The Discovery of the Materialist Conception of History in the Writings of the Young Karl Marx

249 Pages·2004·8.287 MB·English

by  Ernie Thomson

The Discovery of the Materialist
Conception of History
in the Writings of the Young Karl Marx
Thomson, Ernie.
The discovery of the materialist conception of history in the writings of the young Karl
Marx / Ernie Thomson.
p. cm. - (Studies in social and political theoiy; v. 30)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7734-6426-3
1. Marx, Karl, 1818-1883.2. Historical materialism~History~19th century. I. Title. II.
Series.
B3305.M74T57 2004
335.4-119~dc22
2004045559
This is volume 30 in the continuing series
Studies in Social and Political Theory
Volume 30 ISBN 0-7734-6426-3
SSPT Series ISBN 0-88946-100-7
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library
Front cover photos: Karl Marx at about ages 20 and 60.
Copyright © 2004 Ernie Thomson
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 450 Box 67
Lewiston, New York Queen ston, Ontario
USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS 1L0
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales
UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT
Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents
Preface by Richard P. Appelbaum.......................................................................i
introduction............................................................................................................1
Part I. Marx and Feuerbach..............................................................................15
Chapter 1. Ludwig Feuerbach...........................................................................21
Feuerbach's critique of philosophy 22 Feuerbach's method 38
Feuerbach's theory of alienation 46 Conclusion 53
Chapter 2. Marx and Feuerbach........................... 57
A note on Engels and Feuerbach 57 Marx and Feuerbach (1843) 60
Marx and Feuerbach (1844) 66 Conclusion 99
Part II. The Epistemological Break.................................................................103
Chapter3. MaxStirner....................................................................................Ill
The Ego and His Own (Part 1)113 The Ego and His Own (Part 2) 127
Stirner vs. Feuerbach 134 Stirner vs. liberal social theory 135
Stirner's justification 137
Chapter 4. Marx’s Epistemological Break.....................................................139
The Marx-Engels letters 140 Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach” 142
Hess's "The Recent Philosophers" 146 Marx’s "On Friedrich List" 153
Marx in the spring of 1845 155 Feuerbach's reply to Stirner 159
Conclusion 163
Chapter 5. The German Ideology.....................................................................173
"Feuerbach" 174 "Saint Max" 189
Chapter 6. Conclusion......................................................................................207
Notes....................................................................................................................217
Bibliography.......................................................................................................223
Index....................................................................................................................233

Preface
With the publication of For Marx and Reading Capital in the 1960’s and 1970’s,
Louis Althusser ignited a storm of controversy among Marxists and Marx
scholars that reshaped the debates about the nature and scope of Marxism.
Althusser’s work was a response to the dogmatic Marxism of the Stalinists on the
one hand and the ^humanist” strain of Marxism that emerged with the publication
of Marx’s early Hegelian manuscripts on the other. Althusser argued that during
his early years Marx’s ideas had been heavily influenced by the critical humanism
of Ludwig Feuerbach, and were inextricably tied to the contemporary critique of
Hegel’s philosophy. But in the mid-1840’s, according to Althusser, Marx broke
with Feuerbach and began a long process of purging the philosophical
assumptions from his work and developing a rigorously scientific approach - his
materialist conception of history. This “epistemological break” thesis allowed
Althusser to reinterpret "mature” Marxism in light of twentieth-century social
science concepts unavailable to Marx in the nineteenth century - concepts like
structuralism, over-determination, the unconscious, etc.
Althusser’s supporters, taking his claims about Marx’s epistemological break
more or less at face value, focused on revising Marxist theory along the lines
suggested by Althusser, while his many critics, assuming that the epistemological
break thesis was simply wrong, focused mostly on criticizing the reinterpretation
and “modernization” of Marx’s ideas, along with personal attacks on Althusser
himself. As author Ernie Thomson points out in his Introduction to this study,
neither side seemed at all interested in examining either the evidence that the
epistemological break thesis was based on or the gaps in Althusser’s argument for
the break thesis. In the course of evaluating both Althusser’s claims and those of
his critics, Dr. Thomson reexamines some of Marx’s most-discussed writings of
the period (e.g., Marx’s "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844” and
"Theses on Feuerbach”) and produces original studies of some of the more
obscure writings of both Marx and others (Max Stimer’s The Ego and his Own,
Feuerbach’s response to Stimer, Moses Hess’s critique of Stimer in his article
"The Recent Philosophers,” Marx’s 1844 piece on James Mill and 1845 piece on
Friedrich List, the “Saint Max” section of The German Ideology, etc.). The results
of the study are, to say the least, surprising.
Thomson argues strongly and persuasively that Althusser’s epistemological
break thesis is fundamentally correct, and he fills in the major gaps in Althusser’s
account by explaining with some precision the extent to which Feuerbach
influenced Marx’s ideas in his 1843-44 writings, the timing of Marx’s break with
Feuerbach in 1845, the question of why Marx broke with Feuerbach, and where
the new ideas for Marx’s materialist conception of history came from. Perhaps the
most surprising results of the study, though, have to do with two of the most
discussed of Marx’s early unpublished writings, his theory of alienation in the
EPM of 1844 and his brief and riddle-like comments in the "Theses on
Feuerbach.”
Marx’s theory of alienation is usually regarded as the origin and centerpiece
of his critique of capitalism, and as his unique appropriation and humanization of
Hegel’s theory of alienation. Thomson argues that Marx’s theory was not really
Marx’s at all but rather was the "other half’ of Feuerbach 's theory of alienation,
and provides strong evidence that the theory was abandoned when Marx broke
with Feuerbach in 1845. Thomson also shows that Marx made an earlier
unsuccessful attempt to complete Feuerbach’s theory in his unpublished 1844
critique of James Mill.
Marx’s brief aphorisms in what came to be called the “Theses on Feuerbach”
are usually assumed to have been written in March 1845, and are seen by some as
evidence that Marx was not an uncritical follower of Feuerbach at the time and by
others as representing the earliest indication of Marx’s impending break with
Feuerbach. Thomson argues that these notes were probably written in late 1844 as
part of an initial review of Stimer’s book and, far from being a critique of
Feuerbach, the notes outline a defense of Feuerbach’s philosophical framework
against Stimer’s attacks.
Louis Althusser commented somewhere that Marx was not bom a Marxist.
This book illustrates his point in a striking way. It is well-researched, well-
written, and well-argued, and should be read by everyone interested in Marxism
and how Marx’s work relates to modem social theory.
Richard P. Appelbaum
Professor of Sociology and
Global and International Studies,
University of California at Santa Barbara