The Philosophy of Karl
Marx
and Friedrich Engels

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

General Overview

Life
and Works

Dialectical
Materialism

Metaphysics

Psychology

Epistemology

Values

I. General Overview

Karl
Marx and Friedrich Engels strove to put into
practical effect the humanitarian concept of Feuerbach.
In so doing, they founded a new economic movement called Socialism.
According to Marx, the supreme end of man is an immanent and material one, and
consists in happiness. This material happiness must be obtained through organized
collectivism. In fact, according to Marx, reality is governed by economic
needs (historical materialism). Economic reality develops according to Hegel's
dialectical principles; that is, reality must deny itself in order to reach a
higher degree of being.

In
application, this principle means that the present organization of society must
be destroyed (even through violent revolution, if necessary, because only
through such destruction can a better political, economic, and social
organization be achieved. To establish this new format of society, working men (the
proletariat) must be organized and take up the struggle against the
capitalists who defraud them. Thus the actors in this drama are the social
classes -- the proletariat is arrayed against capitalism. This struggle,
according to Marx and Engels, will end in victory for
the proletariat, that is, in the triumph of universal Socialism.

II. Life and Works

Karl
Marx (picture) was born
on May 5, 1818 and died on March 14, 1883. He was a German economist,
philosopher, and revolutionist whose writings form the basis of the body of
ideas known as Marxism. With the aid of Friedrich Engels
(picture) he produced
much of the theory of modern socialism and communism. Marx's father, Heinrich,
was a Jewish lawyer who had converted his family to Christianity partly in
order to preserve his job in the Prussian state. Karl himself was baptized in
the Evangelical church. As a student at the University of Berlin, young Marx was strongly
influenced by the philosophy of Georg Hegel and by a
radical group called Young Hegelians, who attempted to apply Hegelian ideas to
the movement against organized religion and the Prussian autocracy. In 1841,
Marx received a doctorate in philosophy.

In
1842, Marx became editor of the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne, a liberal democratic newspaper
for which he wrote increasingly radical editorials on social and economic
issues. The newspaper was banned by the Prussian government in 1843, and Marx
left for Paris with his bride, Jenny von Westphalen. There he went further in his criticism of
society, building on the Young Hegelian criticism of religion. Ludwig Feuerbach had written a book called The Essence of
Christianity, arguing that God had been invented by humans as a projection
of their own ideals.

Feuerbach wrote that man, however, in
creating God in his own image, had "alienated himself from himself."
He had created another being in contrast to himself, reducing himself to a
lowly, evil creature who needed both church and
government to guide and control him. If religion were abolished, Feuerbach claimed, human beings would overcome their
alienation.

Marx
applied this idea of alienation to private property, which he said caused
humans to work only for themselves, not for the good of their species. In his
papers of this period, published as Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
of 1844, he elaborated on the idea that alienation had an economic base.
He called for a communist society to overcome the dehumanizing effect of
private property.

In
1845, Marx moved to Brussels, and in 1847 he went to London. He had previously made friends
with Friedrich Engels, the son of a wealthy textile
manufacturer who, like himself, had been a Young Hegelian. They collaborated on
a book which was a criticism of some of their Young Hegelian friends for their
stress on alienation.

In
1845, Marx jotted down some notes, Theses on Feuerbach,
which he and Engels enlarged into a book, The
German Ideology, in which they developed their materialistic conception of
history. They argued that human thought was determined by social and economic
forces, particularly those related to the means of production. They developed a
method of analysis they called dialectical materialism, in which the
clash of historical forces leads to changes in society.

In
1847 a London organization of workers invited
Marx and Engels to prepare a program for them. It
appeared in 1848 as The Communist Manifesto. In it they declared that
all history was the history of class struggles. Under capitalism, the struggle
between the working class and the business class would end in a new society, a
communist one.

