Abstract

Hegel’s theory of reflection plays both a logical and ontological role in Marx’s theory of labour and private property. What is the point of comparison between a Hegelian and a Marxian theory of reflection? The theory of alienation. In Hegel, one has the alienation of thought in reflective thinking – the understanding’s mode of operation; in Marx, the alienation of labour under private property. As an activity, labour has, according to Marx – like the activity of thinking, in Hegel – the structure of negativity: the structure of externalization and return to the self. In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, in particular, Marx developed a theory of the externalization of labour in which alienation prevents the latter from fulfilling its return to itself. Labour becomes alienated, leaves itself and remains outside of itself, for it is appropriated by private property.