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From "The life and teaching of Karl Marx" by Beer, Max
Bruno Bauer
Lecturer in theology, Young Hegelian and former friend of Marx.
Core Belief
"That ideas are the driving force of history and that the masses are incapable of understanding complex ideas."
Worldview
Idealistic, believing in the power of reason and the importance of intellectual pursuits.
Personality
Dogmatic and intellectual, he believes in the power of ideas but is dismissive of the masses. He is arrogant and unwilling to compromise.
In Their Own Words
"All the great movements of history up to this time were therefore doomed to failure and could not have lasting success, because the masses had taken an interest in them and inspired them--or they must come to a lamentable conclusion because the underlying idea was of such a nature that a superficial apprehension of it must suffice, that is to say, it must reckon on the approval of the masses."
"The aim of the book was to force the Young Hegelians into the path of social criticism, to urge them forward and prevent them from falling into stereotyped and abstract ways of thinking."
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