The
outbreak of the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe led Marx to return to Cologne, where he began publication of
the Neue Rheinische
Zeitung, but with the failure of the German
liberal democratic movement he moved permanently, in 1849, to London. For many years he and his
family lived in poverty, aided by small subventions from Engels
and by bequests from the relatives of Marx's wife. From 1851 to 1862 he
contributed articles and editorials to The New York Tribune, then edited
by Horace Greeley. Most of his time, however, was spent in the British Museum, studying economic and social
history and developing his theories.

Marx's
ideas began to influence a group of workers and German emigres
in London, who established the
International Workingmen's Association in 1864, later known as the First
International. By the time of the brief Commune of Paris in 1871, Marx's name
had begun to be well known in European political circles. A struggle developed
within the International between Marx and the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, whom Marx eventually defeated and expelled, at the
cost of destroying the International.

In
1867, Marx published the first volume of Das
Kapital. The next two volumes, edited by Engels, were published after Marx's death. The fourth
volume was edited by Karl Kautsky. Marx's last years
were marked by illness and depression. Marx continued to write treatises on
socialism, urging that his followers disdain softhearted bourgeois tendencies.
At Marx's funeral in Highgate Cemetery in London, Engels
spoke of him as "the best-hated and most-calumniated man of his
time." The importance of Marx's thought, however, extends far beyond the
revolutionary movements whose prophet he became. His writings on economics and
sociology are still influential in academic circles and among many who do not
share his political views.

The
main philosophical works of Karl Marx that are of interest to most students are
the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

III. Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical
materialism occupies a place all its own in European philosophy. First of all
it had very few exponents in academic circles outside the former Soviet Union and Communist China, where, by
contrast, it was (Russia) and is (China) established as the official philosophy
and consequently had privileges such as are enjoyed by no other contemporary
school of philosophy. Besides, it is unique as the philosophy of a political
party -- the Communists; on this account it is closely linked to the economic
and political theories as well as to the practical activity of that party, for
which it is the "general theory."

In Russia where the Communist party was
in control, no one was permitted to teach any other philosophy than dialectical
materialism, and even the exposition of its own classical philosophical texts
was strictly supervised. This supervision -- in combination, it is true, with
the Russian national character -- explains some of the odd features of
dialectical-materialist publications; the latter are strikingly different from
all others through their complete uniformity. All of their authors say exactly
the same thing and make innumerable quotations from the classical authors, who
are made to yield arguments for current theses at every turn. Perhaps this
supervision is to be blamed also for the mediocrity of the philosophers in this
school of philosophy; it is in any case responsible for the extreme dogmatism,
chauvinism, and aggressiveness of the followers of Karl Marx and dialectical
materialism.

Even
more significant, however, than these peculiarities, which could be accidental,
is the reactionary character of the philosophy of Marx and its
dialectical materialism, for this philosophy leads straight back to the
mid-19th century and seeks to restore the intellectual situation of that time
without the slightest alteration.

The
Russians regarded Karl Marx, with whom Friedrich Engels
worked in close cooperation, as the founder of dialectical materialism. Marx
belonged to the Hegelian school, which had split into a "left" and a
"right" by the time Marx was studying at the University of Berlin. A prominent representative of
the "left" was Ludwig Feuerbach who
interpreted the Hegelian system in a materialistic sense and treated world
history as the unfolding of matter and not of spirit.

Marx
firmly supported Feurerbach but simultaneously came
under the influence of scientific materialism which was spreading at the
time; this explains his enthusiasm for science, his profound and ingenious
belief in progress, and his prejudice in favor of Darwinian evolutionism.
In founding dialectical materialism, Marx linked the Hegelian dialectic to the
materialism of his day.

Marx
himself was chiefly a political economist, sociologist, and social philosopher.
He is the founder of historical materialism while the general
philosophical foundation of the system, which is dialectical materialism, is
essentially the work of Engels. Dialectical
materialism constitutes a link between the Hegelian dialectic and 19th-century
materialism.

