PARIS^8 lphilosophy and French politics and prophesied a radical revolution for
Germany as a consequence. To be at the heart of contemporary questions
it was German philosophy that had to be criticised. In Germany it was
only political philosophy that was abreast of modern conditions.
Marx then clarified his own position by pointing to two different
attitudes both of which seemed to him to be inadequate. The first, which
in some respects recalled the views of Feuerbach, Marx called the 'practi-
cal political party':
This party is justified in demanding the negation of philosophy. Their
error consists not in their demand, but in being content with a demand
that they do not and cannot really meet. They believe that they can
complete that negation by turning their back on philosophy. You ask
that we start from the real seeds of life, but forget that until now the
real seed of the German people has only flourished inside its skull. In
a word: you cannot transcend philosophy without giving it practical
effect.^71
The second attitude, characteristic of the theoretical party - by which
Marx meant Bruno Bauer and his followers - committed the same error
but from the opposite direction:
It sees in the present struggle nothing but the critical struggle of
philosophy with the German world and does not reflect that earlier
philosophy itself has belonged to this world and is its completion, albeit
in ideas. Its principal fault can be summed up thus: it thought it could
give practical expression to philosophy without transcending it.^72
Bauer's philosophy, because it refused any mediation with the real, was
undialectical and condemned to sterility. What Marx proposed was a
synthesis of the two views he condemned: a mediation with the real
that would abolish philosophy 'as philosophy' while giving it practical
expression. This was akin to his later advocacy of the 'unity of theory
and practice', and took up a theme that had been in his mind since his
doctoral thesis (if not before): that of the secularisation of philosophy.
From Cieszkowski's praxis in 1838 to Hess's 'Philosophy of Action' in
1843 this was a theme central to Hegel's disciples trying to break loose
from their master's system so as to get to grips with contemporary events.
It was along these lines that Marx saw the only possible way of solving
Germany's political problems.
In the second part of his article, Marx then turned to an exploration
of the possibility of a revolution that would not only eliminate Germany's
backwardness, but also thrust her into the forefront of European nations
by making her the first to have achieved emancipation that was not merely
political. Thus he put the question: 'Can Germany achieve a praxis that