The Question of Man-Citizen Cooperation in the Declaration of Rights of 1789 from a Marxian Perspective

Year 2014, Issue: 23 - Kaygı (23) 2014, 75 - 85, 30.10.2014

Melis Aktaş

https://doi.org/10.20981/kuufefd.37121

Abstract

The Declaration of Rights of 1789 has been always regarded as a gain of “rights” in the domains of freedom, equality and right of property in the history of man. While we find within it “Man” and “Citizen” as the keywords we usually ignore what these are actually standing for. In fact this division of “Man” and “Citizen” is nothing but an affirmation of capitalism offering people to lead two separate lives in two distinct realms. This in turn gives us the possibility to come across the abstract “Man” covering up its being the bourgeois himself in reality along with the legal term “Citizen” infused with morality, introduced as if in a justification of his demand for the rights. And just there we find Marx who in his way puts an end to the dissimulation in question. So this work aims, in the line of Marx, an uncovering of the identities of the “Man” and “Citizen” in the declaration.

Keywords

Social Contract; Natural Man; Citizen; Freedom; Equality; Property; Bourgeoisie; Capitalism

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