjection, which limited their rights to move, marry, and do certain kinds of work. In the most broad terms, this late feudalism is marked by its peasant/lord relations: įreeholders and some lessors were legally free, even if the latter were often caught in a web of servile obligations because of the way they held their land. Sheehan's magisterial German History, 1770-1866, which ranges across Hegel's own lifetime (1770-1831), finely documents Germany's feudal agricultural structure well into the eighteenth century and beyond. That Hegel's was a feudal Germany is not subject to dispute. ![]() Why feudalism? There may be a number of answers to this question, but the most obvious one, and the one most relevant to a reinvigorated sense of the "Marxist premodern," is that Hegel, as if by historical accident, stood in a privileged place from which to philosophize about feudalism, responding as he did to contemporary relations of lordship and domination- Herrschaft (lordship) or Grundherrschaft (landed lordship)-practiced in Germany. ![]() It begins, basically, in the Middle Ages, or what he calls the Romantic period, and involves both Christianity and feudalism. At the outset, it must be recognized that what most everyone counts as premodernity Hegel counts as modernity. Rather, we might try to say something altogether new about the philosopher in a way that heeds Marx's advisable critique in the German Ideology: "It has not occurred to any one of these philosophers to inquire into the connection of German philosophy with German reality, the relation of their criticism to their own material surroundings." 2 I would like to explore this "connection" in trying to understand the "Marxist premodern" within, paradoxically, Hegel's thinking. Theodor Adorno had confessed that "n the realm of great philosophy Hegel is no doubt the only one with whom at times one literally does not know, and cannot conclusively determine, what is being talked about, and with whom there is no guarantee that such a judgment is even possible." 1 That, however, should not keep us from trying to explain Hegel right at a time when he tends to be overexplained, often maligned, and always taken for granted. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |