«5 3ft 
 
 , V • • - o » ^ °^ - V, , • * A° 
 
 
 
 "V ♦owe* ^ 
 
NT » J% \P 
 
 
 /% 
 
 ** v ..^-.v y..^j.% z^mkS 
 
caw 
 
 ■i a 
 
 THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 OF MARX 
 
 By 
 
 HARRY WATON 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MARX INSTITUTE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 

THE .PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
The Philosophy of Marx 
 
 By 
 
 HARRY WATON 
 
 1921 
 
 Published by 
 
 The Marx Institute 
 New York 
 

 
 :" 
 
 
 JAN 1V^ 
 
 gc/. -04$ 73\ 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 npHE perversions and misconceptions of the 
 -*- misinterpreters of Marx — the Kautskys, the 
 Plechanoffs and the Hillquits — gave birth only to 
 the cowardice of the Second International. Bol- 
 shevism, the Socialism of Marx and Engels, is 
 leading the proletariat of the world to victory, 
 as it has done in Russia. 
 
 The outbreak of the War in 1914 shipwrecked 
 the social-chauvinists and traitors of the Second 
 International in the sea of empty phrases which 
 they had created, and they floundered back to their 
 own countries to hide behind the skirts of Pat- 
 riotism. Only those who stood on the bedrock of 
 Marxism weathered the storm of the imperialist 
 war. Kerensky, one of these compromisers, lost 
 
 -^ the faith of the workers after the crash in Russia 
 
 03 in 1917. Then the party of the Bolsheviki, built 
 on the firm foundation of the Marxian theory, 
 
 J~ ruled with an iron discipline and with Lenin and 
 Trotzky at its head, seized the opportunity. For 
 
 "y three years they fought world capitalism and came 
 
 5 
 
6 FOREWORD 
 
 out victorious. They have proved to the proletariat 
 of the world, that waited breathlessly for the out- 
 come, the soundness of Marx' principles, "the only 
 revolutionary theory," according to Lenin, and the 
 hypocrisy of the blatant, opportunistic charlatans, 
 who had posed as leaders of the proletariat. 
 
 The working class of the world has taken this 
 lesson to heart. It has severed all connections 
 with these opportunists and has allied itself with 
 the Communist International and the Russian pro- 
 letariat. At the same time these renegades have 
 shown their true colors and are aligning themselves, 
 in the Class Struggle all over the world, on the 
 side of reaction. In Germany they have become 
 the bitterest enemies of the revolutionary prole- 
 tariat. In America there has been a sharp demar- 
 cation between the revolutionary working class and 
 the Hillquits and Spargos; in France the majority 
 of the Socialists have allied themselves with the 
 Communist International, thrusting aside Longuet 
 and Thomas; and, in the same way in every country, 
 the proletariat has put its faith in uncompromising 
 Marxism. 
 
 The Philosophy of Marx in an abbreviated 
 form was published several years ago in the 
 Radical Review. In the present publication 
 
FOREWORD 7 
 
 Comrade Waton's original, unmodified and clear 
 discernment is merely enlightened by the exper- 
 ience of the Russian revolution. This completed 
 >vx>rk, however, is more than a paraphrase of Marx; 
 it combines the soul and intellect of Comrade Waton 
 to complete an understandable truth pointing the 
 way to proletarian emancipation. Comrade Waton 
 has in this book rendered an inestimable service 
 to the Socialist movement by crystallizing the dif- 
 ferences between revolutionary Socialism and the 
 opportunism of the Second International. 
 
 Marx Institute. 
 
Philosophy cannot realize itself without the rising of the pro- 
 letariat; the proletariat cannot rise without the realization of 
 philosophy. 
 
 Men make their own history, but they do not make it out of 
 the whole cloth; they do not make it under conditions chosen by 
 themselves, but under such as are immediately found at hand, 
 given and transmitted. 
 
 Karl Marx. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 / 1%/TARX said: Philosophers have only interpreted 
 -*-"-*• the world differently, but the point is to change 
 it. This is significant. Up till now philosophers 
 busied themselves about the interpretation of the 
 world. It is high time that the interpreters of the 
 world begin to concern themselves about changing 
 and improving it. To Marx the interpretation of 
 the world was but a means to an aim — to understand 
 the world so that we may change and improve it 
 to suit our purposes. According to Marx, men 
 make their own history, though not of the whole 
 cloth, and they must make their own history, if 
 their existence is to be satisfactory. And only 
 from this point of view does the socialist move- 
 ment become necessary and rational, since the state 
 of socialism can come only through our own efforts, 
 
 9 
 
10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Of itself it will not come. At no time, therefore, 
 was a correct understanding of the philosophy of 
 Marx so essential to the progress of the socialist 
 movement and the emancipation of the working 
 class as it is now, when the socialist movement 
 suffered heavily in the great world tragedy, and 
 when the socialists themselves lost their bearings 
 in the overwhelming storm and stress. 
 
 But, the questions will arise: — What has phil- 
 osophy to do with the practical solution of the prob- 
 lems that confront the working class; and, if phil- 
 osophy has much to do with these problems, why 
 must it necessarily be the philosophy of Marx? 
 
 The first question cannot be answered here, for 
 the very philosophy of Marx is the answer to this 
 question. One therefore must first know the phil- 
 osophy to understand and appreciate the answer 
 to the question. Therefore, in this case, as in most 
 cases, the reader will have to take on trust the as- 
 surance that the answer will be found in the phil- 
 osophy that he is now to pursue. 
 
 The second question, however, can be answered 
 at the outset, and therefore should be answered at 
 once. 
 
 In his "Creative Evolution" Bergson shows that 
 the tendency of matter is towards mechanism and 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 11 
 
 constraint, while the tendency of life is towards 
 self -consciousness and freedom. Between matter 
 and life, therefore, there is this antagonism — while 
 matter pulls down towards constraint, life lifts up 
 towards freedom. And, while in all other living 
 beings matter still holds life in constraint, in man 
 only did life succeed to unburden itself of the con- 
 straint of matter and attain to some degree of free- 
 dom. This freedom life achieved through the in- 
 strumentality of human society. Society, like a 
 reservoir, stores up and preserves the excellent and 
 great achievements of the human race, by the ac- 
 cumulation of which society constantly raises the 
 level of human progress ever higher, and to which 
 level the individual must raise himself at the out- 
 set, if he is to live in society. And by this necessity 
 and initial stimulation the average man is saved 
 from the state of slumber and petrification, like in 
 the case of insects and plants, and the superior 
 man is enabled and encouraged to rise higher still. 
 Unlike all other living beings that, on coming 
 into existence, are almost equal to the full-grown 
 of their species, man, on coming into existence, 
 finds himself amidst a society of his own kind that 
 collectively has reached a much higher level of 
 progress than he brings with himself in his own 
 
12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 being, and higher than any which, unaided by so- 
 ciety, he could ever attain. That the individual 
 may even exist in society he must spend several 
 years of his early life to acquaint himself to some 
 extent with the accumulated knowledge and ex- 
 perience of society. During this period of educa- 
 tion the individual must train himself to follow the 
 methods of thought and action crystalized by man- 
 kind from experience. This task is so difficult and 
 requires so many years of hard training and exact- 
 ing discipline that, by the time the individual 
 reaches the level of social progress in any direc- 
 tion and attains to that very state in which he can 
 exercise his initiative rationally and advantage- 
 ously to himself and others, he has become so 
 thoroughly accustomed and adjusted to the methods 
 of thought and action of mankind and has found 
 them so convenient and effective, that then and 
 thereafter, of his own accord, he follows those 
 methods as being the shortest and most certain 
 means to further achievement and success. There 
 is a fundamental reason for this. 
 
 Mankind lived in this world a very long time 
 and during this time passed through an experience 
 infinite in extent and variety — an experience which 
 an individual could not go through in an eternity. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 13 
 
 In most cases men, in their striving to attain to 
 some aim, fell short of their aim and failed in 
 their endeavors; and this failure was but the result 
 of inadequate experience and imperfect knowledge 
 of themselves and of the world. But when, aided 
 by the accumulated experience of the human race 
 and the combination of favorable circumstances, 
 a gifted individual succeeded to achieve some work 
 of excellence or greatness, mankind, strongly de- 
 siring to succeed in this world, most readily fol- 
 lowed his methods and most carefully treasured up 
 his concrete achievements as models for itself and 
 future generations. And, quite naturally, with 
 the appreciation of the achievements also came the 
 appreciation of those that achieved. 
 
 Emerson tells us: "It is natural to believe in 
 great men. Nature seems to exist for the excellent: 
 they make our earth wholesome. The search after 
 the great men is the dream of youth, and the most 
 serious occupation of manhood." Now, the mas- 
 ter minds of all ages were but the happy mediums 
 through which mankind achieved excellence and 
 greatness. And, as motion is in the direction of 
 least resistance, mankind most naturally followed 
 those methods of thought and courses of conduct 
 
14 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 that were discovered and opened up for it by the 
 piaster minds. 
 
 What Shakespeare achieved for English litera- 
 ture and Spencer for the" doctrine of evolution, 
 Marx achieved for social science. And just as no 
 one can hope to acquire a fundamental knowledge 
 of English literature without a study of the works 
 of Shakespeare or a fundamental knowledge of the 
 doctrine of evolution without a study of the works 
 of Spencer, so no one can hope to acquire a funda- 
 mental knowledge of social science without a study 
 of the philosophy of Marx. It is for this reason 
 that we must endeavor to understand his philosophy. 
 
 But, we shall be told by Socialists as well as by 
 non-socialists that, though Marx in his day was a 
 great man and has contributed great knowledge 
 to the human race, since his day mankind has pro- 
 gressed so wonderfully that we might better use our 
 limited time and capacity to an understanding of 
 the latest achievements in sociology, and leave it 
 to the antiquarian to satisfy his curiosity by a study 
 of the philosophy of Marx. 
 
 Plausible as this argument seems, it has no 
 merits. One might as well say that because since 
 the days of Shakespeare the English-speaking race 
 made great progress in language and literature, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 15 
 
 therefore, there is no further need of studying the 
 works of Shakespeare. But we know that the Eng- 
 lish-speaking race will stand in need of a funda- 
 mental study of the works of Shakespeare as long 
 as the English language will be spoken, and even 
 after that language will become antiquated and 
 dead Shakespeare will for a very long time to come 
 remain great. 
 
 The same is true of Marx. Though great progress 
 has been made in the social sciences, yet until the 
 working class achieve its complete emancipation, 
 Marx will remain the transcendent genius and lead- 
 ing light in the realms of social science. That this 
 is not an idle prophecy is attested by the living 
 facts. During the 19th century the cultured races 
 brought out a large number of men of great emi- 
 nence. One needs but mention Darwin, Huxley, 
 Spencer, and many others to show how wonderful 
 that age was. And amidst all of them was also 
 Marx. Nevertheless, while the glory of the names 
 of all other great men rapidly wanes, the glory of 
 Marx rises ever higher and waxes ever more bril- 
 liant and comprehensive. And now, when the 
 human race is passing through a great trial, the 
 doctrines of Marx are the only ones that are of 
 value to the struggling masses, and are the only 
 
16 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ones that show the way to emancipation and sal- 
 vation. 
 
 At the outset, therefore, we must throw aside our 
 native vanity that readily lends itself to the belief 
 that we of the living generation have a monopoly of 
 all truth and wisdom, and that the ancients cannot 
 teach us anything. On the contrary, we must learn 
 to appreciate the truth and wisdom crystallized by 
 the past generation at the same time that we value 
 the truths and wisdom which we in our own gene- 
 ration are crystallyzing. Goethe said: 
 
 Das Wahre war schon langst gef widen, 
 Hat edle Geisterschaft verbunden; 
 Das alte Wahre fass es an! 
 
 The same truth was even better expressed by 
 Jesus: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
 and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth 
 forth much fruit." If the individual wants to rise 
 to the level of social progress in any direction, and 
 to attain to that state in which he can exercise his 
 initiative rationally and in a manner most advan- 
 tageous to himself and others, and to contribute to 
 human knowledge and achievement something of 
 real value and lasting benefit, he must, in the first 
 instance, like the corn of wheat, bury himself in 
 the fertile ground of the accumulated achievements 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 17 
 
 of mankind, there to remain for a long time, dead 
 to the outside world as well as to his own ambitions, 
 and only then will he be able to rise to the level of 
 social progress, and then only will he be able to 
 rise still higher and bring forth much fruit. 
 
 Now, if we are sincere about the Socialist move- 
 ment and if we earnestly want to acquire a funda- 
 mental and correct understanding of society and 
 the tendency of its evolution so as to be able to 
 further the cause of Socialism, we must endeavor 
 to master the philosophy of Marx. The future 
 achievements of the working class and the salva- 
 tion of the human race are organically bound up 
 with this philosophy. It is for these reasons that 
 we now betake ourselves to an earnest study of the 
 philosophy of Marx. 
 
CHAPTER L 
 
 7TTHE philosophy of Marx is neither a cosmology 
 -*- nor an ontology. It does not attempt to ex- 
 plain the universe, nor does it undertake to dis- 
 cover the nature of things or the ultimate aim of 
 Creation. The philosophy of Marx is a philosophy 
 of human society. It traces the course of human 
 society and points out the determining factors of 
 that course. It is true that the history of human 
 society is involved in the history of the world and 
 that a knowledge of the latter is essential to a 
 correct understanding of the former. Neverthe- 
 less, when once a general idea of the world's his- 
 tory is acquired, the course of human history may 
 be traced and adequately described, without a de- 
 tailed and collateral account of the former. And 
 this was what Marx did. Having first grasped the 
 general course of the world's history, he betook 
 himself to an investigation of the facts and the 
 conditions of human life and discovered the course 
 of human history and the factors that determine 
 that course. The results of his achievements he 
 embodied in his monumental works, chief of which 
 
 19 
 
20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 is "Capital." Marx's philosophy is known as the 
 materialist interpretation of history. 
 
 Among the reasons usually urged against social- 
 ism, one is that it is materialistic. The material- 
 istic view of life seems to be opposed to God and 
 contrary to the doctrines of religion and morality. 
 The opponents of socialism therefore charge social- 
 ism with the aim to dethrone God, repudiate re- 
 ligion, undermine morality, break up the family 
 and to destroy the very foundation of society; and 
 for these reasons they repudiate socialism. 
 
 Now, the upholders of the present state of society 
 would be opposed to socialism even if it were per- 
 fectly free from the taint of materialism, and 
 therefore their objection against socialism must 
 not be taken seriously. Nevertheless, since so much 
 ,is made of this objection, it must be disposed of in 
 an adequate manner, so that it may not stand any 
 more in the way of a clear understanding of the 
 philosophy of Socialism. This, then, will be our 
 first step. 
 
 Darwin familiarized us with the expression "the 
 struggle for existence." The reality of life would 
 have been described more adequately by the ex- 
 pression the struggle for the means of existence; 
 for, as we shall presently see, living beings struggle, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 21 
 
 not for their existence, but for the means necessary 
 for their existence. 
 
 The reality of life manifests itself as a coopera- 
 tion between life and the means of life. All living 
 beings endeavor to persist in their being and 
 to multiply their kind. But that they may live and 
 multiply their kind, living beings must have the 
 means of life. These means are material objects: 
 land, water, air, sunshine, food, shelter, and, in the 
 case of the human race, clothing. Without these 
 material means of life, living beings cannot exist. 
 
 Now, though the cooperation between life and 
 the means of life is absolutely essential to the 
 existence and to the multiplication of living beings, 
 these two factors are not commensurate with each 
 other, for, while life is infinite in its capacity and 
 tendency to increase and multiply, the means of 
 life are limited. Science abounds in facts and 
 illustrations, showing the infinite power and ten- 
 dency which living beings possess to increase and 
 multiply their kind. For instance, Professor 
 Huxley tells us that, if a protozoa — a mere micro- 
 scopic creature — be given the opportunity to in- 
 crease and multiply according to its capacity and 
 tendency and a like opportunity be given to its 
 progeny, in the course of but six months the aggre- 
 
22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 gate mass of their bodies would be equal in size the 
 mass of the earth — so infinitely great are their 
 power and tendency to increase and multiply. 
 Again, Professor Owen tells us that fishes usually 
 throw out about a million ova at a time, which, if 
 favored by conditions, would in a short time ma- 
 ture into a million fishes. And the same is true, in 
 varying degrees, of all the living beings, from the 
 lowest to the highest and from the smallest to the 
 largest. One can well speculate that, if all living 
 beings now to be found in the waters, on the sur- 
 face of the earth and in the atmosphere, were 
 given the opportunity to increase and multiply 
 according to their capacity and tendency and a like 
 opportunity be given to their offspring, in the 
 course of perhaps a thousand years they would 
 fill up the universe with their bodies. 
 
 On the other hand, the material means for life 
 are limited. The earth and all it contains were 
 given once and for all times to come. Even if the 
 earth continue to harbor on its surface living be- 
 ings for countless millions of years to come, it will 
 not during that time perceptibly increase in mass 
 or in surface area. And even if life should suc- 
 ceed to make an economic and most efficient use 
 of the means of life available on the earth, these 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 23 
 
 means of life cannot keep pace with the inherent 
 capacity and tendency of life to increase and mul- 
 tiply itself. This, then, gives us an idea of the 
 disparity and incommensurability between the 
 factors that manifest themselves in the reality of 
 life. Nothing in nature is so abundant, and there- 
 fore so cheap, as life, and nothing is so dear, be- 
 cause it is limited, as the means for life; for, while 
 life can easily increase itself infinitely, it cannot 
 easily increase the means for life. Life, there- 
 fore, is more than meat. 
 
 Now, since life, which is infinite in capacity and 
 tendency to increase and multiply, is organically 
 and indissolubly bound up with the means of life 
 that are limited, it follows that life tends to over- 
 flow and transcend the means of life, and living 
 beings, therefore, must struggle with one anothei 
 for the possession and the use of the limited means 
 of life. Hence, the history of life on the earth was 
 but the history of an unceasing struggle of living 
 beings with one another for the limited means of 
 life. And that which was true of life generally 
 will continue to be true for life generally to the 
 end of days. And, that which was true of life gen- 
 erally was equally true of human life. The his- 
 tory of mankind was but the history of its unceas- 
 
24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ing struggle with one another for the possession and 
 the use of the limited means of life. And as their 
 past history, so also, their future history will be but 
 a continuation of a fierce struggle, growing ever 
 Xnore fierce and brutal, for the limited means of 
 life, unless mankind should wake up to the realiza- 
 tion of the truth, that, if it is to emancipate itself 
 from the necessity and the conditions, that, like the 
 beasts of prey, compelled it to struggle for the 
 limited means of life, it must take its destiny into 
 its own hands, and, guided by the light of reason 
 and truth, endeavor to transcend the material con- 
 ditions by making these conditions serve rather 
 than master the human race. But of this in the 
 sequel. 
 
 Again, since the material means of life are 
 limited and determined both in their quantity and 
 nature, while life is unlimited and undetermined, 
 it follows that life must adjust itself to the quantity 
 and the nature of the means of life. When the 
 material means of life were yet in their elemental 
 nature, life could but manifest itself in an ele- 
 mental nature and form. Therefore, in the begin- 
 ning, life appeared in the nature and forms of 
 protozoas, protophytas, and the like. But, in the 
 course of time through the interaction between life 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 25 
 
 and the material means of life, an advancement 
 resulted, and life, too, assumed an advanced nature 
 and form. And so, in the course of millions of 
 years life passed to higher and ever higher forms 
 of existence. 
 
 Hence, Spencer defines life as a continuous ad- 
 justment of inner relations to outer relations. Living 
 beings, if they are to exist, must adjust themselves 
 to the outer conditions of existence, which condi- 
 tions are of a material nature. A failure of such 
 adjustment is inevitably punished with sickness and 
 death. This law is eternal and universal; it admits 
 of no exception. It operated from the beginning of 
 time, and it will operate to the end of time. No 
 living being ever violated this law with impunity. 
 This is true of the smallest as well as of the largest 
 beings; it is true of the lowest as well as of the 
 highest forms of life; it is true of the individual 
 as well as of the group, the species, the race and 
 of all orders of life. 
 
 Again, if the conditions of existence were of a 
 fixed and permanent nature, given to life once and 
 for all times, the task for life then, would have been 
 a simple and easy one. All that life would then 
 have to do would be to adjust itself to the fixed and 
 permanent conditions of existence. And by this 
 
26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 time that adjustment would have been so perfect 
 and complete that between life and the conditions 
 of existence there would have been harmony and 
 equilibrium. But the conditions of existence are 
 not of a fixed and permanent nature; they are not 
 given to life once and for all times. On the con- 
 trary, the conditions of existence perpetually 
 change and perpetually undergo an evolution of 
 their own. Change is the eternal and universal 
 order of existence. Therefore, since the conditions 
 of existence perpetually change, living beings, if 
 ,they are to continue to exist, must perpetually ad- 
 just themselves to the perpetually changing condi- 
 tions of existence. And this they can accomplish 
 by perpetually re-adjusting themselves to the ever- 
 changing conditions of existence. Hence the sig- 
 nificance of Spencer's definition of life. Life is a 
 continuous adjustment of inner relations to outer 
 relations. Living beings must continuously adjust 
 themselves, that is, they smust continuously re- 
 adjust themselves to the ever-changing conditions 
 of existence. 
 
 Again, this adjustment of life to the conditions 
 of existence is not a mere mechanical reaction; life 
 is not merely a passive reflex of the changing con- 
 ditions of existence. A more intimate knowledge 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 2? 
 
 of the relation between life and the conditions of 
 existence brings to light the further fact, that, not 
 only does life adjust itself to the ever-changing 
 conditions of existence, but also, that it actively 
 anticipates the coming changes in the conditions of 
 existence and beforehand prepares itself to meet 
 those changes. A few illustrations will make this 
 clear. 
 
 Insects, in anticipation of the coming changes 
 in themselves and in the conditions of existence, 
 deposit their eggs at such places in which, during 
 the coming spring, their offspring may be hatched 
 out and find their immediate means of subsistence. 
 Some insects, like the bees and the ants, in antici- 
 pation of the coming winter, store up food for 
 themselves during the summer. 
 
 Birds, in anticipation of the coming summer, 
 migrate from the south to the north, and in antici- 
 pation of the coming winter, return from the north 
 to the south. In anticipation of the coming genera- 
 tion, the birds mate themselves and build nests. 
 And so it is in varying degrees with all other living 
 beings. The characteristic that essentially distin- 
 guishes a being of a higher degree of evolution is 
 the greater capacity it possesses to anticipate the 
 future changes in the conditions of existence and 
 
28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 beforehand to adjust itself to these future changes. 
 And the degree of intelligence in living beings is 
 but the degree of this capacity to anticipate the 
 future changes. 
 
 But even this does not yet give us an adequate 
 idea of the nature of life. The anticipation by 
 living beings of the future changes in the conditions 
 of existence could not bring out an evolution of life 
 from lower to higher forms; that anticipation could 
 bring out only a more accurate adjustment to the 
 changed conditions. That life should continually 
 advance from one form to a higher f orm, and per- 
 petually, to strive to rise ever higher still, there 
 must be an irresistible urge in life itself to tran- 
 scend the forms already attained. The endeavor 
 to surmount the existing conditions and to overcome 
 opposition must be prompted by the very nature of 
 life itself. This springs from the very nature of life, 
 because life is infinite in nature and capacity. It 
 therefore cannot satisfy itself with any attained 
 state, for any such state is but limited in nature and 
 extent. Hence, as soon as life attains to any form, 
 it immediately seeks to transcend that form. And, 
 while in the case of living beings generally this 
 urge in life is more or less suppressed by the over- 
 whelming constraint of the material conditions, in 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 29 
 
 the case of man life succeeded to emancipate itself 
 to a considerable extent from this constraint. 
 Hence, in man life finds the most adequate instru- 
 ment for its infinite nature. 
 
 But, since man is radicaly different from all 
 other living beings, he must behave in a manner 
 radically different from the behavior of other living 
 beings. Man must, not only actively anticipate 
 the future changes, but also, he must exert him- 
 self to shape those changes. He must not only antici- 
 pate the future, but also he must create the future. 
 Otherwise, man could make no greater progress 
 than other living beings made. The man would 
 be like the dumb, driven cattle, without any power 
 over the conditions of existence. But we know 
 that in proportion as man rises higher and higher 
 in evolution he acquires an ever greater power over 
 the conditions of existence, to shape them so as to 
 suit his conveniences and purposes in a more ade- 
 quate and satisfactory manner. Man, therefore, 
 must go a step further than other living beings. 
 He must not only anticipate the future, but also 
 he must beforehand work out a plan for his future, 
 and then seek to realize it in time and space. 
 
 And for the performance of this higher task 
 nature has endowed man with reason — a faculty 
 
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 possessed by no other living beings. Reason is 
 the faculty that raises man above the conditions 
 of existence, and shows him what he should and 
 could accomplish to better the conditions of exist- 
 ence. By means of reason man created science — 
 an instrument for a systematic and comprehensive 
 prevision; it is an instrument by which man can, 
 by a more comprehensive survey of the past and 
 present conditions of existence, more deeply pene- 
 trate into the future and more clearly perceive the 
 possibilities which he can realize. Man, therefore, 
 is preeminently a being that looks before as well 
 as after. 
 
 We see, then, that though man has power to 
 shape the conditions of existence, that power, how- 
 ever, is also determined in its function by the very 
 conditions of existence. Life is limited and de- 
 termined by the quantity and the nature of the 
 means for life. And the evolution of life is con- 
 ditioned upon the evolution of the means of life. 
 From this it follows that a fundamental knowledge 
 and correct understanding of the history of life is 
 possible only through a fundamental knowledge and 
 correct understanding of the evolution of the means 
 of life. This is true of human history, as it is true 
 of the history of life generally. Hence, the history 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 31 
 
 of mankind, its struggles, and its endeavors, can 
 be understood only when interpreted in terms of 
 the history of the material means of life. And this 
 is called, the materialist interpretation of history. 
 Engels expresses this well in his essay — "Socialism, 
 Utopian and Scientific": 
 
 "The materialist conception of history starts 
 from the proposition that the production of the 
 means to support human life, and, next to pro- 
 duction, the exchange of things produced, is the 
 basis of all social structures; that in every society 
 that has appeared in history, the manner in which 
 wealth is produced and distributed and society 
 divided into classes or orders is dependent upon 
 what is produced, how it is produced, and how the 
 products are exchanged. From this point of view 
 the final causes of all social changes and political 
 revolutions are to be sought, not in man's brains, 
 not in man's better insight into eternal truth and 
 justice, but in changes in the modes of production 
 and exchange. They are to be sought, not in phil- 
 osophy, but in the economics of each particular 
 epoch. The growing perception that existing social 
 institutions are unreasonable and unjust, that 
 reason has become unreason, and right wrong, is 
 only proof that in the modes of production and 
 
32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 exchange changes have silently taken place, with 
 which the social order, adapted to earlier economic 
 conditions, is no longer in keeping. From this it 
 also follows that the means of getting rid of the 
 incongruities that have been brought to light, must 
 also be present, in a more or less developed form, 
 within the changed modes of production themselves. 
 These means are not to be invented by deduction 
 from fundamental principles, but are to be dis- 
 covered in the stubborn facts of the existing system 
 of production." 
 
 To have an adequate and complete view of the 
 whole, we must contemplate life from a still more 
 comprehensive aspect. Living beings — plants as 
 well as animals — are distinguished from the non- 
 living world by the "term, organic. This term 
 comes from the Greek, organon, meaning an in- 
 strument — which means that life uses the living 
 beings as an instrument for its own purposes. The 
 evolution of the living beings, therefore, is not 
 their work, but the work of life itself. Life tran- 
 scends, not only the means of life, but also the 
 living beings themselves. When, for instance, we 
 contemplate our body, so admirable in its structure 
 and the adjustment of the parts to one another and 
 to the whole, and so wonderful in its physical, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 33 
 
 mental and moral powers; and when we ask our- 
 selves the question: Who built up this wonderful 
 body, we are confronted by a great difficulty. We 
 know for certain that we ourselves did not build 
 up our body. Science, however, tries to show us 
 that the work of building up our body is done by 
 the cells composing the body. But a little reflec- 
 tion on the matter will at once show the utter im- 
 possibility of this. Science never asked itself the 
 question: — How can cells that are infinitely 
 smaller than man and radically different from him 
 build up a being that infinitely transcends them 
 in size, capacity and nature? 
 
 The truth of the matter is that cells never per- 
 formed any such miracle. A deeper insight into 
 the reality of life will bring to light the fact, that 
 the cells, our bodies, and the bodies of races of 
 living beings, all are but the means, the instruments, 
 through which life itself accomplishes its purposes. 
 Life, therefore, transcends the living beings as it 
 transcends the means of life. And just as in the 
 first case we saw that life can progress only through 
 the material means of life, and in accordance with 
 the nature and degree of development of those 
 means; so, also, we shall see in this case that life 
 can progress only through the means of living be- 
 
34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ings and in accordance with the nature and the 
 degree of development of those beings. 
 
 From this point of view the individual and the 
 race must be regarded as but the means through 
 which life functions and attains its purposes. As 
 the tendency and capacity of life is perpetually to 
 increase and expand indefinitely, a thing which life 
 can accomplish only in proportion as it perfects 
 the means through which it functions, life is there- 
 fore constantly searching out mediums through 
 which it may rise higher and perform its work in 
 a more efficient manner. These mediums may be 
 individuals, nations, and even the whole human 
 race. 
 
 From this higher point of view we can under- 
 stand, even more fundamentally than we could be- 
 fore, how life must be interpreted in the terms of 
 the material means of life; for, as far as life is 
 concerned, the individuals, the nations and the 
 whole human race, are but material means for 
 life, just as we saw before, the land, water, air, 
 food, clothing and shelter were. It is this universal 
 fact that points to the correct interpretation of life. 
 
 Now, since life is organically and indissolubly 
 bound up with the means of life, and since, further- 
 more, life must adjust itself to the means of life, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 35 
 
 it follows that the material conditions of existence 
 are the basis and foundation for the conduct, the 
 feelings and the thoughts of mankind; as the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence are so men must be- 
 have, so they must feel, and so they must think. 
 And, consequently, with a change in the material 
 conditions of existence, the conduct, the feelings, 
 and the thoughts of men will change correspond- 
 ingly. 
 
 This, however, does not deny the possibility for 
 mankind to act in accordance with principles and 
 in pursuance of ideals. On the contrary, we shall 
 presently see that men are, not only capable of 
 acting in a most unselfish and ideal manner, but 
 are constantly striving to act in that manner. And 
 the socialists, more than their opponents, believe in 
 this possibility and constantly strive to act in an 
 unselfish and ideal manner. This is shown, on the 
 one hand, by the fact that they strive after an 
 ideal state of social existence; and on the other 
 hand, it is shown by the fact that the socialists are 
 constantly denying themselves and, in true Chris- 
 tian fashion, are taking up daily the cross for the 
 sake of their ideal. But, socialists believe that, 
 since life is organically and indissolubly bound up 
 with the material means of life, and can rise only 
 
36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 by and through the means of life, all endeavors 
 to attain an ideal state must be based upon an ideal 
 arrangement and management of the means of life. 
 This is the fundamental reason why the socialists 
 direct their efforts primarily towards changing and 
 improving the material conditions of existence. 
 And this is also the reason why the socialists, with 
 Jesus, believe that man cannot by merely taking 
 thought add a cubit to his intellectual and moral 
 stature. To rise mentally and morally, man must 
 rise through and by means of the material means 
 of life. 
 
 We see, then, that socialism loses nothing from 
 the fact that it is materialistic. On the contrary, 
 it gains in every respect, since only by being ma- 
 terialistic does it proceed in a rational and certain 
 manner. The charge urged against the socialists, 
 that they are materialists, turns out to be a com- 
 pliment. For, just as it was not below the dignity 
 of God to busy himself with the creation of a 
 material world, and just as it is not derogatory of 
 his Supreme Nature to continue to busy himself 
 with material existence, so, it is neither impious 
 nor irreligious for the socialists to follow the 
 example of God. On the contrary, the socialists 
 by their meekness, by their willingness to busy 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 37 
 
 themselves about the material world which God 
 gave mankind, and by their endeavor to change 
 and improve it, show themselves infinitely more 
 religious, and therefore more worthy of inheriting 
 the world, than the so-called religious, who con- 
 temptuously scorn to accept this earth of ours as 
 a gift commensurate with their pretended merits. 
 What can be more blasphemous and impious in 
 puny mortals than to look with displeasure upon 
 the earth, refuse to improve it, and expecting in 
 compensation for their so-called religiousness noth- 
 ing less than three hundred and ten worlds with 
 eternal life and continuous joy? Can these 
 impudent, blasphemous and conceited fools charge 
 the socialists with being irreligious? Does it lie 
 in their mouths to charge the socialists with 
 the desire to dethrone God, repudiate religion, 
 undermine morality, break up the family, and to 
 destroy the very foundation of society? But, more 
 of this anon. 
 
 Man is not only capable of acting in an ideal 
 manner; he is also anxious to act in such manner. 
 But, though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. 
 To act in an ideal manner, man must find himself 
 in an ideal state of existence. To transcend unideal 
 conditions, is a task that requires superhuman 
 
38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 'strength; and few mortals are endowed with such 
 strength. Nevertheless, before we can go a step 
 further, we must clear away a confusion that is 
 involved in the subject. We must distinguish 
 between the moral nature of man, that is, between 
 his capacity and desire to attain an ideal, and 
 the object of an ideal. This will reveal to us the 
 very significant fact, that, though the striving after 
 an ideal is not materialistic, the object of an ideal 
 is always a material reality. This will require 
 consideration. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 %V7~HAT is an ideal? An ideal is an object or 
 * * a state of existence which we conceive to be 
 most excellent and which we desire to enjoy or 
 attain. The object of an ideal is always some 
 material thing or a material state of existence. 
 All ideals are ideals about material things and all 
 idealists are idealists about such things. As this 
 view seems to be contrary to the general view of 
 ideals, it is necessary to sustain this view by some 
 illustrations. 
 
 Moses was an idealist. He loved the Jews 
 most unselfishly, and he most ardently wished to 
 see them happy. Yet, what was his ideal for the 
 sake of which he sacrificed so much? — a land 
 flowing with milk and honey, where the Jews 
 would enjoy an abundance of corn and wine, have 
 plenty of children, and attain to an old age — all 
 of which are material objects for a material ex- 
 istence. 
 
 Again, Jesus was a sublime idealist. He loved 
 mankind most unselfishly. Yet, what was his ideal 
 
 39 
 
40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 for the sake of which he bore so much suffering? — 
 a kingdom of heaven on earth — a state of material 
 existence on this material earth in which mankind 
 would enjoy freely the gifts of nature and in which 
 the relations of mankind towards one another would 
 be governed, not by greed and brute force, but by 
 love and kindness. 
 
 Likewise, when we consider the idealists of all 
 times, we shall find that their ideals were ideals 
 about things of a material nature. Even in cases 
 in which the ideal is a human being or human 
 beings, he or they are regarded as material objects: 
 it is not for the sake of their disembodied reality, 
 but when that reality is bound up with a material 
 body. And so, likewise, the socialists are idealists. 
 They cheerfully deny themselves wellbeing and 
 frequently submit to suffering and sometimes 
 accept even martyrdom and death for the sake of 
 their ideal. And yet, their ideal is of a material 
 nature — a happy material existence for mankind. 
 And this is true of all cases. 
 
 This springs from the very nature of life itself. 
 The aim of life is to attain to a happy existence. 
 That aim manifested itself in human beings in a 
 striving after a state of wellbeing and happiness. 
 This is the only aim that life can have. And those 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 41 
 
 that believe otherwise, namely, that the aim of 
 human endeavors should be the attainment of some 
 other state, such as a state of liberty, perfection, or 
 blessedness, will readily change their belief in 
 favor of the happiness-idea, when it is pointed out 
 to them, that no matter what be the desirable state 
 of existence which, in their opinion, mankind 
 should strive to attain, in essence it is but a state 
 of happiness. For, if the state of liberty, of per- 
 fection, of blessedness, brought mankind misery, 
 or even if it was a state of indifference to them, 
 mankind would not strive after such a state. It 
 follows, therefore, that the aim of all human en- 
 deavors is and should be the attainment of a state 
 of wellbeing and happiness. 
 
 Now, whatever may be the ultimate nature, origin 
 and destiny of life, in its earthly manifestations it 
 is organically and indissolubly bound up with ma- 
 terial objects. Life unites itself with a material 
 body, and endeavors to realize itself and its aim 
 through that body. And, while life is anterior to 
 and independent of all material things and material 
 conditions of existence, the body, however, is pos- 
 terior to and dependent upon the material means 
 of life and material conditions of existence. And 
 since life seeks to realize itself through a material 
 
42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 body and amidst material conditions of existence, 
 it must aim after the highest possible material 
 wellbeing and happiness. And therefore, the aims 
 and objects of all ideals of life must be some ma- 
 terial object or some material state of existence. 
 All ideals, therefore, are ideals about sound bodies, 
 comfortable homes, good and abundant things to 
 eat and to drink, pleasant material surroundings, 
 beautiful sceneries and landscapes, and the like. 
 And all idealists always strove after such things. 
 
 But, one may ask, what is the difference between 
 an ideaist and selfish person? The difference 
 between them is not in the things which they desire, 
 but in the purposes for which they desire. While 
 the selfish person desires all these things for him- 
 self, the idealist desires them for himself and 
 others. This we shall readily see. 
 
 Suppose one should concentrate all his efforts 
 upon this aim — to acquire the means for a comfort- 
 able existence, say a comfortable home, good food, 
 nice clothes, and other things to enjoy all for him- 
 self. He would then rightly be considered a selfish 
 person. 
 
 Now, suppose that instead of concentrating his 
 efforts to acquire all these desirable material things 
 for himself, he should strive to acquire these things 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 43 
 
 also for the use of his family and relatives. In 
 this case, though he is still striving after the same 
 things, there is in his striving an element of ideal- 
 ism; for he now strives after these things that they 
 may be enjoyed, not only by himself, but also by 
 his family and relatives. 
 
 Now, suppose that he concentrates all his efforts, 
 that not only he and his family and relatives should 
 enjoy all these material things, but also that his 
 whole nation should enjoy them. In this case his 
 idealism will rise very high. 
 
 Finally, suppose that he devote his life to the 
 aim, that the whole human race should enjoy these 
 material things in great abundance. Suppose that 
 his ideal should be a state of existence in which 
 every human being should be well fed, well clothed, 
 well housed, well brought up and educated in the 
 sciences, the arts, and the philosophies, would not 
 his idealism in this case be sublime? Clearly so; 
 and yet, in the last case as well as in the first case, 
 he strives after the same things — material objects 
 for a material existence. The difference is only 
 this; in the first case he strives after these things 
 for himself only, in the last case he strives after 
 them for all mankind. 
 
 This, then, ought to make it clear that human 
 
44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 history, like the history of all other living beings, 
 was but the history of their efforts to acquire the 
 material things essential to life. Therefore, hu- 
 man history can be understood and rationally in- 
 terpreted only when read in the light of the history 
 of human efforts to acquire the material means of 
 life. And this is the reason why the materialist 
 interpretation of history is the only mode of inter- 
 pretation that is true, correct, and in accordance 
 with the reality of life. And in this manner Marx 
 interpreted the past history of the human race, and 
 in accordance with this interpretation he formulated 
 the future development and history of the-hiiman 
 race. And to understand this interpretation is the 
 task before us. 
 
 All the works of Marx are but an interpretation 
 of human history and it is from a study of all his 
 works that we can crystallize a comprehensive un- 
 derstanding of his method of interpretation. And 
 this, indeed, we shall have to do. Nevertheless, 
 wte shall start out with Marx's own formulation of 
 the materialist interpretation of history and then 
 we shall consider it in the light of the doctrines he 
 developed in his works. And this is how Marx 
 formulated it: 
 
 1. In social production which men carry on, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 45 
 
 they enter into definite relations that are indis- 
 pensable and independent of their will; these re- 
 lations of production correspond to a definite stage 
 of development of their material powers of pro- 
 duction. The sum total of these relations of pro- 
 duction constitutes the economic structure of so- 
 ciety — the real foundation, on which rise legal and 
 political superstructures and to which correspond 
 definite forms of social consciousness. The mode 
 of production in material life determines the gen- 
 eral character of the social, political and spiritual 
 processes of life. It is not the consciousness of 
 men that determines their existence. But, on the 
 contrary, their social existence determines their 
 consciousness. 
 
 2. At a certain stage of their development, 
 the material forces of production in society come 
 in conflict with the existing relations of production, 
 or — what is but a legal expression for the same 
 thing- — with the property relations within which 
 they had been at work before. From forms of 
 development of the forces of production these re- 
 lations turn into their fetters. Then comes the 
 period of social revolution. With the change of 
 the economic foundation the entire immense super- 
 structure is more or less rapidly transformed. 
 
46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 3. In considering such transformations the dis- 
 tinction should be made between the material trans- 
 formation of the economic conditions of production 
 which can be determined with the precision of 
 natural science, and the legal, political, religious, 
 aesthetic or philosophic — in short, ideological 
 forms in which men become conscious of this con- 
 flict and fight it out. Just as our opinion of an in- 
 dividual is not based on what he thinks of himself, 
 so can we not judge of such a period of transfor- 
 mation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, 
 this consciousness must rather be explained from 
 the contradictions of material life, from the ex- 
 isting conflict between social forces of production 
 and the relations of production. 
 
 4. No social order ever disappears before all 
 the productive forces, for which there is room in it, 
 have been developed; and new higher relations of 
 production never appear before the material condi- 
 tions of their existence have matured in the womb 
 of old society. Therefore, mankind always takes 
 up only such problems as it can solve; since, look- 
 ing at the matter more closely, we will always find 
 that the problem itself arises only when the ma- 
 terial conditions necessary for its solution already 
 exist or are at least in the process of formation. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 47 
 
 5. In broad outline we can distinguish the 
 Asiatic, the ancient, the feudal, and the modern 
 bourgeois methods of production as so many epochs 
 in the progress of the economic formation of so- 
 ciety. The bourgeois relations of production are 
 the last antagonistic form of the social process of 
 production — antagonistic, not in the sense of in- 
 dividual antagonism, but of one arising from con- 
 ditions surrounding the life of the individuals in 
 society; at the same time the productive forces 
 developing in the womb of bourgeois society create 
 the material conditions for the solution of that 
 antagonism. This social formation constitutes, 
 therefore, the closing chapter of the prehistoric 
 stage of human society. 
 
 When this highly abstract statement is analyzed, 
 it resolves itself into the following component ele- 
 ments concerning: 1. The influence which the ma- 
 terial conditions have upon man in determining 
 his development and consciousness; 2. The role 
 which man plays in modifying the conditions of 
 existence to suit his purposes; 3. The class-struggle 
 that arises between the owners of the material 
 means of existence and those that are deprived of 
 them; 4. The course of social evolution that leads 
 to socialism; and, 5. The means and the methods 
 
48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 to be pursued by the proletariat to bring about the 
 change of society from the state of capitalism to 
 the state of socialism. We shall consider these 
 elements in the order here stated. 
 
 At the outset a fundamental problem confronts 
 us. We are about to examine the relation that 
 exists between man and nature, with a view of dis- 
 covering to what extent the material conditions of 
 existence determine the development and conscious- 
 ness of man, and, in turn, to what extent, if at all, 
 man modifies the conditions of existence and thus 
 makes his own history. We might have proceeded 
 in a dogmatic manner, taking for granted certain 
 metaphysical assumptions, without going into an 
 examination of those assumptions. And, though 
 this is the case with most writers on social phe- 
 nomena, we cannot proceed in this manner; for 
 we are here seeking to unfold the philosophy of 
 Marx — a philosophy of society as it appears at 
 a certain stage of the evolution of the world, and 
 which itself undergoes an evolution through its 
 own interaction with the world. We cannot there- 
 fore rest upon mere assumptions; we must go to 
 the root of the matter and find out what is the fun- 
 damental relation between man and nature, so that 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 49 
 
 out of that relation we may trace the causes that 
 determine the evolution of man. 
 
 This, again, requires a previous consideration of 
 another problem, namely: Do we possess the means 
 for the discovery of the truth about the relation 
 between man and nature? In other words, we are 
 about to examine the philosophy of Marx. Now, 
 philosophy is a complete unification of knowledge ; 
 and as such, philosophy must start out with the 
 theory of knowledge. How do we know things, 
 and what are the nature and the extent of our 
 knowledge? Does all knowledge spring only from 
 experience, or a good deal of it from an apriori 
 source? Our first step, therefore, must be to dis- 
 cover an adequate theory of knowledge, which shall 
 serve us as an instrument in our investigation of 
 the fundamental relations between man and nature, 
 and in our examination of the subject matter be- 
 fore us. This will require an examination of the 
 theories of knowledge propounded by leading 
 thinkers. I shall begin with Herbert Spencer. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A CCORDING to Spencer, all knowledge begins 
 ■^* with experience, arises out of experience, and 
 depends entirely upon experience. Without ex- 
 perience there could be no knowledge. By ex- 
 perience, however, is to be understood, not only 
 the experience of the individual, but also of the 
 whole race of living beings. Life is a continuous 
 adjustment of inner relations to outer relations, 
 through which adjustment resulted the various 
 forms of life and the corresponding forms of con- 
 sciousness. Those forms of life as well as of 
 consciousness were determined by the outer con- 
 ditions of existence. Spencer generalized this by 
 saying, the outer relations produced the inner re- 
 lations. 
 
 This theory of knowledge brought Spencer into 
 conflict with Kant. According Kant, though all 
 knowledge begins with experience, not all know- 
 ledge arises out of experience. There is a basis 
 in our consciousness for certain a priori intuitions, 
 concepts and ideas, which are anterior to expe- 
 rience, and which make experience possible. With- 
 
 51 
 
52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 out these a priori intuitions, concepts and ideas, 
 experience and, therefore, knowledge would be 
 impossible. 
 
 Now, Spencer fully realized that the individual, 
 on coming into existence, finds himself in posses- 
 sion of certain ultimate intuitions, concepts and 
 ideas, which are anterior to experience, and which 
 in fact make experience possible. But, Spencer 
 maintained that while to the individual these in- 
 tuitions, concepts and ideas are a priori, to the race 
 of living beings they were a posteriori; the race ac- 
 quired them only through experience. These ul- 
 timate intuitions, concepts and ideas have in the 
 course of evolution been rendered organic by the 
 immense accumulation of experience, received 
 partly by the individual, but mainly by all an- 
 cestral individuals whose nervous system he in- 
 herits. Just as the individual, on coming into ex- 
 istence, finds himself in possession of a nervous 
 system, which to him is a priori, though to the race 
 it was a posteriori; so, also, does he find himself 
 in possession of certain intuitions, concepts and 
 ideas, which, though to him are a priori, were to 
 the race but a posteriori. 
 
 Now 4 , Kant was perfectly well aware of this 
 view — for it was the view of the whole empiric 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 53 
 
 school; nevertheless, Kant insisted that those ulti- 
 mate intuitions, concepts and ideas, such for in- 
 stance, as the intuitions of space, time and the 
 schemas, and the categories and the transcendental 
 ideas, are a priori, not only to the individual, but 
 also to the race, and that without these ultimate 
 intuitions, concepts and ideas experience would 
 be impossible. We shall presently see that Kant 
 was right. 
 
 Suppose that in front of a looking glass we pass 
 an infinite number of objects, each of which is to 
 reflect itself in the looking glass. Will the looking 
 glass enrich itself by the reflections of those objects, 
 so that it will retain them as experience and know- 
 ledge? Surely not — because the .looking glass 
 does not meet those reflections with a capacity of 
 its own to retain them and to organize them into 
 knowledge. Now, if life, like the looking glass, 
 were devoid of any capacity to retain the effects 
 wrought on it by the outer relations and to organize 
 the resulting sensations into knowledge, it could 
 no more enrich itself by experience than the look- 
 ing glass by the reflections. It is therefore clear 
 that life must bring into the world of experience 
 a capacity of its own to become conscious of any 
 changes wrought in it by the outer relations, retain 
 
54 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 the resulting sensations, and organize them into 
 knowledge. As a matter of fact, we find that life 
 is not like the looking glass, merely reflecting in 
 a mechanical way the objects of the outer world. 
 On the contrary, life is conscious of itself and of 
 its experiences. This consciousness is life's own 
 nature. It possesses that consciousness before it 
 comes into the world of experience, and only by 
 virtue of that consciousness can life have expe- 
 rience and acquire knowledge. ; Therefore, the 
 basis of all knowledge is to be sought, not in ex- 
 perience, but in the ultimate nature of conscious- 
 ness, that is, in the ultimate nature of life itself. 
 Hence, Kant was right when he maintained that, 
 though all knowledge begins with experience, not 
 all knowledge arises out of experience. The ulti- 
 mate intuitions, concepts and ideas spring directly 
 from consciousness itself, and are the instruments 
 with which life can have experience in the material 
 World and acquire a knowledge of that world and 
 of the objects in it. This will be brought to light 
 by a closer examination of Spencer's own theory 
 of knowledge. 
 
 Spencer admits that the ultimate intuitions, con- 
 cepts and ideas are a priori to the individual. But, 
 he insists, they were a posteriori to the race. The 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 55 
 
 question, then, arises — how did the race acquire 
 them? Spencer answers by saying, the race ac- 
 quired them gradually. At first the phenomena 
 wrought certain changes in the early living beings, 
 which changes those beings perceived and remem- 
 bered. In the course of evolution those changes 
 increased in frequency and definiteness, leaving 
 ever more enduring and definite impressions in 
 the living beings, until in time those impressions 
 became organic, so that they were transmitted 
 from parent to offspring. And so in the course of 
 countless generations of living beings the accu- 
 mulated impressions crystallized themselves into 
 definite and permanent states of consciousness, 
 which states in the case of higher beings assumed 
 the forms of ultimate intuitions, concepts and ideas. 
 In this manner Spencer sought to reconcile the 
 empiric school with Kant. 
 
 Now, suppose we test this theory of Spencer. 
 Suppose we start with the early forms of life. 
 According to Spencer we must assume that life 
 came into this material world a perfect blank, with- 
 out any consciousness whatever, for the granting 
 to life any consciousness means to grant, also, to 
 consciousness some definite form, which practically 
 would mean to grant at once the very position of 
 
56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Kant. Therefore, we must assume that life came 
 into the world a perfect blank. Now, if life at 
 the beginning was a perfect blank, and had no 
 capacity of its own to become conscious of its own 
 experience, and therefore had no capacity to re- 
 member that experience and organize it into know- 
 ledge, how could life begin to accumulate expe- 
 rience and acquire knowledge? In that case it 
 could no more make a beginning than the looking 
 glass; and, not being able to make a beginning, it 
 surely could not continue. How, then, could life 
 unendowed with a consciousness, having a nature 
 of its own and a capacity to become conscious of 
 experience and crystallize out of it knowledge, ever 
 acquire knowledge? 
 
 Again, according to Spencer's own showing, 
 knowledge implies organization, classification, dif- 
 ferentiation of experience. If life did not bring 
 with itself the capacity to crystallize knowledge 
 from experience by means of a consciousness of its 
 own, how could life ever acquire the capacity 
 to organize, classify and differentiate experience? 
 This capacity must be anterior to all experience 
 and, indeed, is the capacity that can make ex- 
 perience at all possible. Without this capacity, 
 experience, if at all, would be but a mass of con- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 57 
 
 fusion and chaos. It must be perfectly clear that 
 the impressions and resulting sensations, which 
 come in undetermined, discrete and manifold 
 streams, cannot of their own accord organize them- 
 selves into knowledge. The act of organization must 
 be done by somebody and that somebody can be no 
 other than life itself. We must, therefore, grant 
 to life at the outset the capacity to organize the im- 
 pressions and resulting sensations, experienced in 
 its converse with material objects, into knowledge; 
 for, if we deny to life that capacity, then the ques- 
 tion arises — how and by what means did life ac- 
 quire that capacity? 
 
