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The Socrates Meets Marx: The Father of Philosophy Cross-Examines the Founder of Communism

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Peter Kreeft is professional philosopher, a prolific author, and an avid Christian apologist. He has written a number of books using the Socratic method of dialogue and questioning to stimulate thought, correct fuzzy thinking, and challenge our unexamined presuppositions.

He is now in the midst of a new series of volumes, entitled Socrates Meets.... The series is designed to help introduce the reader to the major thinkers and their writings. In this book we have Kreeft (via Socrates) analyse and dissect The Communist Manifesto.

This book, of course, belongs to that group of books which almost everyone knows about but very few people have actually read. Works by Darwin and Freud could also be mentioned (and one suspects that Kreeft has these authors in the pipeline as well).

So it is quite important that someone who actually knows these Great Books quite well can make them accessible and understandable to the average layperson. These volumes do a very good job of distilling the contents and ideas of the Great Books, making them easy to understand and digest. The format of a debate or dialogue between Socrates and his antagonist makes for enjoyable and illuminating reading.

Indeed, the format makes the book fun while helping the reader discover discerning and penetrating insights into the subject of the debate. By uniting a Christian worldview with the probing Socratic method, Kreeft is able to clarify an opponent's position, and point out the inconsistencies and fallacies therein. He is then in a position to show the superior claims of the Judeo-Christian position, over against that found in their works.

This volume applies solid logic and the timeless truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition to one of the most influential of modern thinkers. It makes for a great introduction to this thinker, as well as an incisive critique of his thoughts. One can only look forward to future volumes in this excellent series.

After having approached the economic arguments against socialism (and its subordinate -isms like Marx-, Commun-, Naz-, Lenin-, Mao-, etc.) from the perspectives of Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Thomas Sowell, and most especially Friedrich Hayek, it didn't take much to be convinced that Marx was, well, just plain wrong. We have the empirical evidence of something like 80 years of actual practice to point to, to assess, and from which to draw conclusions.

Not until I read Prof. Kreeft's work did I come to comprehend the more important question: *why Marx was wrong*. Socialism was not just hampered by a flawed execution ("everyone" says that Russia should not have been the first nation to try socialism), but fundamentally crippled by a flawed premise. And thereby fated to fail.

I won't give the lesson away - you'll enjoy getting there yourself. I will say, though, that if Marx had been right, our world would be a much more horrifying place than any Matrix-like "Dis-topia" that Hollywood could contrive.

The book takes place in the afterlife. Socrates greets Karl Marx as he crosses over, and they enter into a philosophical discussion about life and Marx's "The Communist Manifesto."

I loved the format - it not only gave the basis, interpretation and analysis of The Communist Manifesto but was humorous and entertaining. There were many quick-witted, sarcastic exchanges where they look disdainfully at each other's positions. My favorite was Marx telling Socrates he spends as much time thinking about thinking as he does actually thinking.

This is a great way to understand the basics of Socrates and Marx's ways of thinking without having to go through the drudgery of reading some long, incomprehensible, boring book. You get the significant philosophical contrasts of Marx and Socrates in a simple, understandable format. It's a modern day Cliff's Notes.

As a first impression, I greatly enjoyed how Kreeft captured the reported personality of Marx - "I will destroy you!" being the 'great man's' typical response to any questioning of his all-encompasing weltanschauung . No wonder Kreeft has to place Marx in philosphical purgatory in order to truly dig down into his logical fallacies and empty rhetoric. Given the excellent and humorous setting for the Socratic belting, the "historical fact" of Dialectical Materialism is shown to be nothing more than the will of an angry, misanthropic man, unfortunately possessed with charismatic and intellectual talents, imposed upon willing positivistic 19th century materialists as inescapable, objective reality; Marx's ideas fail not only the god of history he so adored, but the basic premises of logic any system, even that of of an absolute Materialist such as Marx, must abide by in their quest to explain the world around them.

Marx's empty, personality driven tautology is exposed for what it is, and the Marxist Dialectic is given its just rewards. Living in an era where ideas are often treated as nothing more than market induced commodities (a perspective Marx would applaud), Professor Kreeft's work shows the reader where to begin searching for true wisdom, and provides the tools to break the circle of totalitarian and subjectivist ideas, which threaten our world still.

An excellent book. I have received a very good education.

Kreeft shows the absurdity of the Communistic economic system. However, he doesn't really brag all that much about the Capitalistic system either.

This book helped me understand Marx and how his ideas still pollute the thoughts of many in the West.