Consciousness and Reality: A Comparative Study of the Philosophical Foundationsof Marx and Hegel
Global Review of Humanities, Arts, and Society April 3, 2025 Chengwen Song, Mengzhou Wu
This paper compares the philosophical foundations of Hegel and Marx, focusing on their conceptions of consciousness and reality. Hegel's dialectical idealism views reality as the unfolding of Absolute Spirit, while Marx's materialist dialectics locates consciousness in socio-historical praxis. The analysis examines Marx's critique of Feuerbach's abstract humanism and Stirner's radical egoism, developing the concept of the 'real individual' as historically situated and socially embedded. The paper demonstrates how Marx inherits and subverts Hegel's system, transforming it into a critical theory of liberation, showing this dialogue between idealism and materialism remains vital for understanding contemporary power, ideology, and agency.