The Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer

Abstract

This is a comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, a leading Hegelian philosopher of the 1840s. Inspired by the philosophy of Hegel, Bauer led an intellectual revolution that influenced Marx and shaped modern secular humanism. In the process he offered a republican alternative to liberalism and socialism, criticized religious and political conservatism and set out the terms for the development of modern mass and industrial society. Based on in-depth archival research this book traces the emergence of republican political thought in Germany before the revolutions of 1848. Professor Moggach examines Bauer's republicanism and his concept of infinite self-consciousness. He also explores the more disturbing aspects of Bauer's critique of modernity, such as his anti-Semitism. This book will be eagerly sought out by professionals in political philosophy, political science and intellectual history.

Dialéctica de la autoconciencia infinita y crítica pura en Bruno Bauer

“…Comparte los mismos principios regulativos heterónomos que sus adversarios liberales. El proceso dialéctico donde se trasciende lo particular no es en Bauer una labor inconsciente determinada por la necesidad, como en Marx, sino un "acto de liberación ética" 93 . Expresado en otros términos, la identificación de los sujetos con la comunidad de autoconciencias se realiza siempre en libertad, y es resultado de una reflexión crítica sobre los procesos objetivos de la historia y la intención de resolver las contradicciones entre concepto y realidad, mientras que la identificación de la clase trabajadora con el socialismo aparece, por norma general, condicionada por la necesidad.…”

‘Ownness created a new freedom’: Max Stirner’s alternative concept of liberty

“…So my point is that while republicanism has revealed the problem of domination, particularly the anticipatory behaviours it induces in individuals, in its fixation on preventing the exercise of arbitrary power through the rule of law, it has left it itself largely blind to, or at least insufficiently concerned with, the dominating effects of non-arbitrary power. Moggach 2003). From Stirner's side, however, the revolutionary universalism of Bauer promised the emancipation of Man as an abstract ideal, while at the same time subordinating the concrete individual to external institutions like the constitutional state and its laws.…”

From the Jewish Question to the Muslim Question. Republican Rigorism, Culturalist Differentialism and Antinomies of Enforced Emancipation

“…They may not, for example, raise any claim to emancipation based upon private interest, without disqualifying themselves as genuine republicans." 19 This "republican rigorist" position has crucial implications for the idea and exercise of freedom. Whereas the Hegelian republican theory of freedom -namely, the tradition in which Bauer positioned himself -understood it as "the unity of concept and objectivity," 20 namely as the unity between the conception of freedom and its concrete actualization in and through the state, Bauer considerably shifted the terrain.…”