Part 6 (1/2)

[42] I confess that I have never been able to _understand_--however much I have considered the matter--the meaning of this pa.s.sage (which ought however to be very evident, since it is quoted so often without any comment), in the preface to the second edition of _Das Kapital_: 'Meine dialektische Methode ist der Grundlage nach von der Hegel'schen nicht nur verschieden, sondern ihr direktes Gegentheil. Fur Hegel is _der Denkprocess_, den er sogar unter dem Namen _Idee_ in ein selbstandiger subjeckt verwandelt, der Demjurg des Wirklichen, das nur seine aussere Erscheinung bildet. Bei mir ist umgekehrt _das Ideelle_ nichts Andres als das im Menschenkopf umgesetzte und ubersetzte Materielle.' (_Das Kapital_ I, p. xvii.) Now it seems to me that the _Ideelle_ of the last phrase has _no relation_ to the _Denkprocess_ and to the Hegelian _Idea_ of the preceding phrase, _cf._ above pp.

17. Some have thought that by the objections there stated, I intended to deny Marx's Hegelian _inspiration_. It is well to repeat that I merely deny the _logical relation_ affirmed between the two philosophical theories. To deny Marx's Hegelian inspiration would be to contradict the evidence.

[43] Answers to several of the questions suggested above are now supplied in the book already referred to, by GENTILE: _La Filosofia di Marx_.

[44] _Antiduhring_, pt. I. ch. xlii., especially pp. 138-145, which pa.s.sage is translated into Italian in the appendix to the book by Labriola referred to above: _Discorrendo di socialismo e di filosophia_, _cf._ _Das Kapital_, I. p. xvii, 'Gelingt dies und spiegelt sich nun das Leben des stoffs ideell wieder, _so mag es aussehen_, als habe man es mit einer Konstruction a priori zu thun.'

[45] LANGE, indeed, in reference to Marx's _Das Kapital_, remarked that the Hegelian dialectic, 'the development by ant.i.thesis and synthesis, might almost be called an _anthropological discovery_. Only in history, as in the life of the individual, development by ant.i.thesis _certainly does not accomplish itself so easily and radically, nor with so much precision and symmetry as in speculative thought_.' (_Die Arbeiterfrage_, pp. 248-9.)

[46] With regard to the _abstract_ cla.s.ses of Marxian economics and the _real_ or _historical_ cla.s.ses, see some remarks by SOREL in the article referred to in the _Journal des Economistes_, p. 229.

[47] G. GENTILE, _o.c._ in _Studi storici_, p. 421. _cf._ 400-401.

[48] Labriola has indeed an exaggerated dislike for what he calls the _scholastic_: but even this exaggeration will not appear wholly unsuitable as a reaction against the method of study which usually prevails among the mere men of letters, the n.i.g.g.ardly scholars, the empty talkers and jugglers with abstract thought, and all those who lose their sense of close connection between science and life.

[49] _Discorrendo di socialismo e di filosophia_, l. ix.

[50] _In torno alla storia della cultura_ (Kulturgeschichtein _Atti_ dell Accad. Pont.; vol. xxv. 1895, p. 8.)

[51] 'If by Christianity is meant merely the sum of the beliefs and expectations concerning human destiny, these beliefs'--writes Labriola--'vary as much, in truth, as in the difference, to mention only one instance, between the free will of the Catholics after the Council of Trent, and the absolute determination of Calvin!' (_L.c._ ix.)

[52] Without referring to the somewhat unmethodical work of Westermarck, _History cf Human Marriage_, see especially Ernst Grosse's book, _Die Formen der Familie und die Formen der Wirthschaft_, Freiburg in B., 1896.

[53] This connection is shortly but carefully dealt with by INGRAM, _History of Political Economy_, Edinburgh, A. & C. Black, 1888, p. 62.

[54] See, amongst many pa.s.sages, MARX, _Misere de la philosophie_, p.

167, _et seq._ ENGELS, _Antiduhring_, p. 1, _et seq._

[55] On the hedonistic maxima, _cf._ Bertolini-Pantaleoni, _Cenni sul concetto di ma.s.simi edonistici individuali e collectivi_ (_in Giorn, degli Econ._, s II vol. iv.) and Coletti, in the same _Giornale_, vol.

v.

[56] In regard to this metaphysical use of the word science; there even exists in Italy a _Rivista di polizia scientifica_! And the metaphor may pa.s.s here also.

[57] _Cours d'economie politique_, Lausanne, 1896-7.

[58] _Cf._ also his criticism of Marx already referred to: p. xviii.

[59] Sauf l'Angleterre, ou regne le libre echange _princ.i.p.alement parcequ'il est favourable aux interets de certains entrepreneurs_, le reste des pays civilises verse de plus en plus dans le protectionnisme (--. 964.)

[60] See the _Giornale degli economisti_, excellent in all its critical sections; and especially Pareto's _chronicles_ therein.

[61] It may be remarked that in the difficulty of distinguis.h.i.+ng the purely scientific from the practical lies the chief cause of the dangers and poverty of the social and political sciences. And we may even smile at those scientists or their ingenious admirers, who claim to accomplish the salvation of the social and political sciences, by applying to them the methods, as they say, of the natural sciences.

(An Italian astronomer, ingenuous as clever, has suggested the formation of sociological observatories which, in a few years would make sociology something like astronomy!) Alas! the matter is not so simple; all sociologists intend indeed to apply exact methods; but how can this application succeed when one advances _per ignes_ or over ground which moves; _d'una e d'altra parte s come l'onda chefugge e s'appressa_? (From both sides like the wave which ebbs and flows.)

[62] See the preface of the German translation of _Misere de la philosophie_, 2nd ed. Stuttgart, 1892, and now also in French in the reprint of the original text of the same work (Paris, Giard et Briere, 1896.)

[63] The word _communism_ is also more appropriate, since there are so many _socialisms_ (democratic state, catholic, etc.). On the relation between the materialistic theory of history and socialism, see GENTILE, _op. cit._, _pa.s.sim_.

[64] _Pantagruel_, III, 39-43.

[65] The absurdity of this interpretation will come out clearly if it is merely remembered that there are many cases in which the capitalist manufacturer pays for the labour of his workman, _a price higher than what he then realises on the market_; cases, it is true, where the capitalist is proceeding towards ruin and bankruptcy; but which he cannot, on this account, always avoid. 'Marx part des recherches faites par cette ecole Anglaise, dont il avait fait une etude approfondie; et il veut _expliquer le profit sans admettre aucun brigandage_.' (SOREL, _art. cit._, p. 227.)