Marx on Hegel. From introduction.

What men think is right should be realized in society, this goal, that thought should govern reality, was Hegel's premiere contribution to philosophy. Yet, thinking varies among individuals; the diversity of opinion cannot provide a guiding principle, since each man sees things differently. Hegel believes that "man posesses concepts and principles of thought that denote universally valid conditions and norms." If we take for granted that "such objective concepts and principles exist," it is these "universal truths" that comprise the nature of reason.

Hegel envisioned the historical world not as a chain of acts and events but as a ceaseless struggle to adopt the world to the growing potentialities of mankind (10). The final goal of history, if such a laudable thing can be said to exist, is the realization of reason into reality, and this goal cannot be achieved as long as there is a gap between reality and reason, or potential reality -- a world in which reason reigns supreme and no human act occurs which contradicts this universally defined condition. In such a world, all reality is shaped by reason, and any event that seems unreasonable is not a part of this reality.

Hegel believed that the world had attained this perfect state of reason governing reality. One might call him crazy for this statement; after all, Hegel's Germany was a strictly classist state, ruled by an authoriarian government. But for Hegel, the true reality is where reason prevails and transcends existing social conditions. How can reason transcend class, gender, and race, but through thought. Hegel saw thought as a refuge for reason and liberty;after all, even slaves are free to think. Hegel thus proposed that the goal of 'reason in reality' had been achieved, that all the struggles of history were in effect to reach this point.

It was Marx who pointed at the proletariat and said there is no reason here: "The existance of the proletariat thus gives living witness to the fact that the truth has not been realized." The proletariat contradicts the 'reality of reason' (261).

I think :

Freedom is the power to act in accordance with knowledge of the truth, the power to shape reality in line with its potentialities (9). Simple knowledge of the truth, of reason, is not enough to say we have achieved reason in reality. This freedom to mold reason into reality is, in my mind, the goal of civilization that Hegel should have been striving for. Without freedom, and not simple freedom but freedom as defined in terms of true power over reality, we are far from achieving the goal.

Kant: No such thing as "things in themselves" because all things are perceived through the senses. If we can transcend sense, through some sort of "transcendental consciousness" ...