Hegel and Marx

Early Postmodern Period

Hegel is sometimes called the beginning of postmodernism.  Marx was also a postmodern philosopher.  A really, quick, messy way to talk about modernism vs. postmodernism would be to say that the moderns believed in a fixed reality or laws of perfection, while the postmoderns believed in unfixed reality with changing laws of perfection.

Modernism =



(Standard of perfection to measure worm against!)

Postmodernism =


(This worm is free for interpretation!)

Hegel


Georg Hegel 
Philosopher
Born: August 27, 1770
Died: November 14, 1831

Education: Tubinger Stift

 





Teachings

Hegel believed that the entire world moved and changed in the following manner:

Thesis -> Antithesis Emerges -> Synthesis

This process repeats itself and demonstrates the importance of conflict or opposition in order to progress.  Instead of things moving toward a perfect form, the idea of perfection is always changing here, and it is always embedded in the newly formed synthesis.

Applications

Unified: Your website should strive to allow for the unification of opposing ideas so that it continue to grow and develop and change.
Accessible: People should not feel feel welcome to contribute to the site as well as the standards for the site, even if it is to provide an antithesis to everything going on. 
Ongoing: Site should be continually growing and changing to something new, or beyond what it has been so as to always be combining the current antithesis, thesis and synthesis.

For Hegel, ideas are shared, refuted, and synthesized through all forms of posting, commenting, liking, sharing, etc. You could say that social media accelerates the process of history (Thesis-->Antithesis-->Synthesis) by making it easy for everyone to be involved in the collective conversation.  It could even be that daily the site moves through a different antithesis, thesis and synthesis for each user.
Another way to look at this is that the sites purpose in general for all the users collectively can change and adapt in this way.  This is where the makers come in. They need to be paying attention to the constant antithesis and thesis and synthesizing the two.

Marx

Karl Marx
Philosopher, Economist, Sociologist, Journalist and Revolutionary Socialist

Born: May 5, 1818
Died: March 14, 1883
Education: Universities of Bonn and Berlin






Teachings

Marx agreed with most of Hegel's ideas and added on applications to labor. He believed that the worker should never be alienated from their work.  They should understand the larger picture of why their work matters and how it is part of the larger goal of their company, culture, etc.  This will allow them to connect with it, be passionate about it, and because of this, have their values and even themselves reflected in it. 

Applications

Unified:  Your site should allow your users to connect with it and become one with it in a sense, seeing themselves reflected in the actions they take and things they create or write on the site. 
Accessible:  Your site's greater vision or purpose should be accessible to any user.  This will help them engage meaningfully.
Ongoing: People and the site are never set against a standard other than that all voices are equal on the site.  This should allow for ongoing use of the site. 

A good social website will allow each individual to really connect with it, and see their values and themselves to be fully expressed and flourish in and through the site.