On 16 May 00, at 17:30, Ted Winslow wrote:
> How about including as categories to be used in understanding these aspects
> of ourselves the categories of self-determination and of a capacity for full
> self-determination of thought, desire and action as the "idea" of humanity?
Marx seems a lot closer to the social constructivism that
dominates much of undergraduate sociology today than Hegel. The
Kantian/Hegelian concept of self-determination was transformed in
his hands into a practical-laboring actitivity. He also thought that
humans are constructed by a determinate set of social relations,
and that humans can be re-constructed, which was taken to mean
by many followers that those who know what is good for everyone
else have the right to reconstruct the deceived "masses". Che
called this reconstructed self the "new man". But if Hegel was
right, modern humans will never tolerate any such constructions
except under terms which they have set for themselves (in a
democratic setting).