 It will not do, as Spencer does, to hide oneself 
 behind an Unknowable and say that in some in- 
 comprehensible way the Unknowable manifests 
 Himself in consciousness and in the material world, 
 and that, somehow, life acquires knowledge from 
 experience. This is a very poor dodge and entirely 
 inadmissible in philosophy. One that undertakes 
 to formulate a theory of knowledge nuist go to the 
 root oi the matter and tell us in most definite terms 
 how knowledge ever comes. And if one is not pre- 
 pared to tell us this, he is out of court and cannot 
 be heard on the question. 
 
 Clearly, then, we must grant at the outset that 
 
58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 life* oil coming into existence in this material world, 
 brings with itself a consciousness and a capacity to 
 become aware of its experiences within the material 
 world, organize the impressions received and the 
 resulting sensations into definite states of conscious- 
 ness, which in time become organized into knowl- 
 edge. And the consciousness, which life brings into 
 the world, is not a mere chaos, but is a definite con- 
 sciousness; it is a consciousness that the phenome- 
 nal world exists and manifests itself in accordance 
 with a certain order, proceeding in accordance with 
 certain laws and assuming definite and determined 
 forms; and that life, in its converse with the mate- 
 rial world, will have to adjust itself to that order 
 and to those laws and forms. Life, therefore, brings 
 with itself a sensibility to perceive objects of ex- 
 perience, an understanding to organize and in- 
 terpret those objects of experience, and a reason 
 to organize the interpretations of the understanding. 
 Therfore, the intuitions, the concepts and the ideas 
 are a priori; they are a priori, not only to the in- 
 dividual, but to the race, because life possessed 
 them before it entered into the world of experience, 
 and only by virtue of them could life have ex- 
 perience and acquire knowledge. 
 
 This view will find its rationale and corrobora- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 59 
 
 tion in the universal manifestations of life. Dur- 
 ing the intra-uterine existence of living beings they 
 do not need a mouth to eat, eyes to see, ears to 
 hear, and the other organs to function in later life. 
 Nevertheless, each living being, before it leaves its 
 mother's womb, and before it enters into the ma- 
 terial world of independent existence, perfects, to 
 some degree, and prepares the organs and their 
 appropriate capacities, which it will have to use 
 in the material world outside of its mother's womb. 
 Here, then, we see how life works. Just as each 
 living being comes into existence adequately pre- 
 pared and equipped with organs and capacities 
 that will become necessary to cope with the outer 
 material conditions of existence, so, also, life as 
 a whole came into existence prepared and ade- 
 quately equipped with the organs and the capacities 
 that would become necessary to function in the 
 material world. When in the fullness of time the 
 Creative Energy attained to a state of development 
 capable of manifesting itself in the forms of life, 
 it already had within itself the necessary capacity 
 to function in the material world through the forms 
 of living beings; otherwise, it could not make a 
 start. That Energy in the form of life already 
 possessed a consciousness of itself and the capacity 
 
60 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 to understand the phenomenal world and compre- 
 hend its orders and laws. And by virtue of that 
 consciousness and capacity life could perceive that 
 the phenomenal world presents itself under forms 
 of space and time, and in its functions proceeds 
 according to categories, causation, and the like. 
 Therefore, consciousness of a definite nature was 
 prior to experience, and that made experience pos- 
 sible. In time, and through its converse with an 
 infinite number and variety of objects of expe- 
 rience, life perfected ever more and more its own 
 consciousness and increased ever more the mass 
 of knowledge that consciousness enabled life to 
 accumulate. 
 
 And this is what Kant means. Knowledge be- 
 gins with experience, but not all knowledge arises 
 out of experience; for the ultimate intuitions, con- 
 cepts and ideas, though without experience, are not 
 knowledge yet, they are nonetheless anterior to 
 experience and make experience possible. That 
 Kant's position is incontestable and absolutely in 
 accord with the reality of existence will become 
 clear when we reflect on the nature of things. All 
 manifestations of Nature's powers are a priori in 
 their nature. This we shall presently see. 
 
 Light is an activity that follows a nature of its 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 61 
 
 own — a nature that is anterior to and independent 
 of the objects that reflect it. Nevertheless, light 
 must meet with reflecting objects to manifest itself 
 and its nature. In the absence of intercepting and 
 reflecting objects, light would never manifest it- 
 self. Likewise it is with life. Life is an activity 
 that follows laws of its own nature — a nature that 
 is anterior to and independent of the material con- 
 ditions of existence. Nevertheless, life must meet 
 with material conditions of existence to manifest 
 itself and its nature. In the absence of the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence, life could not mani- 
 fest itself. But, just as it would be absurd to say 
 that, because without reflecting objects light can- 
 not manifest itself, therefore light acquired its 
 nature from the reflecting objects; so, also, it is 
 absurd to say that, because without the material 
 conditions of existence life cannot manifest itself, 
 therefore the nature of life is the product of the 
 material conditions of existence. And the same is 
 true of consciousness. Consciousness is an activity 
 that follows a nature of its own — a nature that is 
 anterior to and independent of all objects of expe- 
 rience. And, as in the forjner cases, so in this 
 case it will be absurd to say that, because without 
 the objects of experience consciousness cannot man- 
 
62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 if est itself, therefore the nature of consciousness is 
 the product of the objects of experience. There- 
 fore, we must grant to life an a priori nature and 
 an a priori consciousness. And only by virtue of 
 that a priori consciousness life could acquire expe- 
 rience, crystallize knowledge, and attain to a mul- 
 tiplicity of forms of life. And that a priori con- 
 sciousness was a consciousness of the fact, that the 
 phenomenal world presents itself in the forms of 
 space and time, proceeds in accordance with the 
 categories, causation, and the like, and that in 
 accordance with that order life Would have to func- 
 tion. Therefore, the ultimate intuitions, concepts 
 and ideas are a priori? not only to the individual, 
 but to all living beings, to life itself. Kant, 
 therefore, was right, and Spencer was wrong, and 
 with Spencer falls to the ground the whole empiri- 
 cal school of philosophy — a philosophy that viti 
 ated the work of the scientists of the modern times 
 Again, was Kant entirely right? We shall pres 
 ently see that he was only partially right. Assum 
 ing now, as we must, that consciousness is a priori 
 in its nature and capacity, how can consciousness 
 comprehend the objects of experience? Or, in 
 other words, how is truth possible? Spencer and 
 Kant agree that truth is the accurate correspond- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 63 
 
 ence between the inner and the outer relations. 
 According to Spencer, life is impossible unless 
 there is an accurate correspondence between the 
 inner and the outer relations. This springs from 
 his very definition of life. And there can be no 
 doubt that without such correspondence life cannot 
 proceed, it will then be impossible. The question 
 of truth, therefore, is a question most vital to life. 
 Life at its peril must find out the truth about the 
 material world and the material conditions of exist- 
 ence. And as this truth is but the accurate corre- 
 spondence between the inner relations and the outer 
 relations, the question arises — how and by whom 
 is this correspondence established? 
 
 Spencer tells us, this correspondence is estab- 
 lished by the outer relations. He expresses this 
 view by saying: the harmony between the inner 
 relations and the outer relations arises from the 
 fact that the outer relations produced the inner 
 relations. On the other hand, Kant tells us that 
 this accurate corespondence, this harmony between 
 the inner relations and the outer relations, arises 
 from the fact that the inner relations produced the 
 outer relations. Spencer agrees with Kant that 
 consciousness comprehends only phenomena, and 
 not the noumenon, that is, the ultimate reality. 
 
64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 But, while Spencer assumed that consciousness was 
 a perfect blank on which the phenomena produced 
 impressions corresponding with the phenomena, 
 Kant assumed that the phenomena were a perfect 
 blank on which consciousness impressed definite 
 forms corresponding with consciousness. Their 
 respective views may be compared to a seal and 
 wax. Spencer regards the phenomena as the seal 
 and consciousness as the wax, while Kant regards 
 consciousness as the seal and the phenomena as 
 the wax. And since, according to Spencer, the 
 seal of the phenomena produces the impression on 
 the wax of consciousness, and since according to 
 Kant, the seal of consciousness produces the im- 
 pression on the wax of phenomena, the seal and its 
 impression must agree. This agreement constitutes 
 the accurate correspondence between the inner rela- 
 tions and the outer relations; and this correspond- 
 ence constitutes truth. Let us examine this position 
 a little more closely. 
 
 At the outset a question presents itself. Both 
 Kant and Spencer assure us that from their phi- 
 losophy they banished all dogmas and mere 
 assumptions and that they proceeded in a most 
 thoroughly scientific manner. If so, we have a 
 right to examine their assumptions most critically. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 65 
 
 What warrant did Spencer have for the assump- 
 tion that, while the phenomena are of a definite 
 nature and possess definite characteristics, con- 
 sciousness, which is itself also a phenomenon, is a 
 perfect blank, and can acquire a definite nature 
 and definite characteristics only from the phenom- 
 ena? Likewise, what warrant did Kant have for 
 the assumption that, while consciousness, which is 
 a phenomenon, is of a definite nature and possesses 
 definite characteristics, the phenomena are perfect 
 blanks and can receive their nature and forms only 
 from consciousness? Clearly, these assumptions 
 are unwarranted and most absurd on their face. 
 And yet both philosophers made their respective 
 assumptions without the least justification, and 
 without any basis in the reality or in reason. That 
 Spencer's assumption was without any warrant we 
 already saw, when we found that consciousness was 
 not a mere blank and that it had a nature of its 
 own, independent of the phenomena and anterior 
 to them. Therefore, the correspondence between 
 the inner relations and the outer relations could not 
 arise, as Spencer thought, from the fact that the 
 outer relations produced the inner relations. Such 
 fact cannot be shown, it is an impossibility. Like- 
 wise, we shall presently see that Kant's assumption 
 
66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 was equally without warrant and that, therefore, 
 the correspondence between the inner relations and 
 the outer relations could not arise, as Kant thought, 
 from the fact that the inner relations produced 
 the outer relations. This will require a re-exam- 
 ination of Kant's theory of knowledge. 
 
 According to Kant, "all phenomena are not 
 things by themselves, but only the play of our rep- 
 resentations, all of which in the end are determina- 
 tions only of the internal sense, and the under- 
 standing is not only a power of making rules by a 
 comparison of phenomena, but it is itself the law- 
 giver of nature, and without the understanding 
 nature would nowhere be found, because phenom- 
 ena, as such, cannot exist without us, but exist in 
 our sensibility only. As possible experience there- 
 fore, all phenomena depend in the same way 
 a priori on the understanding, and receive their 
 formal possibility from it as, when looked upon as 
 a mere intuition, they depend upon the sensibility, 
 and become possible through it, so far as their form 
 is concerned." Kant goes further to tell us that 
 "however exaggerated therefore and absurd it may 
 sound, that the understanding is itself the source of 
 the laws of nature, and of its formal unity, such a 
 statement is nevertheless true and in accordance 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 67 
 
 with experience." And the whole "Critique" of 
 Kant is but an elaborate presentation of the view, 
 that our sensibility and understanding determine 
 the forms of phenomena, their laws and their inter- 
 actions. Or, to use the same simile, our sensibility 
 and understanding are the seal that impresses its 
 a priori nature and characteristics upon the un- 
 known X, thus determining nature and her laws, 
 and thus, also, determining the correspondence be- 
 tween the seal and its impression. 
 
 Now, if nature and the phenomena were perfect 
 blanks, waiting to receive their impression from 
 our consciousness, what basis is there for knowl- 
 edge? Knowledge implies a consciousness that 
 knows and objects that are known by consciousness. 
 The objects of knowledge, therefore, are assumed 
 by consciousness itself to be distinct from itself, 
 and consciousness is the last court of appeals. 
 Therefore, we must reckon with the last decision of 
 consciousness. And, not only must we assume the 
 objects of knowledge to be distinct from conscious- 
 ness, but also that the nature and characteristics of 
 the former must be independent of the latter, be- 
 cause consciousness itself attests to this fact. How, 
 then, can Kant assume that the nature and char- 
 
68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 acter of the objects of knowledge are determined 
 by consciousness? 
 
 Kant tells us that the apprehension of the mani- 
 fold of phenomena is always successive; the rep- 
 resentations of parts follow one upon another. In 
 other words, the states of consciousness, the impres- 
 sions and the sensations, follow one another in suc- 
 cession. From our states of consciousness, there- 
 fore, we could not distinguish between a static and 
 a dynamic object, that is, between a house that 
 stands fixed to the ground and a boat that glides 
 down the stream, because in both cases the appre- 
 hension of the phenomena is always successive. 
 Whether one looks upon the boat as it glides down 
 the stream, or he examines a house, beginning 
 with the right, going to the left, following from 
 bottom to the top ; in both cases the impressions up- 
 on the observer are successive. From these impres- 
 sions the observer cannot tell, whether the house is 
 fixed or the boat is gliding down* Kant himself 
 speaks of this, but he tries by subtle sophistries to 
 elude the question — what, then, enables us to dis- 
 tinguish between the fixed house and the moving 
 boat? If the phenomena are determined, not by 
 their own nature, but by our consciousness, and if 
 in our consciousness the impressions of the house, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 69 
 
 like the impressions of the boat, follow in succes- 
 sion; how can we distinguish the one from the 
 other? Clearly, then, the distinction must reside 
 in the phenomena themselves, and it is that distinc- 
 tion which consciousness perceives. Or, let us take 
 another case. 
 
 Astronomy points out the existence of myriads of 
 stars, each of which is distinct from the rest, and 
 each of them has characteristics that distinguishes 
 it from the rest. Now, if it is consciousness that 
 determines the nature and the characteristics of the 
 stars, how comes it that consciousness makes out 
 myriads of separate and distinct stars? What is 
 'there in consciousness that determines the outer 
 world to split itself into myriads of stars and an 
 infinite number and variety of objects, which would 
 require infinite time for consciousness to observe 
 and distinguish? And why, again, does the as- 
 tronomer direct his gaze towards the heaven to 
 study the stars instead of directing his gaze into 
 his own consciousness, and, by profound intro- 
 spection, to evolve from within the myriads of stars 
 and the infinite objects of the outer world ? If 
 consciousness determines the phenomena, why does 
 not consciousness determine the phenomena all at 
 once, so that without labor and instantaneously con- 
 
70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 sciousness would evolve the whole universe and 
 know it all at once? Why must consciousness go 
 through infinite pain and suffering to learn some- 
 thing about the external world? 
 
 Again, are the phenomena in any way related to 
 the ultimate reality, or, since they are merely the 
 representations of consciousness, are they absolute- 
 ly distinct from the reality? Kant tries hard to 
 prove that the phenomena are absolutely distinct 
 from the ultimate reality, but he merely battles 
 with his own cobwebs. Kant denies the positive- 
 ness of the concept of noumenon as the complement 
 of the phenomena. He tells us that "the concept of 
 a noumenon is merely limitative, and intended to 
 keep the claims of sensibility within the proper 
 bounds, therefore of negative use only. A real 
 division of objects into phenomena and noumena, 
 and of the world into a sensible and intelligible 
 world, in a positive sense, is therefore quite inad- 
 missible, although concepts may be very well 
 divided into sensuous and intellectual." In other 
 words, according to Kant, the concepts of pheno- 
 mena and noumenon are merely forms of consci- 
 ousness, and that the distinction between them is 
 merely a distinction between concepts, and not be- 
 tween realities outside consciousness. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 71 
 
 If we are to assume with Kant that the pheno- 
 mena are not manifestations of an ultimate reality, 
 the nature of which determines the phenomena to 
 some extent, then we live in a world of pur own 
 consciousness, besides which there is nothing else. 
 But, when we ask, not Kant the philosopher, but 
 our own consciousness, it tells in most certain terms 
 that besides itself there is a real world — a world 
 which consciousness is trying hard to understand 
 and know. And in a case in which consciousness 
 and Kant differ we ought to have no doubt in de- 
 ciding in favor of consciousness. 
 
 Now, our consciousness perceives an infinite 
 number of objects each of which is distinct from 
 the others. This infinitude of objects must relate 
 to the ultimate reality, and the nature and the char- 
 acter of the former must, to some extent, be deter- 
 mined by the latter. I say to some extent because 
 we shall see later on that the phenomena or the ob- 
 jects of knowledge, are but the resultant of the co- 
 operation between consciousness and the ultimate 
 reality. Therefore, the phenomena reflect both con- 
 sciousness and the ultimate reality. The ultimate 
 reality, then, being infinite in its nature and extent, 
 manifests itself in an infinite number and variety 
 of objects. And our consciousness, though it can- 
 
72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 not know the ultimate reality directly, knows it in- 
 directly through its forms of manifestation, that is, 
 through the phenomena. Consequently, the phe- 
 nomena or the objects of knowledge and experience 
 are not determined by consciousness, but their ex- 
 istence is independent of consciousness, and their 
 forms of manifestation are but the resultant of the 
 cooperation between the ultimate reality and con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 What then becomes of Kant's theory that the 
 inner relations produce the outer relations? How 
 then is truth possible? 
 
 Kant's theory, like Spencer's theory, when rigor- 
 ously examined proves to be inherently defective. 
 And when these two theories are put into opposition 
 with each other, they cancel and neutralize each 
 other and we are then left without an adequate 
 theory of knowledge. Without such theory, how 
 can we proceed to examine the relation between 
 man and nature? According to Spencer, man 
 would seem to be a perfect blank, and the material 
 conditions of existence the absolutely determining 
 factor in man's evolution. According to Kant, man 
 would seem to be the absolute creator of his world. 
 According to the former, man should not presume 
 to meddle with the affairs of the material world? 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 73 
 
 but leave it entirely to the universal process of evo- 
 lution. According to Kant, man can at once pro- 
 ceed to change the world to suit his pleasure, by 
 merely taking thought. 
 
 These respective views are absolutely inevitable, 
 if one takes either the view of Spencer or Kant. 
 That both views are fundamentally wrong and 
 false, we shall adequately show later on. For the 
 present we must proceed with the immediate task 
 before us — to find an adequate theory of knowl- 
 edge. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "iy" ANT is right in granting to consciousness a na- 
 -*-^- ture of its own, but he is wrong in denying to 
 the material world a nature of its own. Spencer is 
 right in granting to the material world a nature of 
 its own, but he is wrong in denying to consciousness 
 a nature of its own. A true philosophy must grant 
 a nature of its own to consciousness as well as to 
 the material world, and only in the light of such 
 philosophy can we correctly interpret social evolu- 
 tion. If, then, we could formulate such philosophy, 
 and out of the perpetual interaction between con- 
 sciousness and the material world crystallize a 
 theory of social evolution, that would be the phi- 
 losophy of Marx. For, as we shall see later on, 
 Marx's philosophy of social evolution started with 
 the basic fact that between man and nature there 
 is a perpetual interaction, and that out of this in- 
 teraction results a joint evolution. 
 
 Now, the formulation of such philosophy would 
 be a tremendous though indispensable task. For- 
 tunately, such philosophy was already formulated 
 by a no less competent a man than Spinoza. The 
 
 75 
 
76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 next step, therefore, is to consider Spinoza's phil- 
 osophy. 
 
 Spinoza contemplates the Universe as the mani- 
 festation of God — a being infinite in attributes, each 
 of which manifests itself in infinite modes. To us 
 are revealed but two of God's attributes — exten- 
 sion and thought. These attributes, however, are 
 revealed to us only in their modes of manifestation. 
 Extension manifests itself to us in the material 
 world, and thought manifests itself to us in our 
 consciousness. 
 
 The attributes of God are coeternal, coexistent 
 and commensurate with the infinite power of God, 
 each attribute following directly from the infinite 
 nature of God. Therefore, one attribute cannot be 
 the cause of the existence of another attribute, nor 
 can one attribute determine the nature or the mode 
 of manifestation of another attribute. From this 
 follows that extension cannot produce thought, nor 
 can thought produce extension. Each exists inde- 
 pendently of the other; and it likewise follows that 
 neither of these attributes can determine the nature 
 or the mode of manifestation of the other. 
 
 God's power is equal in all his attributes. His 
 power of action is therefore equal to his power of 
 thought. And, because God manifests himself 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 77 
 
 equally in extension and in thought, it follows: 
 Ordo et connexio idearum idem est, ac ordo et con- 
 nexio rerum; that is, the order and connection of 
 ideas is the same as the order and connection of 
 things. As the attribute extension manifests itself 
 to us in the material world, and the attribute 
 thought manifests itself to us in our consciousness; 
 it follows that the order and connection of things in 
 the material world is the same as the order and 
 connection of ideas in our consciousness. And, 
 just as the attributes are independent of each other, 
 so, also, are their modes of manifestation. There- 
 fore, the material world cannot produce conscious- 
 ness, nor can it determine its nature. Likewise, 
 consciousness cannot produce the material world, 
 nor can it determine its nature. Each, therefore, 
 is a priori to the other. And, since the material 
 world and consciousness are but the modes of mani- 
 festation respectively of the attributes, extension 
 and thought, it follows that the order and connec- 
 tion of things in the material world is the same as 
 the order and connection of ideas in our conscious- 
 ness; and that from this follows the correspondence 
 between consciousness and the material world, and 
 it is this that makes truth possible. 
 
 That this is the only rational philosophy of exis- 
 
?8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAItX 
 
 tence, and that this philosophy, only, can give us 
 an adequate theory of knowledge, we shall readily 
 see when we test this philosophy in the light of the 
 philosophies of Spencer and Kant. According to 
 Spencer and Kant, the harmony between the inner 
 relations and the outer relations ought to be perfect 
 and complete, for each of these relations is the pro- 
 duct of the other. The seal and its impression 
 ought to correspond. But, as a matter of fact, this 
 correspondence is far from perfect and complete. 
 On the contrary, we find that at no time was there 
 a harmonious correspondence between the inner 
 relations and the outer relations. It was rather a 
 lack of correspondence that resulted in maladjust- 
 ments, failures, accidents, sickness, death, and at 
 times wholesale destruction of life. How can Spen- 
 cer and Kant explain this lack of correspondence? 
 The fact is, that neither of them attempted to ex- 
 plain this in an adequate manner. But, according 
 to Spinoza, this disharmony is easily explained. 
 The material world is the manifestation of the at- 
 tribute extension, and consciousness is the mani- 
 festation of the attribute thought. The order and 
 connection of the one are the same as the order 
 and connection of the other. This gives rise to a 
 correspondence between consciousness and the ma- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 79 
 
 terial world. But, because these phenomena are 
 distinct from and independent of each other, like 
 x the attributes which they manifest, the correspon- 
 dence between them is but general. They agree 
 with each other in their general course of develop- 
 ment. In time and space they adjust themselves to 
 each other, but that adjustment requires time and 
 space, and is effected only in a general way. But, 
 because that adjustment is general, it follows that 
 sometimes the material world is lagging behind 
 consciousness, and sometimes consciousness is lag- 
 ging behind the material world. And this is what 
 the history of life teaches, what science corrobor- 
 ates, and what we shall find to be true of human 
 life. 
 
 Here, then, we have a philosophy that furnishes 
 us a theory of knowledge that is adequate, consis- 
 tent and rational. It shows us the a priori nature 
 of consciousness, the source and nature of the a 
 priori forms of intuitions, concepts and ideas, the 
 correspondence between consciousness and the ma- 
 terial world, and, also, why this correspondence is 
 imperfect. And it is this philosophy that Marx 
 used as an instrument with which to investigate and 
 interpret the facts of human life, and in the light 
 of this philosophy Marx sought to discover the na- 
 
80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ture and the course of social evolution. And it is 
 this philosophy that will be presented here. 
 
 We must start out with the theory, that conscious- 
 ness is a reality distinct from and independent of 
 the material world, that between consciousness and 
 the material world there is an essential and per- 
 petual interaction, that this interaction causes a 
 correspondence to arise between them, and that, 
 therefore, the evolution of the one is organically 
 bound up with the evolution of the other. 
 
 But, as this philosophy is a synthesis, we must 
 first proceed to examine the role of these factors 
 separately from each other; that is, we shall first 
 consider the influence which the material condi- 
 tions have on man; and, secondly, the role which 
 man plays in influencing the material conditions; 
 and, finally, the course of evolution which mani- 
 fests itself in the evolution of the material world 
 and society. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TT is clear that, though life brings into the ma- 
 •*• terial world a nature of its own, life can mani- 
 fest itself only when coming into contact with the 
 material world — a contact which brings about an 
 interaction between life and the material world. 
 In that interaction neither factor yields to the other; 
 each factor asserts itself to its fullest extent, re- 
 maining true to its own nature. Nevertheless, the 
 resultant manifestation of that interaction, like the 
 diagonal in the case of the parallelogram of forces, 
 partakes of the nature of both. The knowledge of 
 the a priori nature of life will not tell us what 
 forms life will assume in the material world. To 
 know the latter, we must complement the knowledge 
 of the a priori nature of life with a knowledge of 
 its manifestation in the material world; that is, we 
 must complement the former with experience. 
 
 It is the same with the consciousness of life. 
 Though consciousness brings into the world of ex- 
 perience a priori intuitions, concepts and ideas of 
 right and wrong, consciousness cannot manifest 
 these intuitions, concepts and ideas in their pure 
 
 81 
 
82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 forms, for consciousness, like life itself, can mani- 
 fest itself only when coming into contact with ob- 
 jects of experience. In that contact there takes 
 place an interaction between consciousness and the 
 objects of experience — an interaction in which 
 neither factor yields to the other, each remaining 
 true to itself, and each asserting itself to its fullest 
 extent. Nevertheless, just as we saw in the case of 
 life, the resultant manifestation partakes of the na- 
 ture of both, and it is this manifestation that reveals 
 to us what we call the phenomenal world. Hence, 
 as in the case of life, a mere a priori knowledge of 
 the intuitions, concepts and ideas which conscious- 
 ness brings into the world of experience with itself 
 will not enable us to know what concrete forms 
 consciousness will assume in the world of experi- 
 ence. To know this we must complement our knowl- 
 edge of the a priori forms of consciousness with a 
 knowledge of its concrete manifestations, that is, 
 we must complement the former with experience. 
 
 That this is the case with all phenomena will be- 
 come clear when considering, as an illustration, the 
 case of light. Light brings into the material world 
 a nature of its own. Nevertheless, light can mani- 
 fest its nature only when coming into contact with 
 material objects, otherwise the nature and activity 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 83 
 
 of life would remain unmanifested to us. On com- 
 ing into contact with material objects light is inter- 
 cepted by the infinite number of particles of the 
 objects, reflecting the activity of light in an infinite 
 variety of colors. Now, from a mere knowledge 
 of the a priori nature of light we cannot tell what 
 colors it will manifest when coming into contact 
 with material objects. To know this we must com- 
 plement the knowledge of the a priori nature of 
 light with the knowledge of its concrete manifesta- 
 tions, that is, with observation. 
 
