The Age of Enlightenment veered away from the lack of knowledge, irrationality, and superstition inherent in the Middle Ages. In the Age of Enlightenment, manÆs capacity for reason became the cornerstone of many philosophies aimed at discovering truth and the answers to mankindÆs greatest questions. Philosophers like Hegel and Kant were considered Bourgeois philosophers by Marx, because Marx was a materialistic philosopher who sought cause and effect reasons to find truth and meaning outside the mind while Hume and Kant strove to find such answers within the mind.
Both Hegel and Kant attempted to arrive at an explanation of truth within the human mind, though they maintained distinct views on the capacity of reason and the senses to arrive at such explanations. Marx, in contrast, felt that only cause and effect relationships could help human beings obtain greater understanding. In his theory for explaining class divisions in society, Marx turned to the social processes of production and labor to reveal social development. However, his theory does not explain the nature of the human mind as it is involved in this process. By focusing on the mindÆs involvement in such processes, Marx viewed Hegel and Kant as Bourgeois philosophers in that he did not believe manÆs limited capacity to know or understand could turn inward and gain greater understanding without considering external processes.
Hegel and KantÆs views were bourgeois to Marx, because they focused on the unity of individuals with the universe and used logic and the senses to find universal truth within the mind. Such universal truths that provided this unity between individuals and the universe were based on Enlightenment notions that manÆs progress is aimed at developing a rational culture and society. Such philosophers as these believed that manÆs capacity to reason reveals truth; that individuals and humanity evolve toward perfection, and that men are e...