IV. Metaphysics

According
to metaphysical materialism the only real world is the material world,
and the mind is simply the product of a material organ, the brain. The
contrast between matter and consciousness has no value except for epistemology;
really there is only matter. The dialectical materialists certainly criticize
the older materialistic schools, yet this criticism is not aimed against
materialism as such, but exclusively at the lack of a dialectical element, and
of a "correct" conception of evolution.

The
import of dialectical materialism depends, naturally, upon the meaning one
gives to the word "matter." In this respect certain difficulties are
caused by a definition given by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), the man who
subsequently thought out the doctrines of Marx and Engels
afresh, then expounded them and prescribed them for the Communist party.
According to Lenin, matter is simply a "philosophical category serving to
indicate objective reality." In Lenin's epistemology matter is throughout
opposed to consciousness by equating "matter" and "objective
reality."

Still,
we are not left in the dark upon this point, because in other places the
dialectical materialists maintain that we can know matter by means of the
senses, that matter underlies causal and deterministic laws, and that it
is opposite to consciousness; briefly, it is clear that the usage of the
word "matter" by the dialectical materialists differs in way from the
popular one. Dialectical materialism is classical and radical materialism.

Yet
this materialism is not mechanical. According to the accepted teaching, only
inorganic matter is subject to mechanical laws and not living matter, although
the latter is certainly governed by the laws of causal determinism. Even in
physics the dialectical materialists do not defend unconditioned atomism.

Matter
is in continuous evolution toward the formulation of ever more complex beings
-- atoms, molecules, living cells, plants, men, society. Thus evolution is not
regarded as cyclic but as linear. Besides, evolution is regarded optimistically
-- the latest stage is always the most complex, which in its turn is equated
with the best and the noblest. The dialectical materialists still retain a
thoroughly 19th-century belief in progress through evolution.

According
to them this evolution consists in a series of revolutions -- small
quantitative alterations in the essence of a thing pile up, tension is
produced, and a struggle takes place until at a fixed moment the new elements
become strong enough to destroy the equilibrium and a new quality emerges from
the previous quantitative alterations. This is the
thesis-antithesis-synthesis paradigm. Conflict, therefore, exemplifies the
driving force of evolution which proceeds by leaps -- this is the so-called
"dialectical evolution."

The
entire course of evolution is aimless, being achieved as a result of encounters
and combats under the impact of purely causal factors. Strictly speaking, the
world has neither a meaning or a goal and evolves
blindly in accordance with eternal, deterministic laws.

There
is nothing permanent; the whole world and all its elements are swept along by
the dialectical evolution; in every place and at all times the old dies and the
new comes to birth; there are neither permanent substances nor "eternal
principles." Only matter and the laws of its change exist externally
amid universal movement.

The
world must be conceived as a unified whole. In contrast to metaphysics which
(say the Marxists) sees the world as a host of disconnected entities, the
dialectical materialists are representative of monism in a twofold
sense. They see the world as the unique reality (outside of it there is
nothing, and, in particular, there is no God), and they see its principle as homogeneous
(dualism and and pluralism of any sort are rejected
as false).

The
laws which govern this world are deterministic in the classical sense of the
world. It is
true that the dialectical materialists do not, for various reasons, wish to be
classified as "determinists," and for this reason teach that a
plant's growth, for instance, is not entirely determined by the laws of this
plant because an external factor, such as hail, can render them inoperative.
But in relation to the whole of things the dialectical materialists firmly rule
out accidents -- the world's laws in their totality determine the entire
process of the universe without exception.

V. Psychology

Mind,
or consciousness, is nothing but an epiphenomenon, a "copy, a
reflection, a photograph" of matter. Consciousness cannot exist without
the body and is a product of the brain. Matter is the primary datum, and
consciousness (or mind) is secondary; consequently consciousness is not the
determinant of matter but, vice versa, matter of consciousness. Psychology is
thus materialistic and determinist.

Nevertheless,
this determinism is subtler than the earlier materialist version. For one thing
the dialectical materialists do not wish to be out-and-out determinists.
Freedom, to them, consists in the possibility of deriving benefit from the laws
of nature; even man, of course, is subject to these laws but he is aware of the
fact and his freedom lies in the simple awareness of necessity
(as with Hegel). Furthermore, they maintain, matter does not determine
consciousness directly but works through the medium of society.

Thus
man is essentially social, unable to live without society; only in society can
he produce the necessities of life. But the means and the methods for such
production first of all determine interpersonal relationships and these in turn
determine man's consciousness. This is the theme of historical materialism;
everything that a man thinks, wishes, or wills is in the final analysis a
consequence of his social needs, just as they in turn result from methods of
production and the social relationships created by this production.

These
methods and relationships are continually changing and thereby society becomes
subject to the law of dialectical evolution which comes to light in the class
struggle. The total
content of human consciousness is determined by society and changes along with
social progress.

VI. Epistemology

Since
matter determines consciousness, knowledge must be conceived in a realistic
fashion; the subject does not create the object, for the object exists
independently of the subject; knowledge results from the fact that copies,
reflections, or photographs of matter are present in the mind. The world is not
unknowable but is thoroughly knowable. Naturally the true method of knowing
consists solely in science combined with technical practice; technical
progress shows well enough the degeneracy of all agnosticism. Though knowledge
is essentially sense knowledge, rational thought is necessary to organize these
experiential data. Positivism is "bourgeois charlatanry" and
"idealism," because we do actually grasp the essences of things
through phenomena.

So far
Marxist epistemology sets itself up as absolute naive realism of the
usual empiricist type. The peculiarity of Marxist materialism lies in the fact
that it combines this realistic outlook with another one, the pragmatic.
From the notion that all contents of our consciousness are determined by our
economic needs it follows equally that each social class has its own science
and its own philosophy. An independent, nonparty science is impossible; the
truth is whatever leads to success, and practice alone constitutes the
criterion of truth.

Both
these theories of knowledge are found side by side in Marxism without anyone
trying very hard to harmonize them. The most they will concede is that our
knowledge is a striving for the absolute truth, but that for the moment it is
simply relative, answering to our needs. Here the theory seems to fall into
contradiction, for if the truth were relative to our needs then knowledge would
never be a copy of reality -- not even a partial copy.

VII. Values

According
to historical materialism all contents of consciousness are the result of economic
needs which, in turn, are continuously changing. This applies particularly to
morality, aesthetics, and religion.

In
regard to morality, historical materialism recognizes no eternal code whatever
and teaches that each social class has its own morality. The highest moral rule
for the proletariat -- the most progressive class -- is that only
that is morally good which contributes to the destruction of bourgeois society.

In
aesthetics things are more complicated. It must readily be admitted that in reality,
in things themselves, there exists an objective element which acts as the
ground of our aesthetic appreciation and permits us to see things as either
beautiful or ugly. But on the other hand this appreciation also depends upon
evolution; each class having its own special needs, each has its own scale of
values. Consequently, art should not be cut off from life but must portray the
heroic efforts of the proletariat in its fight to establish a socialist world (socialist
realism).

Finally,
a very different temper prevails in its theory about religion. Dialectical
materialism treats religion as a conglomeration of false and fantastic
statements which science has condemned, and science alone is the way to
knowledge. Religion originates in fear; in their powerlessness before
nature, and later before their exploiters, men have defied these powers and
petitioned them, finding in religion and otherworldly beliefs a consolation
which their exploited and slavish existence could not afford them.

However,
the exploiters (feudalists, capitalists, etc.) regard religion as a superb
means of keeping the masses under their yoke; firstly, it makes them obedient
to their exploiters and, secondly, it prevents the proletariat from revolting
through promising them a better lot after death. The proletariat exploits no
one, and so needs no religion. While morality and aesthetics are only subject
to change, religion must vanish completely.