ABSTRACT
The transition from Hegel to Marx represents in every respect a radical break in the continuity of nineteenth-century history. The process of rationalisation had begun so early that by the mid-nineteenth century French liberalism was in possession of a fully developed world-view, including a scheme of constitutional government and a doctrine of liberal economics; whereas Germany was still struggling to emerge from the Middle Ages, and not succeeding too well. Conversely, the fact that Germany had to emancipate itself all at once from political and ideological traditions which in the West had gradually disappeared, made for greater radicalism in the theoretical sphere. The universalism of Hegel's system corresponded to a state of affairs which Comte had in mind when he urged his contemporaries to abandon metaphysics for science. The revolt against the Hegelian system, as the theoretical defence of the status quo, from the start transcended the limits of philosophic discourse.
