The Early Thought Configuration of the Young Marx

The greatest influence that the young Marx received from the Young Hegelians was precisely this concept of “self-consciousness,” which embodied bourgeois individual subjectivity. Therefore, in the configuration of the young Marx’s early philosophical thought, what dominated was not Hegelian objective idealism, but Bauer’s subjective idealism.

当时马克思所受到的青年黑格尔派的最大影响，正是这个体现着资产阶级个人主体性的“自我意识”概念。因此，在青年马克思早期哲学思想构境中，居支配地位的不是黑格尔式的客观唯心主义，而是鲍威尔式的主观唯心主义。

The “young Marx problem” has always been a hot topic in the field of Marxist philosophical research. In past studies within domestic academia on the history of the young Marx’s intellectual development, numerous theoretical achievements have been formed, particularly a series of important theoretical discussions centered on texts such as *Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right*, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, and *The German Ideology*. The question of the young Marx’s materialist turn has always been the theoretical focus of academia. However, the early thought of the young Marx has rarely been explored, to the point that it is impossible to answer the question of where the young Marx’s early idealist thought and revolutionary democratic stance came from. To meticulously sort out the complex sources and content of the young Marx’s early thought, it is necessary to return to Marx’s early reading notes.

“青年马克思问题”一直是马克思主义哲学研究领域的热点问题。在过去国内学术界对青年马克思思想发展史的研究中，形成了众多理论成果，特别是围绕《黑格尔法哲学批判》《1844年经济学哲学手稿》《德意志意识形态》等文本展开了一系列重要的理论探讨，青年马克思的唯物主义转变问题始终是学术界的理论焦点。然而，青年马克思的早期思想却鲜有问津，以至于无法回答青年马克思的早期唯心主义思想和革命民主主义立场从何而来的问题。为了细致梳理青年马克思早期思想的复杂来源与内涵，必须回到马克思早期的读书笔记。

First, what exactly was the relationship between Marx and Hegel’s philosophy, and the Young Hegelians? Marx’s study and acceptance of Hegel’s philosophy was not achieved overnight or naturally, but underwent a tortuous intellectual process. In 1835, Marx entered the University of Bonn, majoring in law rather than philosophy. In 1836, Marx transferred to the University of Berlin, where he was influenced by the legal philosophy teaching of Hegel’s student Eduard Gans, and thus gradually became interested in philosophy, eventually beginning to pursue a doctorate in philosophy in 1838. The general view is that because Marx’s turn to philosophy was related to Gans’s teaching of legal philosophy, Marx’s study of Hegel’s philosophy must have been focused on the philosophy of right. This is of course reasonable, and traces of Hegel’s philosophy of right can also be seen in Marx’s poetic creations from the same period. However, Hegel’s philosophy of right “disappeared” in Marx’s subsequent *Berlin Notebooks*; at this time, Marx began reading Hegel’s works on aesthetics, philosophy of nature, and history of philosophy, leaving behind extensive reading notes. Even stranger is that the *Phenomenology of Spirit*, which later became an important theoretical other for the young Marx, aside from being mentioned in Marx’s letter to his father, does not appear directly in his reading notes. It can be said that the young Marx’s initial reading of Hegel’s works was relatively broad, but lacked in-depth and systematic study. Furthermore, Marx’s initial study of Hegel’s philosophy came more from the Young Hegelians and their theoretical mediation. Among the Young Hegelians, those with whom Marx had direct contact were members of the “Doctor’s Club” [1]1 The “Doctor’s Club” (Doktorklub) was a group of Young Hegelian intellectuals in Berlin in the late 1830s and early 1840s, centered around Bruno Bauer, which discussed philosophy, religion, and politics. — Bauer, Köppen, Rutenberg, and others — and the greatest influence on him was naturally Bauer. Marx’s initial acquaintance with Bauer was due to their shared interest in literature and art, so Marx also mentioned Bauer’s aesthetic research in his letter to his father. As Marx became familiar with the members of the Doctor’s Club, the Young Hegelians’ religious critique and revolutionary democratic stance gradually influenced Marx. Therefore, Marx later summarized: “Strauss took his stand on Spinozism, Bauer on Fichteanism; each of them, in the domain of theology, carried through the Hegelian system consistently.” [2]2 This is a paraphrase by Marx of the positions of David Friedrich Strauss and Bruno Bauer, found in *The Holy Family* (1845). They each developed one aspect of the Hegelian system, and Bauer in particular transformed Hegel’s objective idealism into subjective idealism through the concept of “self-consciousness.” I believe that the greatest influence the young Marx received from the Young Hegelians was precisely this concept of “self-consciousness,” which embodied bourgeois individual subjectivity. Therefore, in the configuration of the young Marx’s early philosophical thought, what dominated was not Hegelian objective idealism, but Bauer’s subjective idealism.

