ABSTRACT
In the logical structure of G.W.F. Hegel's Philosophy of Right, seminal moments of negativity illustrate the defects of one form of experiencing freedom, and the need to reformulate the standpoint of practical reason. The political theories of Karl Marx in the 1840s and beyond represent a distinct expression of post-Kantian perfectionist ideas. The concept of post-Kantian perfectionism describes ethical programmes like those of J.G. Fichte, F. Schiller and the Hegelian School, which, in the wake of Immanuel Kant's critiques, offer new approaches to moral action and historical emancipation. The central objective of these programmes is the promotion of freedom and of its material, political and social conditions, especially where diremption and alienation prevail. Alienation is the subversion of the connection between active subjects and the purposes they pursue in their activity; Marx offers a materialist reformulation of Kant's distinction between autonomy and heteronomy, between self-directed and other-directed acts.
