Hegel’s Schein as Ideology of Equality and Freedom in Capitalism

Abstract

In this paper, I demonstrate that the category of Schein (which I translate as ‘semblance’) in Hegel’s Science of Logic expresses the structure of ideology in general, and specifically the ideology of equality and freedom in capitalism. To this aim, I motivate Marx’s mature critique of political economy in Capital and the Grundrisse. I argue that while the semblance of equality is false and misleading, it is constitutive of the essence of capitalism. This implies that domination in capitalism does not exclude equality, but requires it. In particular, I argue that the structure of domination generates equality as its own necessary moment. The paper shows, on the one hand, how a close study of Hegel’s Logic is helpful for understanding the structure of capitalism, and on the other hand, how reading Hegel’s Logic through Marx can help in unveiling its social import.

Dialectical relation of temporal domination and class exploitation in Marx’s value theory

“…The ideology of passing ‘above and beyond class boundaries’ and the ideology of autonomy in the late capitalism can be compared with the ideology of equality in the origin of capitalism. According to Marx, the conception of freedom and equality of individuals in the abstraction of their class location in the political formation of capitalism is an ideology which is originated from the semblance posited by the relational and dualistic structure of distribution and production (see Abazari 2017: 15). It is the characteristic of this mode of production in which the internal and substantial structure of reality is covered and appeared ‘inverted’ through the ideological forms.…”