首先，马克思最初与黑格尔哲学、青年黑格尔派的关系究竟为何？马克思对黑格尔哲学的学习和接受不是一蹴而就或自然而然的，而是经历了曲折的思想过程。1835年，马克思进入波恩大学学习，主修的是法学而非哲学。1836年，马克思转入柏林大学，在这里受到黑格尔的学生甘斯法哲学思想的影响，从而逐渐对哲学感兴趣，于是在1838年开始攻读哲学博士学位。一般的观点认为，由于马克思的哲学转向与甘斯的法哲学教学有关，因此马克思对黑格尔哲学的研究必然是法哲学。这当然是合理的，而且在马克思同时期的诗歌创作中亦可以看到黑格尔法哲学的痕迹。但是，黑格尔的法哲学却在马克思之后的《柏林笔记》中“消失”了，马克思在此时开始阅读黑格尔的美学、自然哲学和哲学史方面的著作，留下了大量的读书笔记。更令人奇怪的是，之后成为青年马克思重要理论他者的《精神现象学》，除了在马克思致父亲的信中被提及，在其读书笔记中并没有直接出现过。可以说，青年马克思最初对黑格尔著作的阅读是较为广泛的，但是缺乏深入和系统的研究。更进一步来说，马克思最初对黑格尔哲学的学习更多来源于青年黑格尔派及其理论的中介。在青年黑格尔派中，与马克思直接接触的是“博士俱乐部”的成员鲍威尔、科本、鲁滕堡等人，对其影响最大的自然是鲍威尔。马克思与鲍威尔的相识最初是因为文学和艺术兴趣的相同，因此马克思在致父亲的信中也提到了鲍威尔的美学研究。随着马克思与博士俱乐部成员的熟识，青年黑格尔派的宗教批判和革命民主主义立场逐渐影响了马克思。因此，马克思后来总结说：“施特劳斯立足于斯宾诺莎主义的观点，鲍威尔立足于费希特主义的观点，两人各自在神学的领域内彻底地贯彻黑格尔体系。”他们各自发展了黑格尔体系的一个方面，特别是鲍威尔通过“自我意识”概念将黑格尔的客观唯心主义改造为主观唯心主义。我认为，当时马克思所受到的青年黑格尔派的最大影响，正是这个体现着资产阶级个人主体性的“自我意识”概念。因此，在青年马克思早期哲学思想构境中，居支配地位的不是黑格尔式的客观唯心主义，而是鲍威尔式的主观唯心主义。