 And this is true of all phenomena. Now, if the 
 material world and consciousness were of a fixed 
 and determined nature, consciousness would re- 
 flect that fixed and determined nature, that is, the 
 intuitions, concepts and ideas resulting from the 
 interaction between consciousness and the material 
 world. But neither the material world nor con- 
 sciousness is of a fixed and determined nature. 
 On the contrary, both are in perpetual flux; change 
 is the eternal and universal order of existence. And 
 the question arises : what effect has this change upon 
 the resultant concrete forms of consciousness? This 
 question would not be hard to answer if we could 
 satisfy ourselves that the changes taking place in 
 both the material world and consciousness were 
 
84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 synchronous and in every respect perfectly alike. 
 But, we saw before that, though the attributes ex- 
 tension and thought emanate from the same source 
 and tend to proceed in a harmonious manner with 
 each other, harmony manifests itself only in 
 the long run. In particular cases and at given times 
 we, therefore, find that, though virtually there may 
 be harmony, in fact there is rather disharmony — 
 a disharmony resulting from the apparent unequal 
 evolution of these concurring and cooperating fac- 
 tors. Under these conditions, the question which 
 we are considering is significant. It is incumbent 
 upon us to find out what effect a prior change in 
 the material conditions of existence will have upon 
 human consciousness, and what effect a prior 
 change in human consciousness will have upon the 
 material conditions of existence. As the general 
 question which we are considering naturally 
 divides itself into two specific questions, we 
 shall consider these three questions separately; 
 firstly, the effect which a change in the material 
 conditions has upon human consciousness; second- 
 ly, the effect which a change in human conscious- 
 ness has upon the material conditions; and, thirdly, 
 the concurrent effect of both upon the evolution of 
 society. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TN THE Communist Manifesto it is asked: "Does 
 A it require deep intuition to comprehend that 
 man's ideas, views and conceptions, in a word, 
 man's consciousness changes with every change in 
 the conditions of his material existence, his social 
 relations, and his social life? When people speak of 
 ideas that revolutionize society, they do but express 
 the fact that within the old society the elements of 
 a new society have been created, and that the dis- 
 solution of the old ideas but keeps even pace with 
 the dissolution of the old conditions of existence." 
 What is meant is this: When a new idea takes 
 possession of the human mind to such extent as to 
 seem to revolutionize society, this is but the mani- 
 festation of a new element in the material con- 
 ditions of existence, when in the material condi- 
 tions of existence a new element arises, that element 
 manifests itself in man's consciousness in the form 
 of a new idea; and when the new element revolu- 
 tionizes the material conditions of existence, the 
 idea which that new element reflects in man's con- 
 sciousness seems to him to be revolutionary. There- 
 
 85 
 
86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 fore, it is not the idea, but the new element in the 
 material conditions of existence that revolution- 
 izes society. 
 
 In other words, new ideas do not come to us from 
 on high in the shape of revelations, nor from the 
 regions of thought in the shape of concepts; but, 
 when the material conditions of existence generate 
 a new element, that element reflects itself in man's 
 consciousness in the form of a new idea. How this 
 process is being effected, how a change in the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence reflects itself in a cor- 
 responding change in man's consciousness, these 
 questions cannot adequately be answered here. For 
 present purposes it will suffice to point out in gen- 
 eral terms of the underlying theory. We already 
 saw that life is a continuous adjustment of inner 
 relations to outer relations; without such adjust- 
 ment, without a correspondence between the inner 
 relations and the outer relations, life is impossible. 
 An insight into the reality of life reveals the fol- 
 lowing truth: Our intellect is determined in its 
 function by our feelings: as we feel so we think; 
 the wish is father to the thought; or, as Spencer 
 states, the feelings are the master, the intellect is 
 but their servant. Our feelings are determined in 
 their tendency by our daily conduct. As we daily 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 87 
 
 conduct ourselves in the pursuit of the necessaries 
 of life so we feel and so we think. Our conduct 
 is determined by the material conditions of exis- 
 tence; as these conditions are so we must conduct 
 ourselves, so we must feel and so we must think. 
 It is essential for our purposes that we have an 
 adequate understanding of this theory; therefore, 
 a few illustrations will be necessary. 
 
 If one never had the occasion to tell lies, his 
 feeling of self-respect will rebel against a lie, and 
 his intellect will condemn it as an act unbecoming 
 a self-respecting person. Indeed, why should a 
 human being blacken his tongue and besmirch his 
 conscience with lying? Nevertheless, if the ma- 
 terial conditions should make it necessary for him 
 to tell lies, and tell them quite often, he will yield 
 to that necessity and in a short time will acquire a 
 habit to tell lies and feelings favoring that habit 
 to such extent, that he would rather tell lies than 
 the truth. And then his intellect will extol lying 
 to the height of a virtue — as a mark of cleverness 
 — and then like the businessman, the lawyer, the 
 statesman and the like he will pride himself at his 
 superior skill in telling lies. 
 
 Again, if one never had the occasion to steal, 
 his human nature will revolt against stealing and 
 
88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 his intellect will condemn it as a crime against 
 society and a sin against God. Yet, if the material 
 conditions of existence should make it necessary for 
 him to steal, and steal quite often, he will yield 
 to that necessity and pretty soon will acquire a 
 habit for stealing and an inclination favoring that 
 habit to such extent, that he would rather steal and 
 run the risk of all consequences than seek to earn 
 the means of life by honest labor. And then his 
 intellect will tell him that stealing is the proper 
 act for clever and self-respecting persons; that 
 stealing leads to wealth and social influence; and 
 then, also, he will look with contempt upon the 
 millions of honest toilers who are content to put 
 up with all humiliation and privation for the sake 
 of a mere living. 
 
 Finally, if one never had the occasion to shed 
 human blood, his whole being experiences a horror 
 at the shedding of human blood, and his intellect 
 regards murder as the most heinous crime against 
 society and the gravest sin against God. Never- 
 theless, if the material conditions of existence 
 should make it necessary for him to shed human 
 blood, and to shed it quite often, he will yield to 
 that necessity, and will soon acquire a passion for 
 shedding human blood to such extent that the act 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 89 
 
 of murder will thrill him with indescribable joy. 
 And then his intellect will wake up to the discovery 
 that shedding of human blood is heroic, patriotic 
 and noble, that it brings out in man his material 
 virtues and divine attributes. Then, also, he will 
 begin to yearn after the glorious death of the sol- 
 dier on the battlefield amidst the carnage and 
 slaughter of human beings, surrounded by rivers 
 of human blood. And then he will look with the 
 most profound disgust and intensive hatred upon 
 those that feel repugnance against the shedding of 
 human blood or have moral scruples against mur- 
 der. He would then be ready to exterminate these 
 persons as enemies of society, atheists and im- 
 moral persons. 
 
 These illustrations show that we think as we feel; 
 we feel as we behave; and we behave as the ma- 
 terial conditions make it necessary to behave. We 
 saw before that, though life in its consciousness 
 brings into the material world a priori ideas of right 
 and wrong — ideas which may constitute the ideals 
 after which life may constantly strive — in actual 
 experience these ideas cannot manifest themselves 
 in their a priori forms, for in actual experience 
 consciousness comes into organic contact with the 
 material world, and the ideas are but the resultant 
 
90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of this contact. The ideas, therefore, reflect both 
 consciousness and the material world. 
 
 The aim of life is one — to live. Life is not 
 concerned about abstract notions of right and 
 wrong. It is concerned only about itself. And 
 from its own point of view does life judge of every- 
 thing that comes within the range of its experi- 
 ence. It approves that as right which is conducive 
 to its well-being, and condemns that as wrong which 
 is detrimental to its existence. But as life cannot 
 take the material world and change it ad libitum 
 \o suit its own well-being; life is endeavoring to 
 overcome the discrepancy between itself and the 
 material world by an adjustment to the material 
 world — an adjustment which does not mean a com- 
 plete surrender, but a modus vivendi which makes 
 life's existence tolerably agreeable. That adjust- 
 ment, then, is a prime necessity. And, because of 
 that necessity, life does not first think and then act; 
 but, on the contrary, "Im Amfang war die That;" 
 life first acts and then it reflects. The act, there- 
 fore, precedes the thought. The feelings are life's 
 instinctive judgments of its own experiences. If 
 the experience is conducive to the well-being of 
 life, the latter feels gratified, and that gratification 
 manifests itself in feelings favoring that experience. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 91 
 
 On the other hand, if that experience is detrimental 
 to life, the latter feels hurt or pained, and that 
 feeling is life's instinctive aversion against that 
 experience. 
 
 With the development of human intelligence, 
 men acquired the power and the use of language. 
 Their advanced intelligence taught them that their 
 primitive desires, in their naked forms, were just 
 as unpresentable as their naked bodies were. Then 
 they learned to cover up their desires with lan- 
 guage, as they had previously learned to cover up 
 their bodies with clothes. Since then men ac- 
 quired the habit and perfected the art of conceal- 
 ing their real desires behind expressions of noble 
 intentions. The more civilized men became the 
 more skillfully did they learn to pave their way 
 to hellish purposes with the noblest of intentions. 
 As Hegel said: "In a reflecting and reasoning age, 
 a man is not worth much who cannot give a good 
 reason for everything, no matter how bad or how 
 crazy. Everything in the world that has been done 
 wrong, has been done so for the best of reasons." 
 Hence, we must not be deceived by the assurances 
 of men or by their professions. We must go deeper 
 into the reality of life. We must search for the 
 cause of their actions, not in their religions and 
 
92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 philosophies, but in the material conditions of ex- 
 istence. And, when we come to those conditions, 
 we shall discover the real reason for the specific 
 conducts of men. And, when we find that men 
 changed their views, we must be certain that the 
 change of view is a manifestation of a change of 
 inclination that had already taken place in the 
 consciousness of the men — a change which was al- 
 ready determined by the previous change in the 
 material conditions of existence. Two illustrations 
 from American history will exemplify this truth 
 adequately. 
 
 In 1914 the Great War broke out — a war which 
 threatened to break out into a universal extermina- 
 tion of the human race. When the war broke out, 
 the nations involved in it flooded the world with 
 printed assurances that they were severally fighting 
 for great and worthy causes. Some were fighting 
 for culture, others for liberty, others for democ- 
 racy, and so on the whole gamut of high principles. 
 Even the socialists of the respective countries of 
 Europe assured the world that in fighting against 
 their own comrades they were but fighting for the 
 cause of socialism. It apeared, therefore, that it 
 was a war for religion, culture, democracy, hu- 
 manity and socialism. Never before did mankind 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 93 
 
 fight so holy and noble a war as this one was. And, 
 because this was the holiest of wars, mankind con- 
 fidently expected the millenium to come at the end 
 of the war. The lofty and noble spirit that em- 
 braced mankind aroused the nations to such height 
 of unselfishness and holy zeal that even the prosaic 
 and unduly practical Americans were caught in the 
 enthusiasm and, therefore, they too plunged into 
 the war. The Americans also sought a baptism in 
 that holy war. 
 
 But, alas, how illusive all that turned out to be! 
 Even President Wilson — that sublime idealist, the 
 acclaimed Messiah and redeemer of mankind — 
 even he had to admit that the war was fought for 
 very material ends. And, yet, there was no need 
 to wait until after the war had brought upon the 
 human race infinite misery and destruction of life 
 and property to discover the cause and aim of 
 that war. A little intelligent insight into the reality 
 of life would have shown that the cause and pur- 
 pose of the war could be no other than a material 
 cause, a material purpose, namely, the rivalry be- 
 tween groups of capitalists for the possession of 
 foreign markets on which to dump the surplus 
 produce and to further the material interests of the 
 respective groups of capitalists. This was pointed 
 
94 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 out by the socialists before the war and during the 
 time since the outbreak of the war. And, not only 
 this, the practical Americans, with their true in- 
 stinct for business, perceived the material basis of 
 that war outright. 
 
 When the war broke out the Americans became 
 all of a sudden very pious and thankful to God. 
 Their enthusiastic thanksgiving resounded from 
 one end of the world to the other. All joined in 
 that thanksgiving: priests, professors, statesmen, 
 jurists, financiers, businessmen and even plain 
 workingmen. They all jubilated: they all thanked 
 Providence for the prosperity it brought to this 
 country. God in his infinite wisdom had created 
 the world ; planted on it the human race ; and in the 
 fulness of time sent to men his only beloved son, 
 that he might offer himself a ransom for the sins 
 of men and convert them into good Christians, that 
 they might rise to power, increase and multiply, 
 build up cities, states and empires, cultivate the 
 arts, the sciences and the philosophies, establish a 
 wonderful system of production and distribution 
 of the necessaries of life, overflow beyond the 
 boundaries of the old world, reach the new world, 
 bring out an American people, a Christian people; 
 and then God, in his infinite kindness, sent a spirit 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 95 
 
 of war to the nations of the world, that they might 
 destroy civilization, religion, property and life, to 
 the end, that the Americans, the only beloved chil- 
 dren of God, might have material prosperity! Oh, 
 what wonderful conception of the ways of God 
 this is! What sublime unselfishness the Americans 
 then manifested! 
 
 At first the Americans saw the will of God was 
 that the European nations should fight till their 
 strength would be exhausted, that the Americans 
 should then be able to have all the foreign markets 
 free to themselves, and that therefore the Americans 
 were to maintain a proud indifference to the for- 
 tunes of the warring nations. But, when the hated 
 Germans threatened the material interests of the 
 Americans, then the latter awoke to the discovery 
 that God wanted them to fight the Germans. Of 
 course, the Americans did not say so. On the 
 contrary, they still persisted that they were con- 
 strained to go to war by moral reasons, namely, to 
 avenge the wrongs done by the Germans to Belgium, 
 and to punish Germany for violating the inter- 
 national relations between the nations and such 
 other reasons. But all these reasons it now clearly 
 appears, were but masks to cover up the real rea- 
 sons, which were of a very material nature. The 
 
96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 material interests of the Americans were threatened 
 by the Germans, and to protect those interests the 
 former went into the war against the latter. 
 
 Take another case. For about half a century 
 prior to the outbreak of the Civil War in the United 
 States a vigorous agitation against slavery was car- 
 ried on in the Northern States. The question arises: 
 How came it that the people in the Northern States 
 were against slavery, while the people in the South- 
 ern States were for slavery? 
 
 A superficial observation of the facts would 
 lead one to conclude that that was so because the 
 people in the North were intellectually and morally 
 superior to the people in the South and, therefore, 
 the former perceived and felt that slavery was un- 
 just and inhuman, and therefore wanted to abolish 
 it; while the latter neither perceived nor felt the 
 injustice and inhumanity of slavery, and therefore 
 sought to perpetuate it. 
 
 But we know now that the people in the South 
 were neither intellectually nor morally inferior to 
 the people in the North. How, then, came it that 
 the same people, coming from the same stock of 
 Europeans, carrying in their blood the same degree 
 of culture, believing in the same God, following 
 the same religion, and living under the same Gov- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 97 
 
 ernment, and in all respects so much alike to one 
 another, differed from one another so radically on 
 the question of slavery? 
 
 The answer is to be found in the different ma- 
 terial conditions of existence. For a long time 
 prior to the outbreak of the Civil War modern 
 commerce and industry rapidly developed in the 
 North. To carry on successfully modern com- 
 merce and industry, it is necessary to employ free, 
 intelligent and self-responsible labor. The people 
 in the North, to succeed in commerce and industry, 
 were required by modern conditions of production 
 and distribution to employ such free labor. And, 
 having employed such labor, and finding such em- 
 ployment profitable, the employers acquired the 
 habit and an inclination favoring the habit of 
 employing such labor. And then the intellect dis- 
 covered, on the one hand, that the employment of 
 such labor was in harmony with justice, humanity 
 and religion, and, on the other hand, that the em- 
 ployment of slave labor was contrary to justice, 
 humanity and religion. 
 
 On the other hand, in the South the people still 
 continued to produce cotton, sugar, tobacco, and 
 such other staple articles, which could be carried 
 on profitably by the employment of slave labor. 
 
98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 The slaveholders, therefore, continued to find it 
 profitable to employ slaves ontheir plantations and, 
 continuing to employ slave labor, as they had done 
 for centuries, they continued in the Same habits 
 and inclinations, and therefore their intellect could 
 not perceive the injustice, the inhumanity, of 
 slavery. As Goethe says: "Wenn ihr es nidrt fiihlt, 
 ihr werdet es nich erjagen"; that is, if you do not 
 feel it, you will not perceive it. The slaveholders 
 in the South could not feel for the slaves, there- 
 fore they could not perceive the inhumanity of 
 slavery. 
 
 Hence, the people in the North were agajinst 
 slavery, while the People in the South continued 
 to be in favor of slavery. Once they were divided 
 materially on the question of slavery, they wejre 
 also divided on this question intellectually am d 
 morally. Thus it came to pass that both sides to 
 the great controversy supported their antagonistic 
 views on slavery by arguments taken from the same 
 Bible, the same Religion, the same Constitution, 
 and the same facts of life. The resulting war, 
 therefore, was not caused by a difference of relig- 
 ion, morality or justice, but a difference of material 
 interests. As Marx says in his essay "The Civil 
 War in America": "The present struggle between 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 99 
 
 South and North is, therefore, nothing else than a 
 struggle between two systems, the system of slavery 
 and the system of free labor. Because both sys- 
 tems cannot any longer exist on the American con- 
 tinent without friction, the present war broke out. 
 It can only end with the victory of one system or the 
 other." 
 
 These illustrations, which can be multiplied, 
 show that men think as they feel, they feel as they 
 act, and they act as they are required by the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence. Therefore, man's 
 consciousness changes with every change in the con- 
 ditions of his material existence, his social relations 
 and his social life. If, therefore, men want to rise 
 mentally and morally, they must seek to accom- 
 plish that rise through the change and the improve- 
 ment of the material conditions of existence; for, 
 by merely taking thought they cannot add a cubit 
 to their mental and moral stature. 
 
 This, however, should not lead to the conclusion 
 that men are but the passive reflexes of the material 
 conditions of existence, and that they are but what 
 the material conditions of existence determine them 
 to be ; that would deny the distinct and independent 
 nature of life. That would bring us back to Spen- 
 cer's view— a view which we saw was only half 
 
100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 true. Life is not a product and copy of the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence, as Spencer believed; 
 but life is distinct from and independent of the 
 material conditions of existence. Life merely co- 
 operates with the material conditions of existence, 
 and in that cooperation, as we saw, neither factor 
 loses itself. The materialist interpretation of his- 
 tory teaches us that men make their own history, 
 though they do not make it out of the whole cloth. 
 This, indeed, follows from the very conditions of 
 existence. Life is infinite in its! capacity and 
 tendency, and as such it cannot content itself with 
 the limited means it finds at its disposal. 
 
 When the earth's surface was yet unconquered 
 by life, living beings had room enough to spread 
 over the earth, to increase and multiply. Then it 
 was a case of adjusting itself to the conditions of 
 existence. But when the earth was covered all over 
 with living beings, when every available part of 
 the earth's surface Was taken up by living beings, 
 life could continue to exist and exercise its capacity 
 and gratify its tendency to increase and multiply 
 only by using itself as a basis, that is, by preying 
 upon itself. Since then living beings had to bring 
 out natural weapons for attack and defence, and 
 life became a struggle for the means of life. And 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 101 
 
 by bringing out ever more improved weapons to 
 struggle for the means of life, life could bring out, 
 at the expense of lower forms of living beings, 
 ever higher forms of beings. In this manner life 
 sought to transcend the natural limitations of 
 the means of life. On the one hand, life endeavored 
 to make a better and more economic use of the 
 limited means for life; and ? on the other hand, it 
 endeavored to attain to an ever higher form of 
 existence; for, in proportion as life rose in degree 
 of development it substituted for its capacity and 
 tendency physically to increase and multiply a 
 capacity and tendency to bring out and develop 
 mental, and moral faculties, by the exercise of 
 which life finds an ever-increasing scope for activ- 
 ity and gratification. Necessity, then, drives life 
 towards a higher and ever higher form of existence. 
 And this necessity manifests itself in mankind in a 
 striving after a higher mental and moral develop- 
 ment. But since human life, like life generally, 
 is bound up with the material means of life, men 
 can make their own history only by means of the 
 material means, and as the latter permit. 
 
 The urge of life to transcend the limited means 
 of life does not spring from the latter, but from its 
 own nature. The material means are rather a 
 
102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 hindrance to and a constraint upon life. But, as 
 Bergson says, these material means, though a hind- 
 rance and constraint, are the instrument and a 
 stimulus to life. It is for these, reasons that social- 
 ists direct their efforts primarily towards a radical 
 change in the production and distribution of the 
 material means of life, and upon that change as a 
 basis to inaugurate such state of society as will 
 afford the opportunity and furnish the incentive 
 for the members tQ strive after a higher and ever 
 higher development. Then the infinite nature of 
 life will find unlimited scope, not in the mere 
 physical increase and multiplication, but in the 
 exercise of their intellectual and moral powers. 
 In this way the age-long problem imposed upon life 
 by the limited means for life will have been solved. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Per naturam naturantem nobis intelligendum est id quod in 
 se est et per se concipitur, sive talia substantiae attributa quae 
 eternam et infinitam essentiam exprimunt, hoc est Deus, quatenus 
 ut causa libera consideratur. Per naturatam autem intelligo 
 id omne quod es necessitate Dei naturae sive uiuscuiusque Dei 
 attributorum sequitur, hoc est, omne Dei attributorum modos, 
 quatenus considerantur ut res, quae in Deo sunt et quae sine 
 Deo nee esse nee concipi possunt. 
 
 Spinoza: Ethices. 
 
 HF^HE materialistic interpretation of history is 
 -*■ generally understood to teach that man is but 
 the product of the material conditions of existence; 
 as these are at any given time so must man be. 
 According to this view, human history is like a 
 wave rolling over the sea. Just as the extent and 
 the course of the wave are determined, not by the 
 particles of water composing the wave, but by the 
 physical causes surrounding the surface of the sea 
 so also is human history determined, not by the 
 individual members of society, but by the material 
 conditions of existence surrounding and affecting 
 society. This, however, as we shall presently see 
 is a crude and fundamentally false interpretation 
 of history. It is not the interpretation Marx gave 
 to history. 
 
 103 
 
104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Marx epitomized his philosophy of history by 
 saying: "Men make their own history, but they 
 do not make it out of the whole cloth; they do not 
 make it under conditions chosen by themselves, but 
 under such as are immediately found at hand, given 
 and transmitted." The significance of this we shall 
 appreciate after we shall have considered a great 
 truth brought to light by Spinoza. 
 
 Spinoza contemplates existence as manifesting 
 itself both as active and passive; as natura naturans 
 and natura naturata. The meaning of Spinoza will 
 be best understood from considering a few illus- 
 trations. 
 
 Suppose that in my hand I hold a quantity of 
 potato seeds. These seeds have potentially the 
 capacity to sprout out, grow and develop into 
 potato plants, and to reproduce seeds of their own 
 kind. Nevertheless, of themselves they cannot 
 bring out their native powers. They must be 
 brought into intimate cooperation with the proper 
 material elements: soil, water, sunshine, air, and 
 the like. Now, suppose that I put these seeds into 
 the ground. In time they will sprout out, grow and 
 develop into potato plants, and eventually will re- 
 produce seeds of their own kind. 
 
 It is therefore clear that the cooperation between 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 105 
 
 the seeds and the proper material elements was 
 necessary that the seeds might bring out potato 
 plants and potato seeds. Nevertheless, in this co- 
 operation the seeds and the material elements did 
 not function in the same capacity; for, while the 
 latter functioned passively, merely furnishing the 
 seeds the proper materials and conditions for the 
 organization and development of the seeds, the 
 seeds functioned actively in that organization and 
 development. It was the work of the seeds that 
 gathered the proper materials, organized them in 
 the appropriate manner, and developed into potato 
 plants and reproduced potato seeds. 
 
 That the work of organization and development 
 was done by the seeds and not by the material ele- 
 ments will readily appear from the fact that if, 
 instead of the potato seeds, we had put into the 
 same ground tomato seeds, the latter would have 
 brought forth out of the same materials and con- 
 ditions tomato plants and reproduced tomato seeds. 
 
 We see then that, in bringing out certain results, 
 Nature manifests herself on the one hand as natura 
 naturans, that is, as active nature, and, on the 
 other hand, as natura naturata, that is, as passive 
 nature. Speaking generally, we may say the in- 
 organic world with relation to the plant world 
 
106 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 functions as natura naturata, passively; and the 
 plant world with relation to the inorganic world 
 functions as natura naturans, actively. 
 
 When we go a step higher in the scale of evolu- 
 tion and we come to the animal world, we find the 
 same relationship of nature. That the animals may 
 live and perpetuate their kind, they must be brought 
 into cooperation with the proper environment; the 
 soil, water, air, sunshine, plants, and the like. 
 Nevertheless, with reference to the animals, the 
 inorganic and the plant world function as natura 
 naturata, merely furnishing to the animals the 
 proper materials and conditions for their existence, 
 while the animals with relation to their environment 
 function as natura naturans. It is the animals that 
 gather the materials, organize them in the appro- 
 priate manner, and reproduce beings of their own 
 kind. Out of the same materials and within the 
 same environment the horse builds up a horse be- 
 ing, and reproduces beings of its own kind; while 
 the bull builds up a bull being, and reproduces 
 beings of its own kind. 
 
 And, likewise, when we come to men we find the 
 same relationship of nature. That men may live 
 and perpetuate their kind, they must cooperate with 
 the proper environment: soil, water, air ? sunshine. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 107 
 
 animals, plants, and the inorganic world. Never- 
 theless, men only with relation to the rest of nature 
 function as natura naturans; while the rest of na- 
 ture with relation to men functions as natura 
 naturata. 
 
