A Contextualization of Marx's Doctoral Dissertation and the Problem of the Concept of FreedomA Critical Revival of the Philosophy of Self-Consciousness

The "Vormärz" is a special period in German history, a time when German freedom was severely restricted. It is similar to the Hellenistic period in terms of social history and ideology, and this similarity makes "self-consciousness" a source of intellectual thought and a concept that the young Hegelian thinkers were attracted to, while the dissolution of the Hegelian school provided the soil for the exaltation of self-consciousness, which represents freedom, and in turn, for the Marx's study of the philosophy of self-consciousness provided a theoretical opportunity. Against this background, Marx, who was deeply influenced by the Young Hegelians, accurately grasped the pulse of the times, and in his Doctoral Dissertation made an in-depth comparison between the two anatomist in the Hellenistic period, and answered the questions of how freedom was possible in the philosophy of "self-consciousness" and how freedom could be realized. Although Marx was also in a period of ideological transformation in the early 1940s, unlike Bruno Bauer and other "self-conscious" philosophers, Marx put forward unique insights into the specificity of "self-consciousness," the relationship between thought and existence, and philosophy and reality. This is Marx's thinking and shouting in the era when freedom was bound, and also Marx's initial concern for materialism.