What Does Moses Hess Have to Say About the Realization of Philosophy?

Frank Fischbach

Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

The theme of the “realization of philosophy” (Verwirklichung der Philosophie) emerged in the thinking of Moses Hess after the publication of the two major Feuerbachian texts of 1843: the Theses, published in March '43, and the Principles, published in July of the same year. It was in reading these texts that Hess took the full measure of Feuerbach's thought, seeing both its importance and its limitations. It was then, too, that the idea of the step that remained to be taken after Feuerbach was formed in Hess's mind, namely “to negate philosophy as mere doctrine” and “to realize it in social life”. We will examine how, for Hess, the “realization of philosophy” coincides with the social reform by which “generic man becomes real in a society in which all men form, realize and activate themselves by themselves” (PSS, p.384) - which means that the realization of philosophy coincides with socialism. Can we simply say, as Hess sometimes does, that it's enough “to apply (anzuwenden auf...) Feuerbachian humanism to social life” (PSS, p.293)? But how does one go from “application” to realization, understood as implementation, putting into practice, i.e., true actualization?