 When we contemplate Nature as a whole it ap- 
 pears as a pyramids — broad and massive at the 
 base and tapering to a point at the apex. At the 
 base of the pyramid of Nature is the inorganic 
 world ; next above it is the plant world ; then is the 
 animal world; and highest of all is the human 
 race. This pyramid of Nature manifests the ca- 
 pacities of natura naturata and natura naturans at 
 the two opposite extremes. At the base it is pas- 
 sive and at the apex it is active ; so that the higher a 
 being ascends, and the nearer it approaches towards 
 the apex, the more it partakes of the active and 
 creative nature, and therefore the more power it 
 acquires for organization, construction and develop- 
 ment and vice versa. And so it comes to pass that 
 whatever the pyramid loses in mass as it approaches 
 the apex it gains in power. 
 
 This pyramid, however, is not of a fixed nature 
 and in a fixed state. On the contrary, this pyramid 
 is perpetually moving onward and forward with its 
 apex in the front, cutting into the unknown and 
 
108 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 the future and adding to its mass. The apex is 
 perpetually conquering, inventing and creating, 
 while the base gathers up the accomplished results. 
 Hence it comes to pass that the pioneers of the 
 human race are the natura naturans of the pyramid 
 of nature, while the conservatives are the natura 
 naturata; the former perpetually conquer, invent 
 and create, while the latter gather up the accom- 
 plished results of the former and preserve them. 
 It is this natura naturans that in the pioneers mani- 
 fests itself in an intuition, a vision into the future; 
 it is this vision that gives them the abiding faith and 
 the courage to struggle for the realization of the 
 vision. And, as Emerson says an institution is but 
 the lengthened shadow of a great man, the great 
 man has always his gaze towards the future, while 
 mass merely follow him. 
 
 Now, though Nature at the base manifests her- 
 self as natura naturata, and at the apex as natura 
 naturans, it does not mean that Nature is verily so 
 divided into two distinct capacities. On the con- 
 trary, is at one with herself, and everywhere mani- 
 fests her oneness. Nevertheless, she manifests her- 
 self in this dual capacity at the opposite extremes. 
 An illustration will make it clear. 
 
 A magnet has two poles of opposite natures — 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 109 
 
 a positive pole and a negative pole. Now, suppose 
 that the magnet be cut into two parts. Then, in- 
 stead of one magnet, we shall have two magnets, 
 each with a positive and negative pole. Now, sup- 
 pose that these two magnets be again divided and 
 subdivided until they are reduced to the size of 
 their molecules. Then we shall have as many mag- 
 nets, each with a positive and negative pole, as we 
 have molecules. Nevertheless, when all these 
 molecules are consolidated into one magnet, they 
 manifest their individual properties jointly, on one 
 end of the magnet their positive poles, and on the 
 other end of the magnet their negative poles. The 
 same is true of Nature. Every particle of substance 
 possesses both capacities: natura naturans and na- 
 tura naturata. But, when all substance is con- 
 solidated into one as indeed it is — then the sub- 
 stance manifests its two capacities jointly, — at the 
 base of the pyramid of Nature the natura naturata 
 and at the apex the natura naturans. 
 
 Now, since mankind is at the apex of the pyramid 
 of Nature, they, more than all other living beings, 
 partake of the nature of natura naturans and they, 
 therefore, more than all other living beinga, have 
 the power to shape, use and control the material 
 conditions of existence. And in proportion as 
 
110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 mankind rises higher and higher in the pyramid 
 of Nature do they partake ever more of the active 
 and creative function of Nature, and in that pro- 
 portion also do they acquire the power to control 
 and determnie their conditions of existence. Men, 
 therefore, make their own history, though they do 
 not make that history out of the whole cloth, for 
 men must make their own history in cooperation 
 with the material conditions of existence, and the 
 nature of these conditions is not annihilated in that 
 cooperation. On the contrary, as we shall see, this 
 nature asserts itself in the result of that coopera- 
 tion, and therefore that nature is to be reckoned 
 with. Nevertheless, as men are the natura naturans 
 and the material conditions of existence are the 
 natura naturata, men have the controlling power 
 over the material conditions of existence. 
 
 In the beginning men made their history in a 
 small way and in an imperfect manner. Gradually, 
 as men rose ever higher in the scale of evolution 
 and approached ever nearer to the apex of the 
 pyramid of Nature, they acquired ever greater 
 power over the material conditions of existence 
 and, in that measure, also, greater power and free- 
 dom to make their own history. A time, there- 
 fore, must come when men will rise so high in the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 111 
 
 scale of evolution and approach so near the apex 
 of the pyramid of Nature, that in truth and in 
 fact they will become the lords and the masters of 
 their own destiny. But, this will not come as a 
 matter of course. Men must constantly exert them- 
 selves to transcend the constraining and downward 
 pressure of the material conditions of existence and 
 must perpetually strive to attain the apex of exist- 
 ence. This, however, cannot be attained by the 
 individuals working each for himself: it can be 
 attained by mankind through cooperation. For this 
 reason men must unite in a joint effort: and this is 
 possible through a socialist movement. 
 
 This is the view of Marx. And to show that 
 this is his view, it will be necessary to call upon 
 Marx himself to tell us his view in his own 
 language. 
 
 In Capital, volume I, chapter VII, section I, 
 Marx tells us: — "Labor is, in the first place, a 
 process in which both man and Nature participate, 
 and in which man of his own accord starts, regu- 
 lates, and controls the material reactions between 
 himself and Nature. He opposes himself to Na- 
 ture. He opposes himself to Nature as one of her 
 own forces, setting in motion arms and legs, head 
 and hands, the natural forces of his body, in order 
 
112 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 to appropriate Nature's productions in a form 
 adapted to his own wants. By thus acting on the 
 external world and changing it, he at the same time 
 changes his own nature. He develops his slum- 
 bering powers, and compels them to act in obedi- 
 ence to his sway. We are not now dealing with 
 those primitive instinctive forms of labor that re- 
 mind us of the mere animal. An immeasurable 
 interval of time separates the state of things in 
 which a man brings his labor-power to market for 
 sale as a commodity from that state in which human 
 labor was still in its first instinctive stage. We pre- 
 suppose labor in a form that stamps it as exclu- 
 sively human. A spider conducts operations that 
 resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame 
 many an architect in the construction of her cells. 
 But, what distinguishes the worst architect from the 
 best of bees is this, that the architect raises his 
 structure in imagination before he erects it in real- 
 ity. At the end of every labor-process we get a 
 result that already existed in the imagination of 
 the laborer at its commencement. He not only 
 effects the change of form in the material on which 
 he works, but he also realizes a purpose of his own 
 that gives the law to his modus operandi, and to 
 which he must subordinate his will. 9 ' 
 
* THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 113 
 
 Again, in his "Poverty of Philosophy," Marx 
 says: — "Proudhon the economist has clearly under- 
 stood that men make cloth, linen, silk-stuffs, in 
 certain determined relations. But what he has not 
 understood is that these determined social relations 
 of production are as much produced by men as are 
 the cloth, the linen, and so on. The social rela- 
 tions are intimately attached to the productive for- 
 ces. In acquiring new productive processes men 
 change their mode of production, and in changing 
 their mode of production, their manner of gaining 
 a living, they change all their social relations. The 
 windmill gives you a society with the feudal lord; 
 the steammill, a society with the industrial capital- 
 ist. The same men who establish social relations 
 conformably with their material productivity, pro- 
 duce also the principles, the ideas, the categories, 
 conformably with their social relations. Thus 
 these ideas, these categories, are not more eternal 
 than the relations which they express." 
 
 Again, in a note to chapter XV of Capital, vol- 
 ume I, Marx says: — "Darwin has interested us in 
 the history of Nature's technology — i.e., in the for- 
 mation of the organs of plants and animals, which 
 organs serve as instruments of production for sus- 
 taining life. Does not the history of the productive 
 
114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 organs of man, of organs that are the material 
 basis of all social organization, deserve equal atten- 
 tion? And would not such a history be easier to 
 compile, since, as Vico says, human history differs 
 from natural history in this, that we have made 
 the former, but not the latter? Technology dis- 
 closed man's mode of dealing with Nature, the 
 process of production by which he sustains his 
 life, and thereby also lays bare the mode of forma- 
 tion of his social relations, and of the mental con- 
 ceptions that flow from them. Every history of 
 religion, even, that fails to take account of this 
 material basis, is uncritical. It is, in reality, much 
 easier to discover by analysis the earthly core of 
 the misty creations of religion than, conversely, it 
 is to develop from the actual relations of life the 
 corresponding celestialized forms of those rela- 
 tions. The latter method is the only materialistic, 
 and therefore the only scientific one. The weak 
 points in the abstract materialism of natural sci- 
 ence, a materialism that excludes history and its 
 process, are at once evident from the abstract and 
 ideological conceptions of its spokesmen, whenever 
 they venture beyond the bounds of their own 
 specialty." 
 
 The foregoing conclusively show that, according 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 115 
 
 ,to Marx, man, in his cooperation with the material 
 world, is the controlling factor; and, as man is an 
 historic being, that is, a being in whom constantly 
 accumulate the results of the experience of the 
 race, as man progresses, rises in the scale of evolu- 
 tion, and attains ever nearer to the apex of Nature, 
 he becomes ever more the master of the conditions 
 of existence. This view should have been perfectly 
 clear to every student of the works of Marx. Un- 
 fortunately, however, the followers of Marx, like 
 his opponents, did not understand the works of 
 Marx, and therefore the materialist interpretation 
 of history as formulated by Marx was misinter- 
 preted. Therefore, before we proceed further in 
 the unfolding of this philosophy, we must clear 
 the ground of all misapprehensions. For this pur- 
 pose I shall call upon Engels as the first witness. 
 
 In his essay: — "Fuerbach: The Root of the So- 
 cialist Philosophy" Engels says: "Marx and I are 
 partly responsible for the fact, that the younger 
 men have sometimes laid more stress on the eco- 
 nomic side than it deserves. In meeting the attacks 
 of our opponents, it was necessary for us to empha- 
 size the dominant principle denied by them, and 
 we did not always have time, place or opportunity 
 
116 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 to let the other factors which were concerned in the 
 mutual action reaction get their deserts. 
 
 "According to the materialistic view of history, 
 the factor which is, in the last instance, decisive in 
 history is the production and reproduction of ac- 
 tual life. More than this neither Marx nor I have 
 ever asserted. But when any one distorts this so as 
 to read that the economic factor is the sole element 
 he converts the statement into a meaningless, ab- 
 stract, absurd phrase. The economic condition is 
 the basis, but the various elements of the super- 
 structure — the political forms of the class-contests 
 and their results, the constitutions — the legal forms 
 and also all the reflexes of these actual contests in 
 the brains of the participants, the political, legal, 
 philosophical theories, the religious views — all 
 these exert an influence on the development of the 
 historical struggles, and in many instances deter- 
 mine their form. 
 
 "The history of the growth of society appears, 
 however, in one respect entirely different from that 
 of nature. In nature are to be found, as far as we 
 leave the reaction of man upon nature out of sight 
 — mere unconscious blind agents which act upon 
 one another, and in their interplay the universal 
 law realizes itself. From all that happens, whether 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 117 
 
 from the innumerable apparent accidents which 
 appear upon the surface, or from the final results 
 flowing from these accidental concurrences, nothing 
 occurs as a desired conscious act. On the contrary, 
 in the history of society the mere actors are all en- 
 dowed with consciousness; they are agents imbued 
 with deliberation or passion, men working towards 
 an appointed end; nothing appears writhout an 
 intentional purpose, without an end desired. But 
 this distinction, important as it is for historical 
 examination, particularly of single epochs and 
 events, can make no difference to the fact that the 
 course of history is governed by inner universal 
 laws. Here, also, in spite of the wished-for aims 
 of all the separate individuals, accident for the 
 most part is apparent on the surface. That which 
 is willed but rarely happens. In the majority of 
 instances the numerous desired ends cross and inter- 
 fere with each other, and either these ends are 
 utterly incapable of realization, or the means are 
 ineffectual. So the innumerable conflicts of indi- 
 vidual wills and individual agents in the realm of 
 history reach a conclusion which is on the whole 
 analogous to that in the realm of nature, which is 
 without definite purpose. The ends of the actions 
 are intended, but the results which follow from the 
 
118 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 actions are not intended, or in so far as they ap- 
 pear to correspond with the end desired, in their 
 final results are quite different from the conclusion 
 wished. Historical events in their entirety there- 
 fore appear likewise controlled by chance. But 
 even where according to superficial observation 
 accident plays a part, it is, as a matter of fact, 
 consistently governed by unseen, internal laws, and 
 the only question remaining, therefore, is to dis- 
 cover these laws. 
 
 "Men make their own history in that each fol- 
 lows his own desired ends independent of results, 
 and the results of these many wills acting in dif- 
 ferent directions and their manifold effects upon 
 the world constitute history. It depends, therefore, 
 upon what the great majority of individuals intend. 
 The will is determined by passion or reflection, but 
 the levers which passion or reflection immediately 
 apply are of very different kinds. Sometimes it 
 may be external circumstances, sometimes ideal 
 motives, zeal for honor, enthusiasm for truth and 
 justice, personal hate, or even purely individual 
 peculiar ideas of all kinds. But on the one hand 
 we have seen in history that the results of many 
 individual wills produce effects, for the most part 
 quite other than wished for— often, in fact, the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 119 
 
 very opposite — their motives of action, likewise, 
 are only of subordinate significance with regard to 
 universal results. On the other hand, the question 
 arises: What driving forces stand in turn behind 
 these motives of action; what are the historical 
 causes which transform themselves into motives of 
 action in the brains of the agents? 
 
 "The old materialism never set this question be- 
 fore itself. Its philosophy of history, as far as it 
 ever had one in particular, is hence essentially 
 pragmatic; it judges everything from the stand- 
 point of the immediate motive ; it divides historical 
 agents into good and bad and finds as a whole that 
 the good are defrauded and the bad are victorious, 
 whence it follows that, as far as the old materialism 
 is concerned, there is nothing edifying that can be 
 obtained from a study of history, and for us, that 
 in the realm of history the old materialism is 
 -proved to be false, since it fixes active ideal im- 
 pulses as final causes instead of seeking that which 
 lies behind them, that which is the impulse of these 
 impulses. The lack of logical conclusion does not 
 lie in the fact that ideal impulses are recognized, 
 but in this, that there is no further examination into 
 the more remote causes of their activity." 
 
 And previously Engels told us that, "According 
 
120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 to the materialistic view of history, the factor which 
 is, in last instance, decisive in history is the produc- 
 tion and reproduction of actual life." Now, though 
 Marx and Engels speak very plainly, yet the idea 
 involved in the materialistic view of history is so 
 abstract and comprehensive that it is hard to grasp 
 it. This was the reason for the current misinter- 
 pretation of the theory of Marx. As this brings us 
 to the crux of the matter, it will be necessary to go 
 into it at some length, so that we may carry out a 
 correct working philosophy — a philosophy that 
 shall guide us aright in our future strivings and 
 struggles. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 3T)ETWEEN man and Nature there is a material 
 -*-^ reaction: man and Nature act and react upon 
 each other. Nature brings out man and moulds his 
 nature, and man, in turn, modifies and shapes 
 Nature. But, while man and Nature react upon 
 each other, their purposes are not the same, because 
 their natures are not the same. Nature is infinite 
 in extent, duration and means. If nature has a pur- 
 pose, that purpose must be commensurate with her 
 infinite nature: her purpose, therefore, must be 
 infinite, requiring infinite time, infinite space, in- 
 finite energy, and infinite means to realize her pur- 
 pose. Man, on the other hand, is limited and so 
 also is his purpose. The aim of all human en- 
 deavor is to attain to a state of wellbeing and 
 happiness. All efforts of man are directed towards 
 this limited aim. Now, since Nature and her pur- 
 pose are infinite, while man and his purpose are 
 finite, it follows that the purpose of the one cannot 
 coincide with the purpose of the other. And since, 
 furthermore, Nature does not depend upon man, 
 while man depends upon Nature, it follows that, 
 
 121 
 
122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 in order to attain his aim, man must start, regu- 
 late and control the material reactions between 
 himself and Nature. Man must make his own 
 history in a manner to suit himself, for Nature is 
 not directly concerned about his history. 
 
 In endeavoring to make his own history by 
 means of Nature, man does not change the nature 
 of things: he only makes the things of Nature to 
 serve his purpose. As Hegel said: "Reason is 
 just as cunning as she is powerful. Her cunning 
 consists principally in her mediating activity, 
 which, by causing objects to act and react on each 
 other in accordance with their own nature, in this 
 way, without any direct interference in the process, 
 carries out reason's intentions." Now, reason is 
 the very tool by means of which man makes Nature 
 serve his purpose. It will, no doubt, seem strange 
 that man, who is finite, controls Nature that is 
 infinite. But, we shall presently see that this is the 
 case. An illustration will prepare the mind for the 
 perception of the truth. 
 
 As a young man Marx married and thereafter 
 became the father of several children. As the 
 years went by Marx became ever more involved in 
 the international labor movement. A time came 
 when he perceived the necessity to formulate a 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 123 
 
 fundamental and comprehensive plan for the 
 emancipation of the working class and, through 
 their emancipation, to put an end to all class- 
 struggles and the resulting social evils. The plan 
 is vast and complicated. It must be based upon a 
 fundamental and comprehensive foundation. For 
 that purpose an extensive and thorough knowledge 
 of history, economics, science and philosophy, is 
 absolutely essential. Marx throws himself with 
 all his vigor into the fountain of knowledge. At 
 last Marx drew from that fountain the required 
 knowledge. All that now remains is to formulate 
 that knowledge. Hence, the resolve to write his 
 monumental work. 
 
 Day and night Marx works in his study on the 
 problems before him. One morning, while sitting 
 in his study deeply absorbed in some difficult eco- 
 nomic problem, his little daughter runs in, and in 
 a sweet, childish manner, after telling him good 
 morning, asks for a penny to buy candy. Marx is 
 interrupted in his work, yet he is not angry, for he 
 loves his child. He takes her on his lap, kisses her, 
 and, after an exchange of some questions, gives her 
 the penny. The child joyfully jumps away, and 
 Marx resumes his work. 
 
 Later on, while Marx is still working on his 
 
124 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 problems, his wife comes in, telling him that the 
 landlord came for his rent and that the grocer and 
 the butcher sent in their monthly bills and that 
 she needs the money to pay the bills. Marx is 
 again interrupted but he is not sorry, for he loves 
 his wife, and he fully realizes that the bills will not 
 brook any delay. He puts away his work for a 
 while, talks with his wife on various matters, de- 
 liberates on the possible source from which the 
 money may be procured and, when the matter is 
 disposed of, the wife goes away and Marx betakes 
 himself again to his work. 
 
 In the afternoon a delegation of trades-unions 
 comes to Marx to consult him about the pending 
 strike in several industries. Marx is again inter- 
 rupted but he does not begrudge the delegates for 
 this, for he is most vitally concerned about the 
 pending struggle between labor and capital. Marx 
 puts away his work and for several hours discusses 
 with the delegates the situation and the problems in- 
 volved in the pending strike. When the situation 
 is thoroughly covered and definite conclusions are 
 reached, the delegates go away and Marx turns 
 kgain to his work. 
 
 Towards evening Erigels comes to see Marx. 
 When Engels comes, Marx puts away all work. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 125 
 
 The books, pen and ink are left to themselves, 
 cigars are lit, and Marx and Engels abandon them- 
 selves to an unlimited discussion about all matters 
 that come within the range of existence; for, when 
 Engels comes to Marx, both feel entirely at one with 
 each other, their aims and purposes coincide with 
 each other, for they are perfectly identical. The 
 coming of Engels to Marx is not an interruption, 
 but rather a completion of Marx. Marx is never so 
 much at home and never so thoroughly filled up 
 with his own vast purpose as when Engels comes 
 to him, for the purpose of Engels is his purpose. 
 In their union both find their completion. 
 
 Now, at this time of his life Marx lived neither 
 for the sake of his children, that he might supply 
 them with pennies for candy, nor for the sake of 
 his wife, that he might provide for her a home and 
 the necessaries of life, nor for the sake of the 
 trades-unions, that he might help them in their 
 struggles for some limited purposes, such as the 
 shortening of the hours of labor or the nominal 
 increase of their wages. For, though Marx loved 
 his children and his wife, and though he was vitally 
 concerned about the trades-unions, yet his real aim 
 in life was infinitely greater. His real aim was 
 to help the emancipation of the whole working class 
 
126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 for all time to come and, through their emancipa- 
 tion, to emancipate the whole human race for all 
 time to come from slavery, oppression and exploi- 
 tation, and to secure to mankind an existence of 
 supreme and continuous happiness. And, though 
 Marx was ready to do everything in his power to 
 provide the necessaries and the comforts of life for 
 his wife and children and though he was most 
 willing and ready to help the trades-unions in their 
 struggles for immediate gains and some improve- 
 ments in their conditions of life; yet, none of these 
 purposes fully filled up the soul of Marx. Never- 
 theless, when the. child came to ask for pennies, 
 Marx gave her pennies ; when the wife came to ask 
 for pounds, he gave her pounds; and when the 
 delegates came for advice, he gave them advice. 
 Each one received what he asked. But, when Engels 
 came, Marx gave himself entirely over to him, be- 
 cause the aims and purposes of Engels fully co- 1 
 incided with the aims and purposes of Marx. Both 
 aimed after one and the same thing: the complete 
 emancipation of the working class and the thorough 
 regeneration of the human race. And, hence, when I 
 Engels came both felt that their life's aim then I 
 found a full realization and completion in eachl 
 other, and then books, pens, papers, and all other I 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 127 
 
 things were irrelevant. There was but one thing: 
 completely to fuse their souls and thoughts into a 
 perfect unity. 
 
 The same relation exists between man and Na- 
 ture. The aim of Nature — if she has any definite 
 aim — must be infinite in its nature and scope, re- 
 quiring infinite time, infinite space, infinite energy 
 and infinite means for the realization of that aim. 
 But the aim of man is limited in its nature and 
 scope. Therefore, these two aims cannot coincide. 
 Nevertheless, since man is the child of Nature, the 
 latter is always ready to give to man what he asks. 
 In the beginning, when man was yet but a little 
 child, needing food and some playthings whereby to 
 excercise and develop his faculties, Nature freely 
 supplied him food and the means to satisfy his 
 childish desires. Later on, when man grew up to 
 the age of youth, needing, in addition to the neces- 
 saries of life, some substantial things to satisfy his 
 desires and to stimulate his mental and moral 
 powers, Nature gave him the understanding and 
 the means, which enabled him to build cities, tem- 
 ples, ships, cultivate the languages and to lay the 
 foundation for the arts, the industries and civiliza- 
 tion. When man attained to the age of manhood, 
 requiring knowledge and power over the conditions 
 
128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of existence, Nature opened up for him her secrets 
 and revealed to him her treasures. Then man ex- 
 plored the earth, brought to light the powers of 
 Nature, made wonderful devices for the production 
 and the distribution of the necessaries of life, and 
 extended his sway over existence. 
 
 Nevertheless, though man made great progress, 
 he has not reached yet the heights of Nature. As 
 compared to Nature, man bears to her the same 
 relationship that the delegates bore to Marx. Even 
 now man is still content with small things, such as 
 bits of the earth's surface, stocks, bonds, small 
 pieces of property and the like. And as long as 
 man is still content with these small and limited 
 things, his aim in existence is far behind the aim 
 of Nature; and these aims cannot coincide with 
 each other. But, when man will rise to the heights 
 of Nature, when man will realize that he has before 
 him an infinite world with infinite possibilities and 
 that he can have this infinite world but for the ask- 
 ing, then man will ask for this infinite world and 
 then, also, Nature will give it to him, for it is but 
 his rightful inheritance. Man will then be satisfied 
 with nothing less than an eternal and infinite exist- 
 ence. Man will then transcend himself: he will 
 become a superman. He will emerge from the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 129 
 
 category of man — a being limited in nature and 
 capacities, and will attain to the state of the super- 
 man — a being commensurate with Nature. Then 
 the aim of man and the aim of Nature will coincide. 
 And then, also, Nature will be only too willing to 
 abandon herself entirely to the services of man; 
 for then Nature will find her full realization and 
 completeness in man. "Ask, and it shall be given 
 you." This is the rule of Nature. Man, therefore, 
 of his own accord must start, regulate and control 
 the material reactions between himself and Nature. 
 Must determine for himself what Nature shall give 
 him, for Nature has the power and the means to sat- 
 isfy all his desires, and Nature is but waiting to 
 serve man. 
 
 We see, then, that what appeared at first para- 
 doxical and strange is perfectly rational and true. 
 Nature is infinite and man is finite. Yet, in the 
 material reactions between man and Nature, it is 
 man that must start, regulate and control that re-, 
 action. Man must wake up to the realization of 
 the truth that he must make his own history to suit 
 himself: Nature will not make that history for 
 him. 
 
 But, man cannot use Nature arbitrarily: He 
 cannot make her react upon him as he might arbi- 
 
130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 trarily decide. Nature is not a perfect blank, 
 upon which man can write what he pleases. 
 Nature has a character of her own — a character 
 that springs from her nature. And, in the material 
 reaction between man and Nature, man must reckon 
 with this character of Nature. Man, therefore, can 
 use Nature for his own purposes only as Nature can 
 be used: in accordance with her ways and in ac- 
 cordance with the duration of time. Every step in 
 evolution, every process of development, requires 
 time. It is for this reason that we call Marx's phi- 
 losophy the historical materialism: it is a philos- 
 ophy that takes cognizance of the historical order 
 of Nature. The saying — Natura non facit Saltum 
 — must be borne constantly in mind. The doctrine 
 of Evolution is but an attempt to show Nature's 
 work during time. Man, therefore, cannot take 
 thought and arbitrarily add a cubit to his physical, 
 mental or moral stature. Man can bring about an 
 advancement in himself only through the instru- 
 mentality of Nature and this he can achieve only 
 in accordance with the historical development of 
 the material reactions between himself and Nature. 
 From the beginning of time man needed travel- 
 ing facilities to travel over land and sea in search 
 of food and shelter. Nevertheless, it took him 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 131 
 
 thousands of years to tame animals and to harness 
 them for that purpose. It took him several thou- 
 sand of years longer until he learned to harness 
 steam and electricity for the same purpose. And 
 this development of the means for traveling pur- 
 poses could proceed but gradually. It required 
 thousands of years for the material reactions be- 
 tween man and Nature to develop to such extent 
 that man might be able to use modern railroads and 
 steamships to travel over land and sea. Thou- 
 sands of years ago modern machinery was an im- 
 possibility; and this, not only because the ancients 
 were not sufficiently enlightened in the natural sci- 
 ences, but also because there was wanting the 
 historical background for the use of modern ma- 
 chinery. If the Aristotles of the ancient times had 
 known the sciences as we know them today, they 
 could not have made any practical use of them, 
 because society was not yet prepared for the use 
 of modern machinery. In the first place, the social 
 conditions of life did not require modern machin- 
 ery. In the second place there was wanting the 
 technical skill for the construction and manipula- 
 tion of modern machinery. On the other hand, we 
 now enjoy the wonderful machinery of today, not 
 because we are mental giants and wonderful ex- 
 
132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 perts, but because the past generations prepared for 
 us the material conditions for the use of modern 
 machinery, handed over to us their accumulated 
 knowledge and experience, and bequeathed to us 
 the acquired skill to produce and use machinery. 
 We now stand upon the foundation of a long pro- 
 cess of development of the material reactions be- 
 tween man and Nature — a development that re- 
 quired hundreds of thousands of years. 
 
