Political emancipation and human emancipation: the paths to revolution on the young Marx

Abstract

This research intends to discuss the distinction between political emancipation and human emancipation on the young Marx, particularly in On the Jewish Question. Considering the affirmation that political emancipation is insufficient to liberate man as a real, non-contradictory subject, the limit which separates political to human emancipation should be investigated. The notion of a generic man constituted as a truly emancipated, realized subject is central to such inquiry. Therefore, Marx undertakes a general analysis of civil society and of the need for "self-renunciation in case it wants to achieve political efficacy"; the comprehension of the modern State as a "social product" is of utmost importance for the understanding of the double life in which man lives: on one side, in the bureaucratic organization, on the other, in social organization; as a citizen "while member of the State and as a civilian while member of the civil society". The separation of the citizen of civil society from his own empirical reality is expressed in the separation between the State and civil society because the man as an idealist of the State differs from the real being, he is "distinct and opposite to what he is in reality". Our hypothesis is that political emancipation and human emancipation are concepts which are matured in Marx's theory, furthermore that their limit follows a path towards the need of revolution for overcoming the contradictions in which man and society live. (AU)