Second, how was the philosophical thought in Marx’s doctoral dissertation formed? Marx’s *Berlin Notebooks* fully record the theoretical learning process of preparing and writing his doctoral dissertation. Initially, inspired by Hegel’s *Lectures on the History of Philosophy*, the theme of Marx’s doctoral dissertation was merely the study of Epicurus’s philosophy, so he wrote the title “Epicurean Philosophy” on the cover of the notebook. Moreover, in the excerpts and comments of the notebook, Marx initially focused on Epicurus’s ethics, but during the reading process he was soon attracted by Epicurus’s philosophy of nature, because the spirit of freedom and atheistic stance in Epicurus’s atomism resonated perfectly with the theoretical support of the Young Hegelians in Marx’s mind at that time, and he began to use the concept of “self-consciousness” to transform Epicurus’s philosophy. At the same time, in his study of Epicurus’s philosophy of nature, Marx gradually noticed Epicurus’s “theory of the swerve of atoms,” and praised in his notes: “The ‘declination of the atom from the straight line’ is one of the most profound conclusions, and is derived from the essence of Epicurean philosophy.” [3]3 This is a paraphrase by Marx of Epicurus’s theory of atomic swerve, found in his doctoral dissertation notes. Therefore, in order to understand Hegel’s philosophy, Marx systematically studied the philosophy of the Greek era, which was considered similar to Hegel’s philosophical era, and then discovered in Epicurus’s philosophy of nature a point of convergence with the philosophy of “self-consciousness.” Finally, taking the difference between Epicurus’s philosophy of nature and Democritus’s philosophy of nature as his topic, he expressed his revolutionary democratic stance as a Young Hegelian. But it must be pointed out that Epicurus’s philosophy of nature originally appeared on the historical stage in a materialist guise, but was at this time diverted by Marx in a subjective idealist way — this was Marx’s first brush with materialism. Interestingly, in the *Berlin Notebooks*, we also find Marx’s *Spinoza Notebook*. In this notebook, half of the handwriting is not Marx’s, but was copied by someone else. By examining the correspondence from the same period, it can be seen that this notebook was most likely Marx’s “review material” for preparing for his teaching qualification examination, which also shows from the side that Marx at this time was fully engaged in preparing for the writing of his doctoral dissertation.

其次，马克思博士论文中的哲学思想是如何形成的？马克思的《柏林笔记》完整记录了其准备和写作博士论文的理论学习过程。起初，受到黑格尔《哲学史讲演录》的启发，马克思的博士论文主题只是伊壁鸠鲁的哲学研究，因此他在笔记封面上写下了“伊壁鸠鲁哲学”这个题目。并且，马克思在笔记的摘录和评论中，最初关注的其实是伊壁鸠鲁的伦理学，但在阅读过程中很快就被伊壁鸠鲁的自然哲学所吸引，因为伊壁鸠鲁原子论中的自由精神和无神论立场与此时马克思头脑中青年黑格尔派的理论支援一拍即合，他开始用“自我意识”概念改造伊壁鸠鲁的哲学。同时，马克思也在对伊壁鸠鲁自然哲学的研究中，逐渐注意到伊壁鸠鲁的“原子偏斜说”，他在笔记中称赞道：“‘原子偏离直线’是最深刻的结论之一，并且是根据伊壁鸠鲁哲学的本质而来的。”因此，马克思为了了解黑格尔哲学，系统研究了所谓与黑格尔哲学时代相似的希腊时代的哲学，进而在伊壁鸠鲁自然哲学中发现了与“自我意识”哲学的结合点，最后以伊壁鸠鲁自然哲学和德谟克利特自然哲学的差别为题，表达其革命民主主义的青年黑格尔派立场。但必须指出的是，伊壁鸠鲁的自然哲学原本是以唯物主义的面貌在历史上出场，却被此时的马克思以主观唯心主义的方式异轨，这是马克思与唯物主义的第一次擦肩而过。有趣的是，在《柏林笔记》中，我们还发现了马克思的《斯宾诺莎笔记》。在这份笔记中，有一半的笔迹都不是马克思的，而是由他人代为摘录。通过考察同时期的通信，可以看出这本笔记极有可能是马克思当时准备教职资格考试的“复习资料”，从侧面也可以看出此时的马克思正在全力以赴准备博士论文的写作。