 And that which was up till now, will also con- 
 tinue in the future. Mankind will rise higher and 
 higher in the plane of existence because in his con- 
 stant endeavor to attain to a rational and satisfac- 
 tory existence, he will seek and find ever more 
 effective means to use the material reaction between 
 himself and Nature for purposes entirely his own. 
 In this sense we can truly say: Men make their 
 own history. Their destiny lies entirely in their 
 own hands. Men make their own history, but they 
 do not make it out of the whole cloth. They do not 
 make their own history out of conditions chosen by 
 themselves, for they cannot arbitrarily choose con- 
 ditions to suit themselves. But they can make their 
 own history out of the conditions found close at 
 hand and the conditions that are handed down to 
 them by the past. For, at any given time, both man 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 133 
 
 and Nature are the product of the past and their 
 material reaction at any time reflects but the resul- 
 tant of their past evolutions. Man, as well as Na- 
 ture, is an historic product. He comes into exis- 
 tence with all the accumulated experiences of the 
 race. He is therefore no more a blank than Nature 
 is. 
 
 But, while both man and Nature participate in 
 their material reaction, we must always bear in 
 mind that it is man that starts, regulates and con- 
 trols that material reaction. Man is the natura na- 
 turans, and Nature is the natura naturata. But, 
 man does not come into existence armed with full 
 power to control Nature: that power he acquires 
 but gradually. At first entirely dependent upon 
 Nature, like a child upon its mother, man gradual- 
 ly develops his native powers, which he uses to free 
 himself from the sway of Nature. This has gone 
 on for a long time, And now he is about to attain 
 to the height of Nature and to become her equal. 
 When this will be accomplished, Nature will min- 
 ister to his needs and purposes to the full extent of 
 her powers, for then her aim and his aim will be- 
 come one. This idea was well expressed by Engels 
 in his essay: Socialism — Utopian and Scientific: — 
 "Active social forces work exactly like natural 
 
134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 forces: blindly, forcibly, destructively, so long as 
 we do not understand and reckon with them. But, 
 when once we understand them, when once we grasp 
 their action, their direction, their effects, it depends 
 only upon ourselves to subject them more and more 
 to our own will, and by means of them to reach 
 our own ends. And this holds quite true of the 
 mighty productive forces today. As long as we 
 obstinately refuse to understand the nature and the 
 character of these social means of action — and this 
 understanding goes against the grain of the capi- 
 talist mode of production and its defenders — so 
 long these forces work in spite of us, in opposition 
 to us, so long they master us, as we have shown 
 above in detail. 
 
 "But when once their nature is understood, they 
 can, in the hands of the producers working to- 
 gether, be transformed from master demons into 
 willing servants. The difference is that between the 
 destructive forces of electricity in the lightning of 
 the storm, an electricity under command in the 
 telegraph and the voltaic arc; the difference be- 
 tween a conflagration, and fire working in the serv- 
 ice of man. 
 
 "With the seizing of the means of production by 
 society, production of commodities is done away 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 135 
 
 with, and, simultaneously, the mastery of the pro- 
 duct over the producer. Anarchy in social pro- 
 duction is replaced by systematic, definite organi- 
 zation. The struggle for individual existence dis- 
 appears. Then for the first time, man, in a certain 
 sense is finally marked off from the rest of the ani- 
 pial kingdom, and emerges from mere animal con- 
 ditions of existence into really human ones. The 
 whole sphere of the conditions of life which en- 
 viron man, and which have hitherto ruled man, now 
 come under the dominion and control of man, who 
 for the first time becomes the real, conscious lord 
 of Nature, because he has now become master of 
 his own social organization. The laws of his own 
 social action, hitherto standing face to face with 
 man as laws of Nature foreign to and dominating 
 him, will then be used with full understanding, and 
 so mastered by him. Man's own social organiza- 
 tion, hitherto confronting him as a necessity im- 
 posed upon him by Nature and history, now be- 
 comes the result of his own free action. The ex- 
 traneous objective forces that have hitherto gov- 
 erned history, pass under control of man himself. 
 Only from that time will man himself, more and 
 more consciously, make his own history — only from 
 that time will the social causes set in movement by 
 
136 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 him have, in the main and in constantly growing 
 measures, the results intended by him. It is the 
 ascent of man from the kingdom of necessity to 
 the kingdom of freedom." 
 
 The same idea was expressed by Marx in volume 
 III of Capital, chapter 48: "The realm of freedom 
 (from natural necessity) does not commence until 
 the point is passed where labor under the compul- 
 sion of necessity and of external utility is required. 
 In the very nature of things it lies beyond the 
 sphere of material production in the strict meaning 
 of the term. Just as the savage must wrestle with 
 nature, in order to satisfy his wants, in order to 
 maintain his life and reproduce it, so civilized man 
 has to do it, and he must do it in all forms of society 
 under all possible modes of production. With his 
 development the realm of natural necessity ex- 
 pands, because his wants increase; but at the same 
 time the forces of production increase, by which 
 these wants are satisfied. The freedom in this field 
 cannot consist of anything else but of the fact that 
 socialized man, the associated producers, regulate 
 their interchange with nature rationally, bring it 
 under their common control, instead of being ruled 
 by it as by some blind power that they accomplish 
 their task with the least expenditure of energy and 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 137 
 
 under conditions most adequate to their human na- 
 ture and most worthy of it. But it always remains a 
 realm of necessity. Beyond it begins that develop- 
 ment of human power, which is its own end, the 
 true realm of freedom, which, however, can flour- 
 ish only upon that realm of necessity as its basis. 
 The shortening of the working day is its funda- 
 mental premise." 
 
 In other words, the realm of freedom is based 
 upon and indissolubly bound up with the realm of 
 material necessity. No matter how high the plane 
 of existence that man will attain, he will always be 
 bound up with the material means of life. There- 
 fore, as in the past, so in the future man will have 
 to make his own history through and by the means 
 of the material reaction between himself and na- 
 ture. But, in proportion as he develops his indus- 
 trial powers and his social life and his intellectual 
 and moral powers in just such proportion does he 
 approach ever nearer to the apex of the pyramid of 
 Nature and attains ever more the power to deter- 
 mine the course of his own history. The whole 
 history of man, therefore, is his passing from na- 
 tura naturata to natura naturans. Through his 
 mental and moral development man rises ever 
 higher in the scale of existence and attains to an 
 
138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ever clearer self-consciousness and ever greater 
 freedom. 
 
 But, that man may pass to an ever higher mental 
 and moral development, he must strive constantly 
 and energetically to attain to a more efficient and 
 more comprehensive use of the means of Nature; 
 and, that he may strive after such use, he must be 
 urged on by an inner desire after an enlightened 
 and satisfactory existence; otherwise, he will not 
 bestir himself to change and to improve the ma- 
 terial conditions of existence. That man may erect 
 a beautiful edifice, he must first raise in his imag- 
 ination the picture of that edifice and then use the 
 proper means and methods for its erection. Hence, 
 in order that man may make a rational use of the 
 material conditions of existence and constantly 
 exert himself to change and improve the world, he 
 must, not only be urged on by a desire to improve 
 the material conditions of his existence, but also 
 he must have a picture in his imagination of the 
 ideal state of existence which he wishes to attain. 
 In other words, man must have an ideal after which 
 to strive. This requires careful consideration. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ~% /TEN can make their own history and perpetual- 
 --▼ A ly pass to higher perfection only in propor- 
 tion as they change and improve the material condi- 
 tions of their existence. But, that men may strive 
 after higher perfection, they must first perceive 
 that higher perfection; or, in the words of Marx, 
 that men may erect a beautiful edifice, they must 
 first raise in their imagination a picture of that 
 edifice, and then use the proper means for its erec- 
 tion. Now, while it is true that the greatest archi- 
 tect of antiquity could not have erected say, a 
 Woolworth building, even if he had raised it in his 
 imagination, because the proper means for its erec- 
 tion were wanting, it is also true that a Zulu of 
 today, with all the modern means at his disposal, 
 would not even think of erecting such a building. 
 Men make their own history according to the ideas 
 they have and the means at their disposal; both of 
 which, however, are the result of a long historic 
 process of interaction between them and Nature. 
 An Aristotle under primitive conditions of exis- 
 tence could not at once convert those conditions into 
 
 139 
 
140 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 those fit for a life of the civilized. On the other 
 hand, a fool under the best conditions of existence 
 will make but a foolish use of them. Hence, that 
 men may make a rational use of the conditions of 
 existence and constantly exert themselves to change 
 and improve those conditions, they must not only 
 be urged on by a desire to improve the conditions 
 of existence, but also they must have a picture in 
 their imagination of the ideal state of existence to 
 which they would want to attain. The rational of 
 it will be found in the following. 
 
 When man is summoned into existence, he brings 
 with himself a will to live and a body endowed 
 potentially with the capacities to serve and gratify 
 that will to live. The will to live is primordial and 
 universal in its nature, is anterior to and inde- 
 pendent of the material conditions of existence. 
 On the other hand, the body is concrete and limited 
 in its nature, is posterior to and dependent upon 
 the material conditions of existence. The material 
 conditions themselves are limited and determined. 
 And, since the will has to operate through a limited 
 body and amidst conditions of existence that are 
 limited and determined in their nature, in opera- 
 tion the will is limited and determined. Hence, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 141 
 
 says Schopenhauer, the will in esse is free, but in 
 operari it is determined. 
 
 Since the will is universal and primordial in its 
 nature, it cannot be satisfied with the concrete and 
 limited body within which it has to reside and the 
 determined conditions of existence amidst which 
 it has to operate. Hence, as soon as the will is sum- 
 moned into material existence, it proceeds to change 
 both the body and the conditions of existence. In 
 the body it brings out and develops numerous facul- 
 ties, among which is also the intellect, and these 
 faculties the will uses for the purpose of changing 
 the material conditions of existence, so as to afford 
 wider and ever more comprehensive scope for the 
 activity and the gratification of the will. 
 
 The intellect is like a searchlight, which the will 
 uses to dispel the darkness surrounding life, and to 
 bring to light the things and the conditions of exis- 
 tence. Through the use of the intellect and the con- 
 verse with the material conditions of existence, the 
 will acquires experience and knowledge, which in 
 course of time crystallize themselves into definite 
 habits of conduct and modes of thought; and, 
 through such knowledge and experience, the will 
 learns to distinguish between things that are useful 
 to it and things that are harmful to it; and then, 
 
142 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 in accordance with the acquired habits and the fixed 
 notions, the will seeks to appropriate the former 
 and to reject the latter. 
 
 Simultaneously with the bringing out of the 
 bodily faculties the will proceeds to change and 
 improve the conditions of existence and for this 
 purpose it uses the bodily faculties, and chiefly 
 the intellect. The will projects the intellect, like 
 a searchlight, into space and time to bring to light 
 the conditions of existence, and to discover the ways 
 and the means for the change and the improvement 
 to those conditions. As soon as, through the intel- 
 lect, the will perceives a new state of life and dis- 
 covers the means for its attainment; as soon as the 
 intellect makes it clear to the will that the new state 
 of life is both desirable and possible of attainment; 
 as soon does the will begin to urge the body to exert 
 itself to attain the new state of life. And from then 
 on the will will not rest until it has attained the new 
 state of life. 
 
 But, as said before, the will is universal in its 
 nature. Therefore, a given state of life cannot 
 satisfy it; for a given state of life must, in its very 
 nature, be limited and determined. Hence, as soon 
 as the new state of life is attained, the will becomes 
 again dissatisfied with the concrete and limited 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 143 
 
 body and the determined conditions of existence. 
 It therefore again projects the intellect into space 
 and time to discover new and more improved ways 
 of life and the means for their attainment. And, 
 when through the intellect the will discovers such 
 new ways of life and the means for their attain- 
 ment, it again urges the body to exert itself to attain 
 the new state of life. And, when this is attained, 
 the will again becomes dissatisfied, and again re- 
 news its efforts to find still more improved ways of 
 life, and so on ad infinitum. 
 
 Now, before the will will urge the body to exert 
 itself to attain new ways of life and to change the 
 conditions of existence, it is necessary that the will 
 through the intellect perceive the new state of life 
 and the possibility of its attainment: otherwise, 
 though the will may be very much dissatisfied, and 
 the body may greatly suffer, yet, for want of the 
 knowledge of the new state of life and the means 
 for its attainment, the will may continue in a state 
 of helpless suffering. Hence, the picture of a new 
 and more desirable state of life must firstly be 
 perceived by the will. This picture of a new state 
 of life, which the will perceives and which it begins 
 to desire, constitutes for the time being our ideal. 
 Therefore, men must firstly have an ideal, before 
 
144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 they will exert themselves to change and improve 
 their conditions of existence. Without an ideal, 
 men will continue, like beasts of burden, to plod 
 away their weary life, never bestirring themselves 
 to change and improve their conditions of existence. 
 Again, the attainment of a new and higher state 
 of life is possible only through the overcoming of 
 the limitations of the body and the resistance of the 
 determined conditions of existence : and this entails 
 on us great hardship and suffering. In our struggle 
 for a better state of life, it is not enough that the 
 will is illumined by the intellect, it must also be sus- 
 tained and strengthened in the struggle by another 
 power: otherwise, though the will may, through 
 the intellect, perceive the most beautiful ideal, and 
 most ardently desire to attain that ideal, yet, for 
 want of sustaining strength and courage, it will 
 not attain the ideal. Therefore, in addition to the 
 intellectual faculty, the will also brings out a moral 
 faculty — a faculty to endure hardship, to bear suf- 
 fering, and to remain steadfast in its effort to attain 
 the ideal. This faculty is faith. Faith is not a pas- 
 sive faculty for mere belief. On the contrary, faith 
 is an active power of the will. Faith, as St. Paul 
 tells us, is the substance of things hoped for, the 
 evidence of things not seen. A veil of darkness 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 145 
 
 usually enshrouds us, obscuring our vision, and 
 overwhelming us with fear of the untried and the 
 future. But faith lifts up that veil of darkness, 
 showing us the bright future in the making. By 
 this we are assured of the realization of the things 
 hoped for. Faith enables us to remove mountains 
 of difficulties, and encourages us to persist in our 
 struggle for a better world, despite universal op- 
 position and disappointment. Faith enables us to 
 identify ourselves with our ideal to such extent as 
 to seem to us a present living reality. One that 
 has faith cannot anymore doubt the successful out- 
 come of the struggle for the ideal. 
 
 Faith, like any other faculty, grows and strength- 
 ens with exercise; and, through frequent trials and 
 experiences, it becomes powerful enough to over- 
 come all obstacles, to bring choas into order and to 
 realize the ideal. When men have an ideal, and at 
 the same time are inspired by faith, they can pa- 
 tiently bear all hardship and suffering, and cheer- 
 fully work for their ideal, firmly convinced that the 
 future belongs to them and to their ideal. Both 
 the intellect and faith are brought out by the will, 
 as being both essential to our happiness. In our 
 endeavor to attain a higher and ever higher state 
 of life, we need the intellect to give us light and 
 
146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 knowledge, and we need faith to give us strength 
 and confidence. In making our own history, and in 
 making it in an ever more efficient and improved 
 manner, we must have an ideal; and, in our ef- 
 forts to attain our ideal, we must have faith. With- 
 out an ideal we will degenerate to the level of the 
 beast; and without faith, they will not attain their 
 ideal. The ideal must be begotten of the union 
 of the intellect with faith. The ideal must be sub- 
 lime in its nature and universal in its scope, so as 
 to afford unlimited scope for the universal will to 
 gratify its universal nature. Only such ideal can 
 adequately inspire men and afford them gratifica- 
 tion even while strugling for the attainment of 
 that ideal. 
 
 Now, an ideal is not merely a picture of the 
 present state of life: it is rather a picture of a future 
 state of life — a state of life after which men strive. 
 And the question arises: How is that ideal deter- 
 mined? The answer is this: Though the ideal is 
 a picture of a future state of life, yet it is deter- 
 mined by the present conditions of existence. This 
 requires consideration. 
 
 In his Social Statics, Spencer tells us: "The 
 standard of happiness is infinitely variable. In all 
 ages, among every people, by each class, do we 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 147 
 
 find different notions of it entertained. To the 
 wandering gypsy a home is tiresome; whilst a Swiss 
 is miserable without one. The heaven of the He- 
 brew is a city of gold and precious stones, with 
 a supernatural abundance of corn and wine; that 
 of a Turk — a harem peopled by houries; that of 
 the American Indian — a happy hunting ground. 
 In the Norse paradise there were to be daily battles, 
 with magical healing of wounds; while the Aus- 
 tralian hopes that after death he shall jump up a 
 white fellow, and have plenty of sixpence. De- 
 scending to individual instances, we find Louis XV 
 interpreting 'greatest happiness 9 to mean — making 
 of locks; instead of which his successor read — mak- 
 ing empires. To a miserly Elews the hoarding of 
 gold was the only enjoyment of life; but Day, the 
 philanthropic author of 'Stanford and Merton,' 
 could find no pleasurable enjoyment save in its dis- 
 tribution. The ambitions of the tradesman and the 
 artist are anything but alike ; and could we compare 
 the air-castles of the ploughman and the philos- 
 opher, we could find them of widely different 
 styles of architecture." 
 
 We see, then, that each person has his own pecu- 
 liar ideal, and so each class has its peculiar ideal. 
 The ideal future of each but reflects the present 
 
148 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 condition of his life. Each strives after such an 
 ideal state of existence as he conceives to be the 
 best for him; and each pictures that ideal state 
 according to his present mode of life. Since men 
 must have an ideal, before they will exert them- 
 selves to change and improve the conditions of ex- 
 istence; since that change entails great hardship 
 and suffering and is possible only through the com- 
 bined efforts of all; and since, furthermore, men 
 differ widely from one another in their ideals; the 
 question arises: What will unite mankind upon a 
 common ideal, so that they may unite their powers 
 and exert themselves to attain that common ideal? 
 The answer to this question is involved in the con- 
 sideration of the Class-Struggle. In the Commun- 
 ist Manifesto we are told, — the history of all hither- 
 to existing society is but the history of class-strug- 
 gles. Our next step, then, will be the consideration 
 of the class-struggles, their nature and import. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TT is told in the New Testament that one day, as 
 ■*■ Jesus was expounding his doctrine to his dis- 
 ciples and a multitude of people, teaching man- 
 kind the possibility of establishing a kingdom of 
 heaven on earth, one of his auditors, a wealthy 
 young man, who must have been well impressed 
 with the discourse, approached Jesus, saying: Good 
 Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have 
 eternal life? 
 
 To which Jesus answered: Thou shalt do no mur- 
 der, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not 
 steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy 
 father and they mother: and, Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself. 
 
 To this the young man replied: All these things 
 have I kept from my youth up : what lack I yet? 
 
 This young Pharisee flattered himself with the 
 belief that he had never shed human blood, had 
 never stolen anything, had never committed any 
 crimes against society or sins against God and that 
 he had always loved his neighbor as himself. And 
 yet his conscience troubled him; he felt that some- 
 
 149 
 
150 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 thing was lacking that, in addition to the enjoyment 
 of the comforts and the blessings of this earthly 
 existence, he might also be entitled to the blessings 
 of the hereafter. 
 
 Jesus, believing that he had before him one of 
 those rare souls that eternally yearn after the true, 
 the good and the beautiful, said: If thou wilt be 
 perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to 
 the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: 
 and come and follow me. Come and follow the 
 Son of Man who, unlike the foxes that have holes 
 and the birds that have nests, has no place where 
 to lay his head. Come and follow the Son of Man 
 to the poor, the oppressed, the exploited and the 
 outraged. Come after me, deny thyself, and take 
 up the cross daily, and become one with the un- 
 washed and the unkempt, suffer with them, struggle 
 with them, hope with them, and together with them 
 work for the kingdom of heaven; and then thou 
 wilt have eternal life. 
 
 When the young man heard that, he went away 
 sorrowful: for he had great possessions. This 
 young man, brought up in the doctrines of the 
 Bible and the commentaries of the Talmud, who 
 believed in God and in the immortality of the soul, 
 and who was convinced that God reserved for the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 151 
 
 righteous eternal bliss and supreme happiness, was 
 willing to deny God, repudiate religion, forfeit his 
 claim to eternal bliss and supreme happiness rather 
 than to part with his material possessions during 
 his earthly existence. 
 
 When Jesus saw how insincere, shallow and 
 lacking in true religion and real faith were those 
 who apparently were the best, he himself became 
 sorrowful, and, turning to his disciples, said: 
 Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I 
 say unto you, it is easier for a rope to go through 
 the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter 
 the Kingdom of God. 
 
 When the disciples heard it they were exceeding- 
 ly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But 
 Jesus beheld them, and said unto them: With men 
 this is impossible, but wi|:h God all things are pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The significance of the foregoing will become 
 clear as the theory of the Class-Struggle is pre- 
 sented. 
 
 The Class Struggle is that theory of society which 
 furnishes to socialists the basis of their belief in 
 the inevitability of socialism. It analyzes and ex- 
 plains the present state of society; it analyzes and 
 
152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 explains the various states through which society 
 passed since the dissolution of primitive commun- 
 ism; it indicates the states through which society 
 must pass that it may develop into a state of social- 
 ism; and, finally, it points out the course which 
 we must follow, and the means we must use to ex- 
 pedite and assure the coming of the state of social- 
 ism. Socialism may be latent and potential in the 
 material conditions of existence, and yet of itself 
 it will not come; it will require the conscious and 
 inteligent cooperation of mankind to make itself 
 inevitable. Not the material conditions of exis- 
 tence, but the determined effort of the working class 
 will make socialism inevitable. 
 
 Since the dissolution of primitive communism 
 mankind was divided into two antagonistic classes : 
 property owners and propertyless. The private and 
 exclusive ownership of property affects men in two 
 ways. On the one hand, it endows the owner with 
 a social power over those that have no property; 
 and, on the other hand, it engenders in the owner 
 a desire which eventually grows into a passion to 
 use that power over the propertyless to oppress and 
 exploit them. 
 
 In his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Banaparte, 
 Marx says: "In so far as millions of families live 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 153 
 
 under economic conditions that separate their mode 
 pf life, their interests and their culture from those 
 of other classes, and that places them in an attitude 
 hostile toward the latter, they constitute a class." 
 Historically, therefore, the class struggle appears 
 in many forms, such as between the class of debtors 
 and the class of creditors, between landed proprie- 
 tors and the rising bourgeoisie, between the coun- 
 try and the city, between an oppressed nation and 
 an oppressing nation. But the division of mankind 
 into distinct classes is never so clear and their 
 struggle against each other never so sharp and bit- 
 ter, as that between the property owners and the 
 propertyless. The class struggle is essentially a 
 struggle for the possession of the limited means of 
 life. And, as the course of social evolution until 
 now has been towards a splitting up of mankind in- 
 to property owners and propertyless, capitalists and 
 proletarians, we must take the class struggle be- 
 tween the property owners and the propertyless as 
 the type; all other forms of the struggle that ap- 
 peared in history were but modified forms of the 
 class struggle we are about to consider. 
 
 The division of mankind into property owners 
 and propertyless gave rise to a fundamental an- 
 tagonism between them. On the one hand, it was 
 
154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 always in the interest of the property owners ever 
 to increase their property possessions and there- 
 with also their social power over the propertyless, 
 so as to be able the more effectively to exploit and 
 oppress them and the more securely to establish 
 their supremacy over the propertyless. On the 
 other hand, it was always in the interest of the 
 propertyless to overthrow the social power of the 
 property owners by destroying their private and 
 exclusive possessions of property, so as to be able 
 to free themselves from a state of exploitation and 
 oppression. This economic antagonism manifested 
 itself in a manifold, continuous and all compre- 
 hensive struggle between the property owners and 
 the propertyless — a struggle that like a weft ran 
 through the warp of human history — a struggle 
 which at times appeared on the surface of social 
 Jife in the forms of revolutions and social up- 
 heavals, but which was mostly carried on under- 
 neath the surface of observation in a grim and de- 
 termined manner. The history of mankind, there- 
 fore, is but the history of their struggles with one 
 another. When viewed from this point of view, 
 history presents itself as two parallel streams of 
 human efforts: one stream comprehending the in- 
 terests and the aims of the property owners, and 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 155 
 
 the other stream comprehending the interests and 
 the aims of the propertyless. Let us carefully 
 examine the distinctive characteristics of these two 
 mutually antagonistic streams of human interests 
 and efforts and their effects upon mankind. 
 
 To the property owners of all times, the condi- 
 tions of existence as they found them always 
 seemed advantageous and satisfactory. It, there- 
 fore, always lay in their interest to preserve and 
 perpetuate the conditions of existence as they found 
 them and it was against their interests to permit 
 any change in those conditions; for a change might 
 unsettle things, disturb the established relations be- 
 tween themselves and the propertyless, and prob- 
 ably bring the former down and the latter up. 
 Hence, throughout history, the owning class, on the 
 one hand, endeavored to preserve and perpetuate 
 the conditions of existence as they found them ; and, 
 on the other hand, they struggled against any 
 change and improvement in those conditions. And 
 the owning class of today, true to their economic 
 interests, endeavor to preserve and perpetuate the 
 conditions of existence as they are, and with might 
 and main resist any attempt on the part of the 
 propertyless to change those conditions. 
 
