Abstract

My article does not aim at a comparison between Hegel’s and Marx’s points of view on Asia as such. The Hegelian motives are employed to understand the place and the significance of the Orient in Marx’s writings from the 1850s onwards. The more Marx learns from original and/or updated sources on the Oriental societies, the more Hegel’s authority seems inadequate to provide a reliable and comprehensive account of their history and social organization. Yet his “spirit” still holds together the different perspectives from which the subject is approached by Marx. In other words, Marx’s interest in Asia is here considered through the lens of Hegel’s legacy in order to reflect on the endless effort of the materialistic dialectic to encompass the complexity of reality and global history.