Finally, what changes occurred in Marx’s thought from his graduation to the period of the *Rheinische Zeitung*? In 1841, Marx moved to Bonn, and after failing to find a job, he left behind 7 volumes of reading excerpts — the *Bonn Notebooks* — which contain extensive excerpts and comments on religious studies and art theory. Why did Marx concentrate his efforts on studying these two areas at this time? The main reason was the influence of Bauer. In 1841, Bauer planned to write a work criticizing Hegel’s philosophy of religion, *The Trumpet of the Last Judgment against Hegel the Atheist and Antichrist. An Ultimatum*. [4]4 Bruno Bauer’s *Die Posaune des jüngsten Gerichts über Hegel den Atheisten und Antichristen. Ein Ultimatum* (1841) was an anonymous satirical work that defended Hegel against charges of atheism by ironically accusing him of it. Marx not only followed Bauer’s theoretical pace, but the two also planned to co-author the second part of this work, namely a critique of Hegel’s religious and aesthetic thought. However, as their cooperation progressed and Marx conducted his own reading and research, he became increasingly dissatisfied with Bauer’s theological critique divorced from reality, and the two ultimately terminated their cooperation. But Marx left us the *Bonn Notebooks* and an article, *On Religion and Art, Especially Christian Art*. In these notebooks, Marx’s original subjective idealist thought began to loosen: when excerpting the French historian Charles de Brosses’s book *On the Worship of Fetish Gods*, [5]5 Charles de Brosses’s *Du culte des dieux fétiches* (1760) was an early comparative study of religion that introduced the concept of fetishism. he used the concept of “fetishism” for the first time, and excerpted numerous historical cases of fetishism from a religious studies perspective. This most likely constituted an important source for Marx’s critical theory of fetishism in the *Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood* [6]6 The *Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood* refers to a series of articles Marx wrote for the *Rheinische Zeitung* in 1842-1843, defending the customary rights of the poor to gather wood against new Prussian laws criminalizing it. and even during the creation of *Capital*. Furthermore, Marx also excerpted a large amount of historical empirical material on religious studies and aesthetics, which gradually shifted Marx’s theoretical focus from the Hegelian “history of the evolution of spirit” to actual historical development. Although Marx had not yet completed his materialist turn in thought at this time, the materialist clues in the *Bonn Notebooks* may have already formed a tacit knowledge framework in Marx’s mind.

最后，在博士毕业到《莱茵报》时期，马克思的思想发生了什么变化？1841年，马克思迁居波恩，在求职失败后留下了7册的读书摘录——《波恩笔记》，其中大量摘录和评论了宗教学与艺术学的内容。为什么马克思此时会集中精力研究这两个方面的问题？主要原因在于受到鲍威尔的影响。鲍威尔在1841年计划写作一部批判黑格尔宗教哲学的著作《对黑格尔这位无神论者和反基督教者的末日审判的号声。最后通牒》，马克思不仅紧跟鲍威尔的理论步伐，而且两人还计划合作撰写这部著作的第二部分，即黑格尔的宗教学和美学批判。然而，随着两人合作的进行以及马克思自身的读书研究，马克思对于鲍威尔脱离现实的神学批判愈发不满，最终两人终止了合作，但是马克思却为我们留下了《波恩笔记》和《论宗教和艺术，特别是基督教的艺术》一文。在该笔记中，马克思原先的主观唯心主义思想发生了松动：他在摘录法国历史学家沙·德·布罗斯《论拜物神仪式》一书时，第一次使用了“拜物教”概念，并从宗教学角度摘录了历史上的众多拜物教案例，这极有可能构成了马克思在《关于林木盗窃法的辩论》中甚至《资本论》创作时期拜物教批判理论的重要来源。此外，马克思还摘录了大量宗教学和美学的历史性经验材料，这使得马克思的理论关注点逐渐从黑格尔式的“精神演变史”转移到现实的历史发展上。尽管此时的马克思还没有完成唯物主义的思想转变，但是《波恩笔记》中的唯物主义线索可能已经在马克思的脑海中形成了隐性知识构架。

In MEGA², the *Berlin Notebooks*, the *Bonn Notebooks*, and Marx’s early correspondence have all been compiled and published. This holds significant theoretical importance for our writing of a complete history of the development of Marx’s thought. We also look forward to more academic research exploring the complex ideational configuration of the young Marx’s early thought.

在MEGA2中，《柏林笔记》《波恩笔记》以及马克思早期的书信往来已经全部整理出版，这对我们书写完整的马克思思想发展史具有重要的理论意义。我们也期待，有更多的学术研究去探索青年马克思早期思想的复杂构境。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