 On the other hand, to the propertyless of all 
 
156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 times the conditions of existence as they found 
 them were always disadvantageous and brought 
 them only poverty, misery, exploitation, oppres- 
 sion and suffering. It, therefore, always lay in 
 their interest to overthrow the conditions of exist- 
 ence as they found them, and to inaugurate some 
 change and improvement in those conditions. 
 Hence, throughout history the propertyless, on the 
 one hand, struggled to overthrow the conditions of 
 existence as they found them and, on the other 
 hand, endeavored to establish another and better 
 order under those conditions. And the property- 
 less of today, true to their economic interests, strug- 
 gle now to overthrow the present order of society 
 based upon the private and exclusive ownership of 
 all the means of life by the few privileged, and en- 
 deavor to establish in its stead a new and better 
 order of society. 
 
 This, then, brings us to the consideration of sev- 
 eral important elements of far-reaching conse- 
 quences. rr H' j 
 
 First. — Mankind started its upward march in 
 progress and civilization from a very low state of 
 existence — a state of existence akin to that of the 
 beast — a state of existence characterized by brutal 
 struggles, fierce and uncompromising selfishness, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 157 
 
 individualism and anti-sociality. And since the 
 property owners always endeavored to preserve and 
 perpetuate the conditions of existence as they found 
 them, the property owners, in fact, endeavored to 
 preserve and perpetuate brutality, selfishness, in- 
 dividualism and anti-sociality. Whatever of these 
 anti-social traits and elements prevails now in 
 society and plagues mankind was brought over 
 from the most primitive times by the generations of 
 property owners and, in harmony with their his- 
 toric function, the property owners of today en- 
 deavor to preserve and perpetuate a state of society 
 based upon competition, motived by fierce selfish- 
 ness, sustained by brute force, and characterized 
 by struggle, corruption and anti-sociality. 
 
 On the other hand, since the propertyless always 
 struggled against the conditions of existence as they 
 found them and always endeavored to change and 
 improve conditions, they had to struggle and, as a 
 matter of fact, they did struggle against brutality, 
 selfishness and anti-sociality and, at the same time, 
 endeavored to establish an order of society that 
 would permit and encourage cooperation, humanity 
 and pro-sociality. Hence, all historic movements 
 for the amelioration of the conditions of existence 
 and the moral uplift and the improvement of the 
 
158 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 character of the human race originated within the 
 propertyless and by them were carried on forward, 
 bequeathing to posterity the crystallized results of 
 their struggles and their endeavors. The property- 
 less of today, performing their historic function, 
 are the only ones that in truth and in fact, on the 
 one hand, struggle against the causes of all anti- 
 social elements, and, on the other hand, exert them- 
 selves to establish an order of society based upon 
 cooperation, humanity and pro-sociality. 
 
 Second. — The property owners, as already 
 stated, always endeavored to preserve and perpet- 
 uate the conditions of existence as they found them. 
 In the very nature of things, their struggle was an 
 easy one. They always had on their side the exist- 
 ing government, the established church, the consti- 
 tuted laws, the privileged among the cultured, the 
 traditions of the ages and, above all, the natural 
 inertia of society, the tendency to persist in the 
 existing order of things, the unwillingness to change 
 or submit to a change, which might entail suffering. 
 And since, furthermore, the property owners were 
 by virtue of their property possessions clothed with 
 a social power over the propertyless, by means of 
 which they could easily procure the services of the 
 government, the church, the law, the cultured, as 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 159 
 
 well as the degenerate outcasts of society, the prop- 
 erty owners were never compelled by the conditions 
 of existence to unite their efforts and to consolidate 
 their interests and to fight for a common cause. 
 Individually and singly they could, in most cases, 
 fight successfully their battles against the property- 
 less. Thus, when an emergency arose, necessitat- 
 ing cooperation among the property owners, they 
 united their forces only to meet that emergency. 
 But, once that emergency passed, the need for fur- 
 ther cooperation also passed. And since the prop- 
 erty owners always had it in their interests to pre- 
 serve and perpetuate selfishness, individualism and 
 competition, they returned to them with the passing 
 need for cooperation. Hence, it came to pass that 
 the property owners never built up any permanent 
 and comprehensive union or organization in so- 
 ciety. A striking modern illustration is furnished 
 by the hallowed League of Nations, which, even 
 while Wilson is still president of the United States, 
 is already disintegrating and decaying. 
 
 On the other hand, the struggle of the property- 
 less was always infinitely hard. On the one hand, 
 not possessing any property, they individually and 
 singly had neither social power nor the means 
 whereby social power could be procured. On the 
 
160 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 other hand, in every struggle with the property 
 owners, the propertyless found arrayed against 
 them the government, the church, the law, the cul- 
 tured, the traditions of the ages, and, above all, the 
 natural inertia of society. Their struggle was still 
 more painfully aggravated by the fact, that they 
 were compelled to exert themselves to inaugurate 
 new and untried changes in society, whose nature 
 and the possibility of the realization of which were 
 most uncertain. All this made their struggle in- 
 finitely harder than the struggle of the property- 
 less. Hence, while the property owners, as stated 
 before, could carry on their struggles singly, the 
 propertyless learned from bitter experience this 
 very significant lesson: Unless they united their 
 efforts, consolidated their interests and struggled 
 together for the realization of a common aim, their 
 struggle was absolutely hopeless. Not only could 
 they not singly and individually accomplish any- 
 thing for themselves of a temporary nature, but 
 they could not even start a struggle. The property- 
 less, therefore, nollens volens, had to unite and they 
 did unite their efforts, and made their cause a com- 
 mon cause for all of their group or class. This 
 gave rise to the following far-reaching conse- 
 quences. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 161 
 
 Third. — Since in their struggles against the prop- 
 erty owners, the propertyless had to unite their 
 efforts, consolidate their interests, and fight for a 
 common cause, they could not, in their struggles, 
 take cognizance of the claims and the interests of 
 the individual; they could concern themselves only 
 with the claims and the interests of the group, the 
 organization or the class. Therefore, they had to 
 subordinate the claims and the interests of the 
 individual to the claims and the interests of the 
 aggregate. And by this they laid the foundation 
 for pro-sociality — an element that revolutionized 
 human nature and developed in mankind the capa- 
 city and the willingness to subordinate individual 
 claims and interests to the claims and the interests 
 of society. At first, this pro-sociality was vague 
 and limited, extending to but a few elements in 
 social life and comprehending and reaching only a 
 limited number of individuals. But in time and 
 with the progress of the propertyless this pro- 
 sociality became ever more definite and compre- 
 hensive, until today in the case of the Communists 
 — the most enlightened and advanced of the prop- 
 ertyless — pro-sociality attained a definiteness and 
 universality extending to all elements of social life 
 and comprehending the whole human race. 
 
162 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Fourth. — The propertyless always struggled 
 against an existing system, and always endeavored 
 to establish a new and better one. The existing 
 order of society brought them poverty, exploitation, 
 oppression and suffering, while the new order 
 promised to bring them some betterment in the 
 future. Hence, the struggle of the propertyless 
 always was against an unbearable pnesent and for 
 a promising future. By this the propertyless laid 
 the foundation for the second element in human 
 life, namely, the capacity and willingness to sub- 
 ordinate the present to the future, to relinquish the 
 present temporary wellbeing for the sake of a more 
 lasting wellbeing in the future. At first this ele- 
 ment manifested itself in a vague and imited man- 
 ner, extending to but a few matters and reaching 
 but a limited future — a month, a year, or a decade. 
 But in time and with the progress of the property- 
 less this element became ever more extensive and 
 protensive, until today, in the case of the Com- 
 munists, this element attains a definiteness and 
 universality comprehending all matters of social 
 life and extending to all future time. 
 
 Now while, on the one hand, the property own- 
 ers struggle each for himself and without any 
 definite and comprehensive aim, the propertyless, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 163 
 
 on the other hand, struggle unitedly and with a 
 definite and universally comprehensive aim in 
 view. While the property owners are concerned 
 only about the immediate present, because they 
 have no future, the propertyless are primarily con- 
 cerned about the future, because they have no pres- 
 ent. And, while the former have no ideal after 
 which to strive, the latter have both the ideal after 
 which they strive and the faith in the successful 
 outcome of the struggle. The propertyless, there- 
 fore, are the only ones that can and will make the 
 future history of the human race. No one can 
 serve both the present and the future, for this is 
 serving both Mammon and God. "No man, having 
 put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit 
 for the kingdom of heaven." Only he can work for 
 the kingdom of heaven, who has no interest in the 
 present, and who therefore will not hesitate to de- 
 story the present that he may be free to build 
 the future. 
 
 To sum up the foregoing: Mankind started its 
 career at a very low state of existence — a state of 
 existence hardly worth preserving. Nevertheless, 
 the property owners always endeavored to preserve 
 and perpetuate such state of existence. And if the 
 property owners had the upper hand in the making 
 
164 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of human history, the human race would have re- 
 mained in the same state in which they were in the 
 beginning. Like the wife of Lot, always looking 
 back, and always anxious to preserve things in 
 statu quo, they, as well as everything in human 
 life under their control, would have become fixed, 
 petrified and fossilized and human society would 
 have become but a duplication of the society of 
 ants or of bees. But, fortunately for mankind, 
 the propertyless, driven by necessity, were com- 
 pelled^ to think of some change and improvement 
 in the conditions of existence, and to exert them- 
 selves to bring about that change and improve- 
 ment. The propertyless were the first ones that felt 
 the need and perceived the possibility for change 
 and improvement. At first, their conception of the 
 possibility to change and improve the conditions of 
 existence was very limited. But in time their con- 
 ception widened and heightened, until in the mind 
 of the great pioneers of the propertyless it attained 
 to a universal scope and sublime height and the 
 idea of a kingdom of heaven on earth was born. 
 
 Not only were the propertyless the only ones that 
 conceived the idea of the possibility of such king- 
 dom of heaven, they were also the only ones that 
 really desired, and could desire, the establishment 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 165 
 
 of such a kingdom, and the only ones that in truth 
 and in fact were ready, able and willing to struggle 
 and suffer for the realization of that kingdom. 
 The rich could neither conceive such kingdom nor 
 could they work for it. Their property possessions 
 were an insurmountable obstacle in their way. 
 Hence, "Verily I say unto you, that a rich man 
 shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven; 
 for it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a 
 needle than for a rich man to enter into the king- 
 dom of God." To enter this kingdom, one must 
 leave this world behind him, he must part with his 
 property possessions, perfectly identify himself 
 with the sons of men, the proletarians, be one of 
 them, suffer with them, work with them, struggle 
 with them, hope with them, and only then will he 
 Ibecome fit to enter the kingdom of heaven. To 
 follow the redeemers of the human race, one must 
 take up the cross daily, completely deny himself, 
 and entirely merge his individuality, his aims and 
 hopes in the proletariat, its aims and hopes. One 
 must let the dead past bury its dead, that he may 
 become part of the living. One must sever all 
 relations with the property owners, that he may 
 identify himself with the proletariat; he must cut 
 himself away completely from the existing order, 
 
166 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 that he may work for the coming order. Only by 
 becoming one of the proletariat, the class to whom 
 the living future belongs, can one secure to himself 
 the living future. 
 
 "He that comes to be purified is helped from 
 heaven/ 9 is a Talmudic saying of great significance. 
 The propertyless, driven by necessity, cooperated 
 for a common purpose. This necessity required 
 them to subordinate their individual interests to the 
 interests of the aggregate, and the present to the 
 future. This subordination laid the foundation for 
 pro-sociality and idealism — the two elements that 
 enabled man to rise above the beast. But, while 
 the propertyless were driven by necessity, and 
 against their own will, to cooperate with one an- 
 other, Heaven, so to say, came to their assistance in 
 their work, as a result of which far greater benefits 
 accrued to the human race than could be antici- 
 pated. 
 
 Marx credits Hegel with the discovery of the law, 
 that mere qualitative differences beyond a certain 
 point pass into qualitative changes. This law has 
 been shown to be true in the whole realm of phe- 
 nomena. For particulars concerning this law, one 
 should consult the chapter on Cooperation in vol- 
 ume one of "Capital," and EngePs "Landmarks of 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 167 
 
 Scientific Socialism," chapter VII. Marx makes 
 use of this law, showing that from cooperation two 
 important results follow. One, that "when the 
 laborer cooperates systematically with others, he 
 strips off the fetters of his individuality, and de- 
 velops the capabilities of his species"; and the 
 other, that "by means of cooperation, a new power 
 is created, namely, the collective power of masses." 
 This power transcends the sum of the individual 
 powers of the cooperating individuals, not only 
 quantitatively but also qualitatively. The collec- 
 tivity brings out, not only a greater, but also a 
 superior power — a power that enables the collec- 
 tivity to achieve results which the individuals work- 
 ing separately could never achieve. 
 
 This law is true, not only in the case of physical 
 work, but also in the case of mental, moral and 
 social work. A hundred individuals cooperating 
 mentally will produce a result far greater than and 
 superior to the result which the same individuals 
 can produce working separately. By fusing to- 
 gether their individual minds they bring out a 
 collective mind — a mind that is greater, superior, 
 and more comprehensive than their individual 
 minds severally are. The same is true of spiritual 
 and social work. In cooperation each individual 
 
168 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 identifies himself with the collectivity, that is, with 
 a greater, superior and more comprehensive power. 
 He is then compelled to rub off the limitations of 
 his individuality, bring out the capabilities of his 
 species and pass to higher competency and perfec- 
 tion. So that, not only does cooperation bring out 
 greater and better results, but also the cooperating 
 individuals themselves emerge from that coopera- 
 tion better and more competent persons. A few 
 illustrations are necessary. 
 
 We enjoy a meal much more when taken in com- 
 pany of many friends than when taken in isolation. 
 One may hear in isolation a good opera, a sublime 
 symphony, or an eloquent oration, and not enjoy 
 a tithe as much as when one listens together with 
 thousands of other human beings. In the latter 
 case, the fused consciousness of the thousands 
 brings out a grander and superior consciousness, 
 quantitatively fuller and qualitatively superior. 
 Each one present feels that superior consciousness 
 and his enjoyment is then greater. Not only are the 
 auditors benefited by becoming part of the greater 
 and superior consciousness of the collectivity, but 
 also the artists are benefited. No artist for himself 
 can perform so well and bring out such powers as 
 he can before a great audience. No orator in isola- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 169 
 
 tion can rise to such heights of thought and sub- 
 limity of expression as he can when speaking to 
 thousands. And so it is in all cases. 
 
 But the most wonderful confirmation of this 
 truth is to be found in the case of proletarian revo- 
 lutions. If we examine the history of the human 
 race, we shall find that the regeneration of man- 
 kind, the crystallization of great moral truths, and 
 the inauguration of human and rational changes in 
 social life, were all brought about by the prole- 
 tarian revolutions and by the results which those 
 revolutions bequeathed to subsequent generations. 
 We shall consider a few cases. 
 
 Take the case of the Jews and Judaism. No mat- 
 ter what one may say against the Jews, it is certain 
 that mentally they are not inferior to any of the 
 modern nations, and morally they are superior to 
 all other nations. If one doubts this statement, 
 let me tell him that, until another nation brings out 
 a Moses, a Jesus, a Spinoza and a Marx, no one 
 will be heard to dispute this statement. Likewise 
 is the case with Judaism. No matter what one 
 may think about religion generally, he will have to 
 admit, if he knows anything about the various re- 
 ligions, that Judaism is the most rational, the most 
 humane, and the most free from superstition, than 
 
170 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAPtX 
 
 any religion that the human race produced. Only 
 Judaism and among Jews could bring out a Jesus 
 and a St. Paul. 
 
 Now, both the Jews and Judaism were born out 
 of the revolution of the Jewish proletarians against 
 their masters. And, though since those days a very 
 long time has passed — a time that saw the rise and 
 fall of many mighty empires, the birth and death 
 of many nations, and the reconstruction of the 
 whole world — a time during which both the Jews 
 and Judaism have suffered a good deal from wear 
 and tear, and the destructive work of vandals; 
 nevertheless, the Jews still retain their pristine 
 vigor and their revolutionary spirit and traditions, 
 and Judaism is still in the foreground for its 
 rational and humane character. 
 
 Again, take the case of Christianity. One may 
 be an atheist; one may hate religion; nevertheless, 
 everyone cannot help perceive that Christianity is 
 an ideal religion embodying a sublime conception 
 of the universal brotherhood of man — a religion 
 which can realize itself only in a state of Commun- 
 ism. Now, Christianity is the child of a great pro- 
 letarian struggle against their oppressors. Chris- 
 tianity was born among the Jews, bathed in the 
 spirit of Judaism, baptized in the blood of the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 171 
 
 struggling proletarians, and sustained by the heroic 
 martyrdom of the early Christians. And, though 
 Christianity is now corroded and moss-covered, 
 none the less the essence of Christianity is still 
 sublime. 
 
 Likewise, a good deal may be said in favor of 
 the Great French Revolution. It is true this was 
 but a bourgeois revolution. To the extent that the 
 rising bourgeoisie asserted itself in that revolution, 
 it left as a legacy only Capitalism. But in that 
 revolution the rising proletariat also asserted it- 
 self, though in an inconspicuous manner and the 
 result of the proletarian struggle is felt even now. 
 By virtue of the proletarians exerting themselves to 
 use that revolution to change and improve the con- 
 ditions of existence, the results have been most 
 wonderful. It brought out light, truth and good- 
 ness that benefited the whole human race. 
 
 But, the most wonderful revolution that the pro- 
 letariat ever raised against the oppressors and ex- 
 ploiters is the Russian Revolution. This is the 
 most marvellous and sublime achievement of the 
 human race. All past revolutions pale into insig- 
 nificance beside the Russian Revolution. In extent, 
 nature and effect it transcends all other revolutions 
 known to history. It is impossible for us, standing 
 
172 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 so near to this collossal event, clearly to perceive it 
 in all its grandeur and extent, or adequately to 
 appreciate its nature and consequences. 
 
 It seems to be a universal law of nature that any 
 of her manifestations on a large scale can be per- 
 ceived and appreciated only when viewed from a 
 distance. For instance, the report of a volcanic 
 erruption, though distinctly heard by persons 
 standing hundreds of miles away from the volcano, 
 is not heard at all by people standing near it. This 
 is true of the Russian Revolution. The Russian 
 Revolution is an event of so great a nature, and in 
 its consequences will be so fundamental and uni- 
 versal, that it will take generations of historians 
 and philosophers clearly to perceive the grand out- 
 lines of its nature and adequately appreciate its 
 effects upon the life and the future evolution of 
 the human race. This revolution is unprecedented 
 in history, and therefore in its consequences it will 
 be unparalleled. It seems that mankind until now 
 was yet in a state of boyhood, and only in the Rus- 
 sian Revolution did mankind attain to manhood. 
 
 Now, when we ask the question— what enabled 
 the Russians for instance to accomplish this mar- 
 vellous work, we shall find the answer to be: they 
 accomplished this marvellous work, not because 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 173 
 
 they all of a sudden became gods, beings of a su- 
 perior order, but because they, driven by necessity, 
 fused their individual powers into one huge collec- 
 tivity. By this they brought out a power that tran- 
 scended their individual powers infinitely. And, 
 while the Russians are merged in this transcendent 
 power, changing the world wonderfully, they also 
 change wonderfully their own nature. Not only 
 will the results of the revolution be great, the Rus- 
 sians themselves will emerge from this revolution 
 great. The future for centuries to come will be led 
 by the Russians because, by their heroic effort 
 through the greatest cooperation known to history, 
 the Russians reached an altitude that it will take 
 the other nations centuries to reach. 
 
 At no time do people learn so fast and at no time 
 do people rise to such height of idealism as during 
 a revolution. The dullest person then perceives 
 truths which otherwise he could never perceive. 
 The lowest person can respond to the call of hu- 
 manity to an extent that at other times would be 
 absolutely impossible. And all these are the results 
 of cooperation. It was because in their struggles 
 against the property owners the propertyless were 
 compelled to cooperate with one another that they 
 brought out a transcendental power which changed 
 
174 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 not only the conditions of existence, but also the 
 nature of the propertyless. And so in time both 
 the conditions of existence and mankind changed 
 and improved. During the revolutionary struggle 
 human consciousness rises to such heights and as- 
 sumes such gigantic proportions that it attracts and 
 absorbs the better elements from the other strata 
 of society. This was clearly perceived by Marx 
 and Engels, and this was also the idea expressed by 
 Jesus. 
 
 In the "Communist Manifesto 9 ' we are told: "In 
 times when the class-struggle nears the decisive 
 hour, the process of dissolution going on within the 
 ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old 
 society, assumes such violent, glaring character, 
 that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself 
 adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class 
 that holds the future in its hands. Just as, there- 
 fore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility 
 went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of 
 the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in 
 particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, 
 who have raised themselves to the level of compre- 
 hending theoretically the historical movements as 
 a whole." 
 
 These individuals, who ordinarily would not 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 175 
 
 identify themselves with the proletariat, gladly 
 throw themselves into the struggle, and together 
 with the proletariat exert themselves to effect the 
 desired change. This was in substance the answer 
 that Jesus gave to his disciples when they asked 
 him "Who then can be saved?" With man indi- 
 vidually it is almost impossible that he should 
 forsake his material possessions and betake him- 
 self to the propertyless and together with them 
 work, not only for the future, but also against the 
 present, with which he is so firmly bound up. 
 According to the ordinary run of things, Moses 
 should have remained in the house of Pharaoh, 
 enjoying princely honors and pleasures; or Marx 
 should have remained with the bourgeoisie, achiev- 
 ing material success. But, such is the order of 
 things that, when the material conditions of exist- 
 ence are ripe for a change, and the proletariat 
 manifests a spirit of discontent and a readiness to 
 rise against the upholders of the existing order, 
 such men are summoned to the front — men, who, 
 by virtue of their great gifts and rare opportunities 
 for the acquisition of knowledge and experience, 
 have attained to great light and deep truth, and 
 who, therefore, are most able to lead the struggling 
 masses out of darkness into light, and out of bond- 
 
176 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 age into freedom. "No man, when he hath lighted 
 a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it 
 under a bed; but setteth it on a candle stick, that 
 they which enter may see the light." Those that 
 once perceived the light cannot anymore remain in 
 darkness, and cannot bear to see others remain in 
 darkness. Therefore, these pioneers of thought, 
 even if they come from the upper strata of society, 
 will not rest until they have aroused mankind to the 
 new light and the new truth. 
 
 But the rich are too much absorbed in their 
 material affairs, too much engrossed in their pleas- 
 ures and in their immediate existence, to have an 
 eye for the new light or an ear for the new truth. 
 Therefore, the pioneers of light and truth must be- 
 take themselves to that class that has neither prop- 
 erty possessions nor any interest in the present 
 order of society, and which is therefore open to 
 receive the new light and to hear the new truth. 
 Hence, though from time to time a great man arose 
 out of the property owning class, yet he had to go 
 to the propertyless for the realization of the great 
 truth that he had perceived. Such has been the 
 history of mankind in the past, and such it will 
 continue to be until the time when the proletariat 
 of the world will rise against the property owners 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 177 
 
 of the world, abolish all private and exclusive own- 
 ership of the social means of life, and therewith 
 remove the basic cause of all struggles for the 
 means of life. The salvation of mankind, there- 
 fore, will come through the class struggle. Only 
 through the class struggle can socialism in all its 
 phases be realized. 
 
 And, since the recognition of the historic role 
 of the class-struggle is so important, Marx made 
 that recognition one of the essential elements of his 
 philosophy. The proletariat will succeed in its 
 struggle against bourgeoisie only in proportion as 
 it recognizes the class-struggle and attains to class- 
 consciousness. Once the proletariat recognizes the 
 class-struggle, learns to appreciate its historic sig- 
 nificance, it will at once endeavor to bring out an 
 international cooperation of all the proletarians of 
 the world. For, only through an international or- 
 ganization, comprehending all proletarians of the 
 world, can the proletariat overthrow the power of 
 the bourgeoisie, and change the order of society 
 from a state of capitalism to a state of socialism — 
 a state which will eventually develop into a state 
 of Communism. 
 
 Now, when we speak of an international organ- 
 ization of the proletariat, we but speak in general 
 
178 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 terms. It is not enough to know that the proletariat 
 must organize itself. We must also know what 
 shall be the form of that organization. The form 
 of the organization is most essential ; for it depends 
 upon our philosophy — whether the proletariat shall 
 organize itself politically, industrially, or both, and 
 what shall be the relation between these two forms 
 of organization, assuming that both are necessary. 
 This raises a very difficult and, at the same time, a 
 very important question. And to the consideration 
 of this question we now betake ourselves. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 HPHE socialist movement is the most revolution- 
 -*- ary movement known to history. And, be- 
 cause the socialist movement is most revolutionary, 
 it meets with great difficulties and opposition. The 
 reason for it is, as stated in the "Communist Mani- 
 festo," that all previous historical movements were 
 movements of minorities, or in the interests of 
 minorities. But the proletarian movement is the 
 self-conscious, independent movement of the im- 
 mense majority, and in the interests of the immense 
 majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of 
 our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself 
 f up, without all the superincumbent strata of official 
 society being flung up into the air. The working 
 class can accomplish its emancipation from all op- 
 pression and exploitation only by overthrowing the 
 whole existing order of society, which is based 
 upon the private and exclusive possession of the 
 means of life necessary to the human race. And, 
 because the socialist movement threatens to over- 
 throw the whole official society, the whole official 
 society is opposed to the socialist movement. There- 
 
 179 
 
180 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 fore, the task whidi the socialist movement has to 
 accomplish is immense. 
 
 A task of such immensity and difficulty cannot 
 be accomplished with bare hands. Man is a tool- 
 making and tool-using being. Mankind rose in 
 progress and civilization only by means of the use 
 of tools, and to the extent that they used tools. In 
 the course of time mankind perfected the tools, and 
 brought out the machine. Since then mankind has 
 learned to use machines, not only in the industries 
 but also in the arts and even in war. Now war 
 can be carried on without machines no more than 
 ^industry can be carried on without machines. A 
 nation compelled to meet an enemy on the battle- 
 field must at its peril use the most advanced war 
 machines; otherwise, it will meet with certain 
 defeat. 
 
