Karl Marx

Abstract

The philosophy of Karl Marx (1818–1883) is intimately political, having been written to bring about changes in the political world. As he famously argued in Theses on Feuerbach (1845): ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it’ (Marx, 1977c, p. 423). Such a political intention is represented in Marx’s lifelong journalistic work; his activism in the Communist Correspondence Committee, the Communist League (for which Marx and Engels wrote the famous Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848]); and, of course, his founding role in the International Workingmen’s Association. Moreover, even in his most ‘philosophical’ and/or ‘economic’ modes of writing, Marx always assumed there were intimate links between the most arcane economic or philosophical discussions and their political role in the struggles of the working classes. Indeed, in an interview in the New York World in 1871, Marx clearly traced the relation of his theory to the political struggles associated with the working class:

It is hardly likely … that we could hope to prosper in our way against capital if we derived our tactics, say, from the political economy of Mill. He has traced one kind of relationship between labour and capital. We hope to show that it is possible to establish another. (Marx, 1974, p. 399)

What does such a practical political horizon to Marx’s oeuvre do for our understanding of his political theory? In what way does such an ideological dimension offer insights into Marx’s unique contribution to the study of politics?