ABSTRACT
Kant's subjective idealism mirrors the distrust of reason and thought characteristic of the bourgeois mind. Despite Kant's emphasis on the objectivity of thought as opposed to sensation, he reimposes the externality or alienation of thought from its object the characteristic of the understanding or bourgeois consciousness. Kant's epistemology, which guarantees an illusory unity of consciousness with its object, and leaves the thing in itself outside of cognition, represents what Hegel calls abstract ideality. Hegel agrees with Kant that non-contradiction is an essential element of formal logic and empirical science, where science deals with inorganic matter and sensuous conceptions. Hegel is echoed by Marx. Marx notes that, for bourgeois commentators on the nature of capital, identity is proved by holding fast to the features common to all processes of production, while neglecting their specific differentiae. Marx argues that the trade unions aim to prevent the reduction of wages below the level that is traditionally maintained in various industries.
