Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Leszek Kolakowski opens his three-volume study Main Currents of Marxism with the statement “Karl Marx was a German philosopher.” All the terms in this apparently factual proposition are highly contestable. Drawing out these issues will help us to locate Marx intellectually in relation to philosophical ideas, both of his time and ours, and to identify and evaluate his contributions and insights. Perhaps most surprisingly, it is not even clear that Karl Marx, in relation to philosophy, was one person or two. He was in association for almost forty years (from around 1844 until his death) with Friedrich Engels (1820–95). For many years this partnership was taken to be sacrosanct, giving Engels an interpretive imprimatur over Marx's ideas, published works, and manuscripts. Indeed Engels was not only Marx's first biographer but also the original biographer of the partnership itself. His multiple roles as popularizer, editor, and eventually literary executor became a fulltime occupation during the 12 years by which he outlived Marx. In his lifetime Marx was certainly in intimate correspondence with Engels, and almost wholly in financial dependence upon his resources and goodwill. However, they wrote only three major works together (of which two were published at the time in the 1840s, and one many years later from manuscript). Marx himself acknowledged Engels's own works very generously ... log in or subscribe to read full text