On 4/13/06, bitchlab <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I like it best presented in fuller quote. But, I have a question, What does > Marx mean by "demonstrates ad hominem"? > > quote: > "...The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism by weapons, > material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also > becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is > capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem, and > it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. ...."
I'm not a Marx scholar, but in this context, but I think that "ad hominem" means "to people." So it's "theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstates its truth to people, and it demonstrates its truth to people as soon as it becomes radical (revealing the roots of social phenomena)." This seems part of his statement that he's turning from the critique of religion (the obsession of the Young Hegelians) not only to the critique of society, but to trying to take that critique to the people. A turn to political activism. By the way, I'd forgotten how good Marx is in his early stuff like this. BTW, the translation at marxists.org adds the following:> The criticism of religion ends with the teaching that man is the highest essence for man – hence, with the categoric imperative to overthrow all relations in which man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence, relations which cannot be better described than by the cry of a Frenchman when it was planned to introduce a tax on dogs: Poor dogs! They want to treat you as human beings!< it's okay with me as long as it's not a tax on cats. -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles
