General Introduction

• Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-95) were German scholars, writers, and chief exponents of Marxism, an influential school of thought.

• Marx was a social scientist, historian, and revolutionary who critically analyzed capitalist society, propounded a materialist interpretation of history, and paved the way for the transition to communism.

• Born into a professional middle-class family, Marx studied philosophy and history at several German universities, including the University of Berlin, where he engaged deeply with G.W.F. Hegel’s political philosophy.

• Marx’s radical views prevented him from securing an academic position; he turned to journalism and engaged in contemporary debates in law and economics.

• He re-evaluated Hegel’s philosophy from a materialist viewpoint and was expelled from the country for his radicalism.

• Marx moved to France, where he became an ardent communist and wrote the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, contrasting alienation of labor under capitalism with free human development in cooperative communist society.

• In 1842, Marx met Engels in Paris; Engels, son of a wealthy textile manufacturer with business in Germany and Manchester, became his lifelong collaborator.

• Engels, despite business acumen, criticized mill-owners exploiting workers, describing workers’ squalid housing, poor health, and poverty.

• From 1849, Marx lived in England, producing most of his major works.

• Important works by Marx include:

  • Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

  • Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843)

  • Theses on Feuerbach (1845)

  • The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)

  • The Class Struggle in France (1850)

  • A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)

  • The Civil War in France (1871)

• Joint works by Marx and Engels include:

  • The Holy Family (1845)

  • The German Ideology (1845-46)

  • Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), aka The Communist Manifesto; Engels annotated the English edition (1888).

• Marx’s Capital was published in three volumes:

  • Vol. I by Marx (1879)

  • Vol. II and III edited and published by Engels (1885, 1894)

• Engels’ important independent works include:

  • On Authority (1873)

  • Anti-Dühring (1877-78)

  • Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)

  • The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884)

• Engels’ contributions are essential to fully understanding many prominent issues in Marxist theory.

• Marx and Engels made immense contributions to sociology, economics, and philosophy.

• Their major contributions to political philosophy include:
  (a) Dialectical Materialism
  (b) Historical Materialism
  (c) Theory of Revolution
  (d) Doctrine of Class Conflict
  (e) Concept of Surplus Value
  (f) Concept of Freedom
  (g) Role of Private Property