Volume 30, Number 18 · November 24, 1983
Marx and Freedom
By Andrzej Walicki
The hundredth anniversary of Marx's death is a good occasion to reflect on one of the central themes in his work: the problem of freedom. Strangely enough, this aspect of Marx's thought is relatively neglected by Marxologists. And yet its relevance cannot be disputed. It is no exaggeration to say that Marx's conception of freedom has proved to be extremely effective in 'changing the world.' As an instrument of the most severe and powerful criticism of the classical liberal view of freedom, Marx's concept exposed some important weaknesses of the early nineteenth-century version of liberalism. At the same time Marx's concept produced dangerous consequences by radically questioning the central value of the liberal conception—individual freedom. This was so because, as I shall try to show, Marx replaced the idea of individual freedom safeguarded by law with an idea of the emancipation of humanity, conceived as collective salvation in history.
Feature, 5749 words
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