Karl Marx: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:05, 29 September 2005

Revision as of 11:16, 30 September 2005

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===Critique of bourgeois democracy and of anti-Semitism===

SomeA few scholars have presented an alternative reading of Marx, based on his two short essays ''[[On the Jewish Question]]''. Economist [[Tyler Cowen]], historian [[Marvin Perry]], and political scientist [[Joshua Muravchik]] have suggested that what they see as an intense hatred for the "Jewish Class" was part of Marx's belief that if he could convince his contemporaries and the public to hate Jewish capitalists, the public would eventually come to hate non-Jewish capitalists as well.

Most scholars reject this claim for two reasons: first, it is based on two short essays written in the [[1840]]s, and ignores the bulk of Marx's analysis of capitalism written in the following years. Second, it distorts the argument of ''On the Jewish Question'', in which Marx deconstructs [[liberal]] notions of [[emancipation]]. During [[the Enlightenment]], philosophers and political theorists argued that religious authority had been oppressing human beings, and that [[religion]] must be separated from the functions of the state for people to be truly free. Following the [[French Revolution]], many people were thus calling for the [[Jewish emancipation|emancipation of the Jews]].

At the same time, many argued that [[Christianity]] is a more enlightened and advanced religion than Judaism. For example, Marx's former mentor, Bruno Bauer, argued that Christians need to be emancipated only once (from Christianity), and Jews need to be emancipated twice — first from Judaism (presumably, by converting to Christianity), then from religion altogether.

Marx rejects Bauer's argument as a form of Christian [[ethnocentrism]], if not [[anti-Semitic]]. Marx proceeds to turn Bauer's language, and the rhetoric of anti-Semites, upside down to make a more progressive argument. First, he points out that Bruno Bauer's argument is too parochial because it considers Christianity to be more evolved than Judaism, and because it narrowly defines the problem that requires emancipation to be religion. Marx instead argues that the issue is not religion, but capitalism. Pointing out that anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews are fundamentally [[anti-capitalist]], Marx provides a theory of anti-Semitism by suggesting that anti-Semites scapegoat Jews for capitalism because too many non-Jews benefit from, or are invested in capitalism, to attack capitalism directly.