The Labor enquirer., 1885-12-05
Condensed Biography and Doc.
trines of the Father of
Socialism.
The Modern Science of Which
Hegel Was the Prophet and
Marx the Christ. T.
The Truth for Which Men and Women
Have Rotted In the Dungeons
&of Despotism.

For the ENQUIRER. E'-
Necessarily precedent to knowledge
of what WILL BE, is an exact understand
ing of WHAT Is, and prior to this know
ledge we must be in measure cogni-
zant of WHAT WAS. In the study then of
human beings, what they are and what
they may become, the primary course is
to learn concerning their past. But this
only so that we may judge correctly of
what they now are.
1t was Kant, l believe, who first de
fined in simple language what the busi-
ness of philosophy was, and from his
definition one can easily understand how
true philosophy is necessary to correct
ness IN the understanding of any prob
lem connected with mankind. Kant
held that the business of philosophy was
to answer three questions: What can l
know2 What ought l to do2 and For
what may hope?
Tremendous advance as this definition
was upon all that had preceded it, yet it
does not present the truth clear cut 1t
was reserved for Hegel, the logician who
was one might say, the only rival of
Aristotle and Bacon, to do for the whole
sum of human wisdom what the former
had done merely for affirmative reason
ing and the latter for inductive philoso-
ply.
AsI in terpret the Hegelian definition
of philosophy it resolves itself to answer
the question "WHY am II" The agita-
ton of this question necessarily compels
the study of what one is and what one
ouobt to be. In other words true phil
osophy should teach how the human
mind (the ego) can progress through
thousands of mistakes, shams, miserles
and superstltions to sense and realiza
ton of its true position in the universe,
and its best course to attain, in the fu-
ture, the proper sphere for its fullest e1-
ereise and d-derelopment.-
Upon a correct understanding of phil
osophy it will thus be seen, depends the
surety of all of the physical sciences
they being simply a collection of facts
determining the environments OF the
ego and aiding the proper perception
and appreciation of the ego.
Hegel, whose system of scientific phil
osophy made possible the development
of Karl Marks system of Sociology,
preached the philosophy Of idealistlc
realism. And he proved its truth by his
inimitable system of logic
He said truly that every truth has
three aspects or stages, the affirmation,
the negation and the unifcation OF the
two, the two former being merely the
differing aspects of the third. The first
i step is preliminary affirmation and
unifcation, the second negation and
differentiation, the third final synthe-
Sis. And as Aristotle was the apostle OF
of the first, Francis Verulam Lord
Bacon of the second, Frederick Hegel
was OF Lne tulTu, Ill ulflulAS C4oo''AJ WV
honors of being the men who made CIV
: ilization possible through the eras OF
dogmatism, scepticism and truth. All
modern thought submits itself without
e question to it's now. self-evident law Of
thesis, antithesis and synthesls.
) 1t Is the application of this law to the
science of political economy that gave
uirth to Modern Socialism of which
Il Hegel is the prophet and Marx the
Christ. 1t is to the penetration of one
8 of these men and to the works of the
r other that is due the svnthess of Col
lectiye Socialism, a unifcation of the
t thesis of lndividualsm aud the antIthe
7 sis of Communism.
/ Not content however with the dlscov
ery of the great central truths OF phlIos
l. ophv, Hege., touching upon the branct
: of Sociology declared. prophetlcally con
cerning the future. In one of his let
ters to ScheIling he saws:
u 81 hold 1t one of the best signs of the time
t that humanity has been presented to It's o"r
r eyes as worthy Of reverence. 1t is proc
n that the nimbus Is vanishing from the heads
, OF the oppressors and gods OF earth. Philoso
- pliers are now proving the dignity OF Mar
Y and the people will soon learn to feel 1t, and
not merely to ask humbly for those rights o
theirs which have been trampled in the dust
Q hut to resume and appropriate them TO
themselves"
% He even outlined IN brief his concep
ton of the just philosophical state tha
% of an ORGANIC UNITY, in which the lndt
'' vidual should find at once the means o
- - his education as a moral and rationa
~ creature, and as we'll the proper opportu
- mites and sphere for the exercise ant
= development of his special gifts. Tha
10 is, a state which reconciles Collectivism
'' Individualism, Justice and Liberty.
1t was reserved for the specialists II
a science of the next century to dlscove
ID what conditions of life would secure thi
7 ideal ate, by an investigation of exist
" Ing environments and study of histori
" surroundings. In this labor Karl Mar:
N was If not the first, certainly the deepes
y y and best of all economists of the nine
re teenth century. ,
ofl HIS father was a Christian Jew Wh
s. held high post in the civil service a