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Karl Marx


In an orderly, well-defined rhythm, a mysterious force drives everything forward to ever-greater perfection. There is eternal repetition yet eternal variety, as if a tall building were constructed with each successive story similar in basic design, yet decorated in a different style. Development occurs in a recurring 3-beat rhythm. At each step, a given situation, the thesis evokes an element of opposition, the antithesis. A struggle between the two ends in a compromise, the synthesis, which in turn forms the thesis on the next higher level. This pattern, says Hegal, is clearly evident in human history. A civilization evolves somewhere and rises to new heights of government, learning, and art. In due time, it attracts the jealousy of barbarous neighbors. Strife and conquest result, and after the clouds of destruction have dissipated, a new civilization has crystallized, blending the traits of the erstwhile opponents in a new pattern. This is Hegel's famous dialectic process. It is guided not by chance, but by logical necessity, just as the addition or multiplication of two numbers must logically result in a definite answer. Conflict then, is the engine of process. Each synthesis marks a higher plane than the previous, until, in the dim future, the final stage of ultimate perfection is reached. For Hegel, perfection is the fulfillment of the Absolute, the Spirit. Just what he means by the "Absolute" is unclear (The John Hopkins University Press). ].
             Karl wanted to be an academic teacher, but after 4 years in Berlin, Karl was still only a student. He lacked a doctor's degree, and had consistently ignored degree requirements. One member of the Heglian group, and a theologian, Bruno Bauer, urged Karl to obtain a diploma in Philosophy. So Marx chose as his dissertation a comparison between the 2 ancient Greek philosophers Democritus, and Epicurus. Both were early materialists.


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