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5293
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Only in community are people able to cultivate their gifts, and therefore be free [Marx/Engels]
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Full Idea:
Only in community with others has each individual the means of cultivating his gifts in all directions; only in the community, therefore, is personal freedom possible.
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From:
K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.D)
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A reaction:
This is where Aristotle and Marx agree, and I agree too. I think we could drop the word "free", which is to some degree a necessary right and precondition of human happiness, but is not the real target.
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22814
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Our reliance on other people close to us does not imply any political obligations [Taylor,C]
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Full Idea:
We must all be nurtures by others as children, and we only flourish as adults in relationship with friends, mates, children and so on. But this has nothing to do with any obligation to belong to political society.
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From:
Charles Taylor (Atomism [1979], p.42)
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A reaction:
He is defending community, but not at that minimal human level. Political obligations follows from our need for a wider society, to achieve justice, education, travel, health etc. There are no rights without a society
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5273
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Young Hegelians think consciousness is chains for men, where old Hegelians think it the bond of society [Marx/Engels]
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Full Idea:
The Young Hegelians consider conceptions, thoughts, ideas, in fact all the products of consciousness, to which they attribute an independent existence, as the real chains of men (just as the Old Hegelians declared them the true bonds of human society).
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From:
K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)
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A reaction:
Marx and Engels will attack both views. The Young Hegelians seem potential existentialists, and the Old Hegelians followers of Aristotle. The correct view is somewhere in the middle. Self-criticism is an option given to us by our culture.
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5283
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In communist society we are not trapped in one activity, but can act freely [Marx/Engels]
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Full Idea:
In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates production, and I can hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon and criticise after dinner.
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From:
K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)
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A reaction:
This sounds like a hopeless daydream, and Plato would be appalled. It now (2004) looks as if this aspiration is more likely to be met in a liberal capitalist democracy than it is under any state-controlled communism.
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5282
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If the common interest imposes on the individual, his actions become alienated and enslaving [Marx/Engels]
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Full Idea:
As long as a cleavage exists between the particular and the common interest, as long, therefore, as activity is not voluntarily, but naturally divided, man's own deed becomes an alien power opposed to him, which enslaves him.
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From:
K Marx / F Engels (The German Ideology [1846], §1.A)
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A reaction:
An isolated individual could feel 'alienated' doing menial tasks for themselves when they yearned to get on with their poetry. Alienation is not all-or-nothing. Compare working for a good employer with working for Nazi conquerors.
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