The German Ideology, including Theses on Feuerbach (Great Books in Philosophy) [Paperback]

Karl Marx (Author), Friedrich Engels (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 1, 1998

Nearly two years before his powerful Communist Manifesto, Marx (1818-1883) co-wrote The German Ideology in 1845 with friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels expounding a new political worldview, including positions on materialism, labor, production, alienation, the expansion of capitalism, class conflict, revolution, and eventually communism. They chart the course of "true" socialism based on Hegel's dialectic, while criticizing the ideas of Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach. Marx expanded his criticism of the latter in his now famous Theses on Feuerbach, found after Marx's death and published by Engels in 1888. Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, also found among the posthumous papers of Marx, is a fragment of an introduction to his main works. Combining these three works, this volume is essential for an understanding of Marxism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 571 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; Paperback edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573922587
• ISBN-13: 978-1573922586
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Great work, poor edition August 29, 2005

By AcademicReader

Format:Paperback

I highly recommend The German Ideology, but wish to warn buyers of this edition (Prometheus). The quality of the print in this edition is very low, the font is difficult to read, and the spacing is very tight. Perhaps most frustrating, however, is that the text is marked with numbers for footnotes that have no actual corresponding footnotes. I have written to the publisher three times about this issue and have received no response or explanation. The name of the translator is also suspiciously absent, and there is no introduction to the work--something that in this case would be very helpful. On the positive side, I think this edition provides the complete German Ideology, but Book One is really all that is necessary or ever referenced, and this can be found in other editions.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A philosophical romp with the "young Marx" March 15, 2002

By ChairmanLuedtke

Format:Paperback

The fashionable revisions and reifications of Hegel (the "official" political theory of Germany) common to Marx's era filled him with such disgust that he and Engels penned an entire rhetoric-laced diatribe against them, "The German Ideology." This book served, for Marx and his sidekick, not only as a materialist attack on Hegelian idealism and its conceptions of history, but also served, in their words, as a "self-clarification" of their own stances on a number of issues. Foremost among these issues is the actual role of the political philosopher in society and in history. Indeed, Marx is directly referring to the legacy of his Hegelian contemporaries when he says that "philosophers have only interpreted the world . . . the point, however, is to change it."

Marx departs from Hegel and his latter-day followers (whether revolutionary or conservative) in both method and in goals. As far as methodology is concerned, Marx is an empiricist of a certain normatively world-changing brand, which obviously leaves him open to critiques from "pure" empiricism as being either an outright determinist (an obviously abhorrent concept to the entire Humean tradition) or else being merely a moral philosopher in scientist's clothing.

As for goals, while some of Hegel's followers might share a certain revolutionary telos with Marx, they cannot truly be his comrades because for Marx the revolutionary method (historical materialism) is inseparable from the revolutionary goal (communism); that is, communism cannot by nature be an "ideal" . . . "to which reality will have to adjust itself" (as it is for the Hegelians). Instead, the ideal of communism must adjust itself to reality (thus becoming no longer an ideal), and that is precisely Marx's project as expressed in the 11th Thesis on Feuerbach: through his writings, to "adjust" the real world to his view of the way it's going to be (by writing about the world the way that it has been, and the way that it is now).

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars May change your you view the world November 2, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is absolutely necessary to understand the philosophical underpinnings of Marxism. It describes how Marxism arrives at its historical world view or why Marxist theory uses as its base the relationships between human beings in a society. It is these relationships that shape our culture and form a society's morals, politics, and ideology. It was written to contrast the "German ideologues" who insist(ed) that ideas shape culture--not men and women. It's not an easy read, often disjointed and difficult to conceptualize, nor is all of it fruitful (read what you can). But there are passages and insights that can offer you a completely different perspective on society while broadening your understanding of Marxism.