 That which is true of national struggles is in a 
 greater measure true in the class struggles. The 
 working class will have to arm itself with the most 
 advanced war machines to fight against the ruling 
 class, if it is not to be overwhelmingly defeated; 
 for, the ruling class will surely use the most ad- 
 vanced war machines against the working class. 
 
 In its struggle against the ruling class, the work- 
 ing class forged two weapons— an industrial organ- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 181 
 
 ization and a political organization. The use by 
 the working class of its industrial organization as a 
 weapon in its struggle against the ruling class is 
 called industrial action, and a like use of the 
 political organization is called political action. 
 These organizations, when used separately and 
 independently of each other, are but weapons, mere 
 fighting tools; and as such can no more be effec- 
 tive in modern warfare than mere tools in industrial 
 warfare. That the working class may carry on 
 effectively its struggles against the ruling class and 
 achieve permanent victory, it will have to substitute 
 for these mere war weapons modern war machines; 
 and this it can do by combining industrial action 
 with political action; that is, by the union of its 
 industrial organization with its political organiza- 
 tion. It is by this union that the working class can 
 bring out a most effective and reliable war machine. 
 
 Since the working class will have to produce the 
 war machine which it will use in its struggles 
 against the ruling class, it is essential that the work- 
 ing class be well informed on the nature of a ma- 
 chine, so that it may construct it in accordance with 
 its true nature. 
 
 What is a machine? Marx describes a machine 
 as a mechanism that uses a tool. To understand 
 
182 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 this description, we must differentiate between a 
 tool and a machine. A tool, as described by Marx, 
 is a mechanism used by the human hand for the 
 performance of work. A machine is a complex 
 mechanism that uses the tool for the performance 
 of the same work. The essential function of the 
 machine is to liberate the tool from the limitations 
 of the human hand that used it, so as to give to the 
 tool greater power and universal scope. An illus- 
 tration is essential. 
 
 Long before we had sewing machines mankind 
 used needles for sewing purposes. The needle is a 
 simple mechanism used by the human hand. When 
 the human hand plies the needle, the work that 
 the needle can perform is very limited. At most 
 the needle in the human hand can make sixty 
 stitches a minute. But the same needle, when used 
 by the machine, can make five thousand stitches in 
 a minute. The machine is not only a more speedy 
 worker, it is also a more efficient worker. The 
 machine can harness the forces of nature, and by 
 the aid of these forces it can perform gigantic work 
 with great speed. This, then, is the essential dif- 
 ference between a tool and a machine. The tool is 
 used by the human hand, while a machine takes 
 away the tool from the human hand and uses it 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 183 
 
 with greater strength and speed. It is this libera- 
 tion of the tool from the limitations of the human 
 hand that made modern industry possible and 
 which placed at human command the infinite forces 
 of nature. 
 
 Now that wte know the difference between a tool 
 and a machine, it is necessary to distinguish the 
 component parts of the machine from one another, 
 so that we may discover their relative importance. 
 As pointed out by Marx, a machine consists of 
 three parts: a motor mechanism, to generate the 
 energy to perform the work; a transmitting mechan- 
 ism, to transmit the energy from the source of 
 generation to the tool; and the tool proper, the 
 mechanism that performs the work. 
 
 Consider again the sewing machine. The hu- 
 man body is the motor mechanism ; the foot-treadle, 
 the belt, the shafts, the wheels, and the gearings, 
 are together the transmitting mechanism; and the 
 needle is the tool. And, though all parts are nec- 
 essary, and they must cooperate with one another, 
 they are not equally essential. The human body, 
 as a motor mechanism, can be substituted by steam 
 or electric power. Likewise, the foot-treadle, the 
 belt, the shafts, and the other parts of the trans- 
 mitting mechanism, can in part be eliminated en- 
 
184 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 tirely or be substituted by other devices. But tlie 
 needle can neither be eliminated nor substituted by 
 any other mechanism. The needle must always re- 
 main, for it is the only mechanism in the machine 
 that can perform the required work, namely, 
 sewing. ■ ij ■ ' ,' : | |j 
 
 Hence, we see that, while all parts are necessary, 
 the tool is absolutely indispensable. The tool ex- 
 isted before the machine was invented, and will 
 remain even after machines will cease. The ma- 
 chine was invented only for the sake of the tool, 
 that it may perform its work more speedily and 
 more effectively. It follows, therefore, that all 
 improvements in the machine must be directed 
 towards this aim: to make the work of the tool 
 most perfect. And, though defects in the motor 
 mechanism or the transmitting mechanism can be 
 tolerated, a defect in the tool is fatal to the pur- 
 pose. If, in our case, the needle is damaged to 
 the slightest extent, the work cannot be done, even 
 though the machine otherwise remain perfect. On 
 the other hand, if all the other parts of the machine 
 be even seriously damaged, the work by the needle 
 can nevertheless be done, though not so speedily nor 
 so effectively. 
 
 This, then, gives us an idea of a machine and of 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 185 
 
 the relative importance of its component parts. And 
 what is true of the sewing machine is true of all 
 kinds of machines. And what is true of the phys- 
 ical machines is equally true of social machines. 
 If, therefore, the working class is to create for it- 
 self a war machine, that machine will have to be 
 constructed in accordance with the principle which 
 we have just discovered. In accordance with this 
 principle, the war machine of the working class 
 will have to be constructed in the following man- 
 ner. The working class will constitute the motor 
 mechanism, the industrial organization, the trans- 
 mitting mechanism; and the political organization, 
 the tool proper. 
 
 We saw that the tool proper is that part of the 
 machine that existed before the machine was in- 
 vented. The machine was devised merely to help 
 the tool, but the tool does not exist for the sake of 
 the machine. Again, we saw that the tool is abso- 
 lutely indispensable, while the other parts of the 
 machine may be eliminated or substituted by other 
 devices. Keeping this in mind, we shall readily 
 perceive that all the characteristics of the tool are 
 the characteristics of the political organization. 
 Let us examine the component parts of our war 
 machine in detail. 
 
 K 
 
186 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 The working class must function as the motor 
 mechanism, to furnish the energy, the will and the 
 determination to do the work. The working class, 
 therefore, cannot be the tool proper. That this 
 must be so will also become clear from the consid- 
 eration of the place of the working class in history. 
 In the lifetime of the human race many revolutions 
 took place. Until the nineteenth century, the work- 
 ing class as such hardly functioned socially or 
 politically. In times of revolutions the working 
 class was used by the ruling class as tools of the 
 latter, but never as tools for themselves. It was 
 the ruling class that furnished the energy, the mo- 
 tive, and the direction in all past revolutions. And 
 since the energy and the direction of revolutions 
 could be furnished by other classes than the work- 
 ing class, the latter is not indispensable in revolu- 
 tionary work. And, since the working class is not 
 indispensable to this work, it cannot be the tool; 
 for, the tool, according to the principle of a ma- 
 chine, is indispensable. The working class, there- 
 fore, can function only as the motor mechanism, to 
 supply the energy to perform the work. 
 
 The industrial organization of the working class 
 must be used as the transmitting mechanism, to 
 transmit the energy from the working class to the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 187 
 
 political organization. The industrial organiza- 
 tion cannot be used as the motor mechanism, for it 
 cannot generate energy; all it can do is to transmit 
 the energy of the working class. Likewise, we shall 
 presently see that the industrial organization cannot 
 be the tool proper. 
 
 We saw before this that the tool preceded the 
 machine. The machine was invented for the pur- 
 pose of using the tool. And, while the tool can be 
 used without the other parts of the machine, the 
 other parts of the machine, without the tool, are 
 useless. History shows that mankind used political 
 organizations for the purpose of revolutionary 
 work long before they even thought of industrial 
 organizations. Even the working class, in its 
 struggles against its oppressors, used political or- 
 ganizations before they learned to use the indus- 
 trial organization. This was the case in ancient 
 times, and it was equally the case in modern times. 
 The Spartacans and the early Christians are exam- 
 ples of cases in ancient times. In modern times 
 we find the Chartist movement in England prepared 
 the way for the English trades-unions; the Socialist 
 movement in Germany and in Russia was the pre- 
 cursor of the trades-unions in those countries; and 
 so it was in all other countries. 
 
188 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Now, since the industrial organization followed 
 the political organization, and since, furthermore, 
 the industrial organization was and could be sub- 
 stituted by the political organization, it follows that 
 the industrial organization of the working class 
 cannot be used for any other purpose than that of a 
 transmitting mechanism. 
 
 It remains now to show that the political organ- 
 ization of the working class must be used as the tool 
 of the war machine. We saw before that the polit- 
 ical organization was used by mankind for the pur- 
 poses of revolutions from time immemorial, and 
 we also saw that even the working class used this 
 organization for the same purpose. As this is very 
 essential, we shall go into the matter fully. And, 
 first, let us hear what De Leon says on this sub- 
 ject. In his work, "Two Pages from Roman His- 
 tory," he says: 
 
 "Obviously, independent class-conscious political 
 action is the head of Labor's lance. Useful as any 
 other weapon may be, that weapon is the determin- 
 ing factor. Entrenched in the political powers, the 
 Capitalist Class commands the field. None but the 
 political weapon can dislodge the usurpers and en- 
 throne the Working Class; that is to say, emancipate 
 the workers and rear the Socialist Republic. And 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 189 
 
 none better are aware of the fact than the Capitalist 
 Class, and, consequently, none are more anxious to 
 have the Labor forces turned away from the field 
 of independent labor political activity. Obviously, 
 in the interest of the Working Class is it to arouse 
 them to class-conscious political action. What does 
 the Labor leader do? From England, westward 
 over the United States and Canada to Australia, we 
 find the Labor leaders solidly arrayed against the 
 very idea. A veritable bulwark of capitalism, they 
 seek to turn the political trend of the Labor Move- 
 ment into the channels of capitalist politics, where 
 the head of Labor's lance, its independent, class- 
 conscious political effort, can be safely broken off." 
 These ideas expressed by De Leon will find con- 
 firmation in the sequel. But, before we proceed, it 
 is necessary to remove a possible misconception. 
 It may seem that industrial action is here under- 
 estimated. We shall presently see that, not only is 
 industrial action not underestimated, but, on the 
 contrary, is rather held to be more essential than 
 political action. But, what we shall presently learn 
 is this: For the purposes of the working class it- 
 self, the industrial organization is more essential 
 than the political organization; but, for the pur- 
 poses of effecting a revolution in society, the polit- 
 
190 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 ical organization is more essential. For this latter 
 purpose, the industrial organization can function 
 only as a transmitting mechanism, to transmit the 
 energy and the character of the working class to 
 the political organization but the political organiza- 
 tion is the very tool for the performance of the revo- 
 lutionary work. An illustration will make it clear. 
 
 The human body is a mechanism consisting of 
 several parts that cooperate with one another. That 
 the body may exist, it must be supplied with life- 
 energy. That energy is supplied by Nature through 
 sunshine, food, air, and the like. Nature, there- 
 fore, may be regarded as the motor mechanism. In 
 the case of the body, the internal organs and the 
 limbs are the transmitting mechanism; while the 
 intellect is the tool. Nature supplies the energy, 
 the limbs and the internal organs receive that en- 
 ergy, assimilate it, distribute it to all parts of the 
 body; while the intellect performs the work that 
 is essentially human. 
 
 Now, to the existence of the human body the 
 internal organs and the limbs are infinitely more 
 essential than the intellect; for, while the body can 
 exist, as known cases have shown, without the in- 
 tellect, it cannot exist for a moment without the 
 internal organs and the limbs. Nevertheless, for 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 191 
 
 the purpose of guiding and directing the work of 
 the body as a whole in its relation to the universe 
 and itself, the intellect is infinitely more essen- 
 tial. This will clearly appear from the considera- 
 tion of the nature of life. Life, as Spencer defines 
 it, is a continuous adjustment of inner relations to 
 outer relations. The progress of life depends en- 
 tirely upon the successful adjustment of living be- 
 ings to the conditions of existence. For the purposes 
 of this adjustment, the intellect is most essential. 
 This is especially true in the case of the human 
 race. In the case of man, life seemed to have put 
 all emphasis upon the development of his intellect; 
 for, while the internal organs and the limbs of the 
 human body have remained practically in the same 
 state in which they were from the beginning of 
 human existence, and in some cases have even de- 
 generated, the intellect has all along grown and 
 developed. The growth and development of the in- 
 tellect has been most essential to human progress. 
 We have noted that man is a tool-making and 
 tool-using being. Bergson shows us in his "Cre- 
 ative Evolution" that the essential function of the 
 intellect is to make tools. We also saw that man 
 made progress only in proportion as he perfected 
 his tools. This perfection in his tools was but the 
 
192 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 outward manifestation of the perfection of his in- 
 tellect. Therefore, it follows that for purposes of 
 human progress the intellect is more essential than 
 the internal organs and the limbs. 
 
 The same relationship holds between the in- 
 dustrial and the political organization of the work- 
 ing class. For purposes of mere existence as work- 
 ers, and to maintain themselves in a more or less 
 bearable state, their industrial organization is 
 more essential than their political organization; 
 for, while they could very well get along without 
 a political organization, they could not even for 
 a moment get along without an industrial organ- 
 ization. They would then sink to the level of the 
 slave or even the beast. In their struggle against 
 excessive exploitation and unbearable oppression, 
 in their endeavors to maintain themselves upon a 
 certain level of human existence, in their desire to 
 cultivate among themselves solidarity and class- 
 consciousness; and, finally, in preparing them- 
 selves for the administration of things in the So- 
 cialist Republic; their industrial organization is 
 more essential than their political organization. 
 But, for the purposes of guiding themselves in their 
 efforts to overthrow the present order of society, 
 seize the reins of government, attain to the master- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 193 
 
 ship of the social conditions of existence, and com- 
 pletely to emancipate themselves from all exploita- 
 tion and oppression, their political organization is 
 infinitely more essential than their industrial organ- 
 ization. For this purpose, their political organiza- 
 tion is like the intellect is to the body. 
 
 It is, therefore, clear that no attempt has been 
 made here to underestimate the importance of the 
 industrial organization to the working class. All 
 that has been shown here is the relative importance 
 of each organization. For the existence of the 
 working class, their industrial organization is most 
 'essential; but, for the purposes of doing revolu- 
 tionary work, their political organization is most 
 essential. The working class machine must have 
 all the three parts. The working class itself must 
 function as the motor mechanism to furnish the 
 energy, for neither the ruling class nor Nature will 
 supply that energy to the working class. The eman- 
 cipation of the working class must be the work of 
 the working class itself. The industrial organiza- 
 tion of the working class must function as the trans- 
 mitting mechanism, to transmit the energy and the 
 character of the working class to its political or- 
 ganization. And its political organization must 
 function as the tool proper, to perform the revo- 
 
194 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 lutionary work. When the working class will arm 
 itself with such a machine, it will be able to accom- 
 plish the desired revolution. 
 
 The foregoing, presented here a priori, requires 
 exemplification and corroboration. This will be 
 our next step. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 T ENIN, in his master work, "The State and Revo- 
 *- i lution," told us what ideas Marx and Engels 
 entertained concerning the State. It will not, there- 
 fore, be necessary to take up this question for 
 examination here. The reader is referred to that 
 work of Lenin. We shall limit ourselves to a con- 
 sideration of politics and political action. 
 
 In the "Communist Manifesto" we are told: 
 "Every class struggle is a political struggle. The 
 immediate aim of the Communists is the same as 
 that of all other proletarian parties: formation of 
 the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bour- 
 geois supremacy, conquest of political power by 
 the proletariat. The first step in the revolution by 
 the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the 
 position of ruling class, to win the battle of 
 democracy. The proletariat will use its political 
 supremacy, to wrest, by degrees, all capital from 
 the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of 
 production in the hands of the State, i. e., of the 
 proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to 
 
 195 
 
196 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 increase the total of productive forces as rapidly 
 as possible." 
 
 Again, we are told in the "Communist Mani- 
 festo": "Political power, properly so called, is 
 merely the organized power of one class for op- 
 pressing another. If the proletariat during its 
 contests with the bourgeoisie is compelled, by the 
 force of circumstances, to organize itself as a class, 
 if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the 
 ruling class, and, as such, sweeps away by force 
 the old conditions of production, then it will, along 
 with these conditions have swept away the condi- 
 tions for the existence of class antagonisms, and of 
 classes generally, and will thereby have abolished 
 its own supremacy as a class. In place of the old 
 bourgeois society, with its classes and class antag- 
 onism, we shall have an association in which the 
 free development of each is the condition for the 
 free development of all." 
 
 In a few lines the master minds of the socialist 
 movement gave us the whole philosophy of politics. 
 And the ripened form of this philosophy found its 
 completed expression in "The Civil War in France," 
 wherein Marx says the Mowing : "The multplic- 
 ity of interpretations to which the Commune has 
 been subjected, and the multiplicity of interests 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 197 
 
 which construed in their favor, show that it was 
 a thoroughly expansive political form, while 
 all previous forms of government had been 
 emphatically repressive. It was essentially a work- 
 ing-class government, the product of the struggle 
 of the producing against the appropriating class, 
 the political form at last discovered under which to 
 work out the economic emancipation of labor. Ex- 
 cept on this last condition, the Communal Constitu- 
 tion would have been an impossibility and a delu- 
 sion. The political rule of the producer cannot 
 coexist with the perpetuation of his social slavery. 
 The Commune was therefore to serve as a lever for 
 uprooting the economic foundations upon which 
 rests the existence of classes, and therefore of class 
 rule. With labor emancipated, every man becomes 
 a workingman, and productive labor ceases to be a 
 class attribute." 
 
 It is most significant and challenges marked at- 
 tention that the idea which Marx and Engels ex- 
 pressed in the "Communist Manifesto" in 1847, 
 they express with still greater clearness and cer- 
 tainty in "The Civil War in France" in 1871, name- 
 ly, that the first step of the proletariat is to rise 
 to political supremacy, and then use its political 
 supremacy for the purpose of its emancipation and 
 
198 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 the reconstruction of society. Nowhere is it to be 
 found in the works of Marx and Engels that the 
 working class is to use its industrial organization 
 for this purpose. On the contrary, throughout the 
 writings of Marx and Engels we find numerous 
 statements to the effect that only through political 
 action will the working class succeed to emancipate 
 itself. To cite but one instance, in "Value, Price 
 and Profit," Marx tells us: 
 
 "As to the limitation of the working day in Eng- 
 land, as in all other countries, it has never been 
 settled except by legislative interference. With- 
 out the working men's continuous pressure from 
 without that interference would never have taken 
 place. But at all events, the result was not to be 
 attained by private settlement between the working 
 men and the capitalists. This very necessity of 
 general political action affords the proof that in its 
 merely economic action capital is the stronger side. 
 Trades unions work well as centres of resistance 
 against the encroachments of capital. They fail 
 partially from an injudicious use of their power. 
 They fail generally from limiting themselves to a 
 guerilla war against the effects of the existing sys- 
 tem, instead of simultaneously trying to change it, 
 instead of using their organized forces as a lever 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 199 
 
 for the final emancipation of the working class, that 
 is to say the ultimate abolition of the wage system." 
 
 The foregoing ideas must be amplified. Robert- 
 son in "The Evolution of States/ 9 tells us: "Poli- 
 tics, in its most general and fundamental character, 
 is the strife of wills on the ground of social action. 
 As international politics is the sum of the strifes 
 and compromises of States, so home politics is the 
 sum of the strifes and compromises of classes, in- 
 terests, factions, sects, theories, in all countries and 
 in all ages. In studying it, then, we study the 
 evolution of an aggregate, a quasi-organism, in 
 terms of the clashing forces of its units and of their 
 spontaneous combinations." 
 
 Here, again, we have the idea of Marx that every 
 class struggle is a political struggle. And now we 
 must go into a deeper examination of the matter. 
 
 The term politics comes from the Greeks, mean- 
 ing citizens, city. Any matter that concerns the 
 citizen in a city pertains to politics. At first the 
 term was limited in scope and significance, as the 
 matters that concerned the citizen in the city were 
 few and limited in scope. Mankind then lived 
 scattered in villages and settlements. Only a small 
 portion of the race lived in cities. Most people 
 were self-sufficing. Each tilled his own land, culti- 
 
200 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 vated his own garden, raised his own cattle, dug a 
 well on his own farm, and independently of his 
 fellow-beings he performed all necessary functions 
 of life. Co-operation was limited even in the 
 cities proper. At that time there was no state ad- 
 ministration of justice, no regular army or navy, 
 no state schools, and no other social function of im- 
 portance. In time, however, mankind became ever 
 more dwellers in cities, which afterwards united 
 in states, and they extended their co-operation over 
 wider areas, comprehending ever more numerous 
 functions of life; until today we find that the whole 
 human race is virtually united in one universal co- 
 operation. The industrial, the intellectual and the 
 spiritual activities of the human race are carried 
 on co-operatively all over the face of the earth. 
 And with the extension of co-operation, and the con- 
 centration in the cities of ever larger numbers of 
 people, the matters that concerned them as citizens 
 became ever more numerous, and with this the 
 term politics became ever more comprehensive; 
 until today the term includes all social functions. 
 Originally justice, war, education, transportation, 
 and such other functions, were performed by each 
 individual independently of his fellow-being. Now 
 these and numerous other such social functions are 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 201 
 
 carried on by society collectively, and these func- 
 tions have now become matters of a political nature. 
 
 In accordance with the law discovered by Hegel, 
 that quantitative differences beyond a certain point 
 pass into qualitative changes, politics changed 
 qualitatively with the quantitative increase in its 
 scope. Not only has politics become universally 
 extensive, it has also changed its nature. Original- 
 ly, politics were used by the ruling class as a means 
 to further its own class purposes. Now the working 
 class is to use politics as a means to further the 
 interests of the human race. Politics now becomes 
 something else, something superior to what it was 
 before. 
 
 When workingmen organize themselves in a trade 
 union, and by their organized effort seek to effect 
 some improvement in the conditions of their indus- 
 try, their effort is of an industrial and not of a poli- 
 tical nature; for, in this" case, they struggle, not as 
 citizens, but as carpenters, as tailors, or some other 
 kind of workers. And even if all the workers of 
 the world should unite in one industrial organiza- 
 tion and, by means of organized efforts, should 
 seek to bring about some improvement in their in- 
 dustries, their struggle would still be an industrial, 
 and not a political struggle; for, even in this case, 
 
202 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 they struggle not as citizens, but as workingmen, 
 and they struggle, not for a general change in the 
 order of society, but only for some change in their 
 industries. Only then when the workingmen rise 
 above their industrial interests and unite in a com- 
 mon effort to bring about a change in life that will 
 benefit them, not merely as carpenters, as masons, 
 and the like, but as citizens; only then, when the 
 workingmen rise to the dignity of citizens and ex- 
 tend their efforts to the whole structure of society 
 in all its parts, war, law, education, transportation, 
 ownership of the means of life, and the like — only 
 then does their struggle assume a political char- 
 acter, and only then, also, can their struggle bring 
 about a revolution in society. As carpenters, as 
 tailors, as masons, they may limit their organiza- 
 tions to their respective crafts. But as citizens their 
 organization must be one and indivisible, for every 
 class struggle is a political struggle. If their 
 struggle is a struggle of the whole class, then it 
 must become a political struggle, and then they 
 must have but one political organization. 
 
 Here again we shall see the reason why the poli- 
 tical organization must function as the tool of the 
 war machine of the working class. We saw before 
 that the internal organs and the limbs of the body 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 203 
 
 are many, while the intellect is but one. Likewise, 
 we see now that the industrial organizations may- 
 be many, but the political organization must be 
 one. For the purposes of guiding and controlling 
 the functions of all the organs of the body there 
 must be one intellect; otherwise, there could be no 
 co-ordination in the functions of the organs. Like- 
 wise, the political organization that is to guide and 
 control the working classes of all countries must 
 be one: otherwise, there can be no co-ordination in 
 their efforts. It was for this very fundamental 
 reason that the founders of the modern socialist 
 movement laid the foundation for an international 
 political organization of the working classes. And 
 it is for this reason that the Third International 
 was organized. 
 
 If space permitted, it would be worth while to 
 consider several historic events, exemplifying and 
 corroborating the conclusion here reached. But, 
 we shall limit ourselves to the consideration of one 
 case, namely, the Russian Revolution. 
 
 What was the order of events, and what means 
 did the Russian people adopt to effect their marvel- 
 lous revolution? In the first place, notice that their 
 political revolution preceded their economic revolu- 
 tion; and, while their political revolution is com- 
 
204 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 plete, and carried out with great speed, their eco- 
 nomic revolution has scarecely begun, and will not 
 be completed within a generation to come. In the 
 second place, we find that they used their political 
 power to effect economic emancipation, and not 
 vice versa. In these respects the Russian revolu- 
 tionists followed most literally the program formu- 
 lated by Marx and Engels. They rose to the posi- 
 ion of ruling class, and then used their political 
 supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from 
 the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of 
 production in the hands of the State, i. e., of the 
 proletariat organized as the ruling class, and to 
 increase the total of productive forces as rapidly 
 as possible. They declared the land to belong to 
 the Soviet Republic, nationalized the banks, the 
 railroads, the mines, and other social means of 
 production. They then enacted a law that all able- 
 bodied persons should work, carrying out not only 
 a Communistic principle, but also a very good 
 Christian rule: "He that would not work, neither 
 should he eat." The Russian proletariat used the 
 Soviet Republic, a political organization, as a lever 
 to uproot the economic foundation upon which rests 
 the existence of classes, and therefore of class rule. 
 And, because the Russian revolutionists followed 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 205 
 
 literaly the program formulated by the founders of 
 modern socialism, they succeeded most wonder- 
 fully; while at the same time the Germans, the 
 Austrians, the Italians and the English failed most 
 miserably in their puny attempts by means of in- 
 dustrial action to accomplish any substantial im- 
 provement in the conditions of labor. 
 
 To sum up: The working class must create a 
 war machine with which to fight its final struggle 
 against the ruling class. That machine, like physi- 
 cal machines, must consist of three parts: a motor 
 mechanism, a transmitting mechanism, and the tool 
 proper. The working class must function as the 
 motor mechanism, to supply the energy and to give 
 a working class character to the work to be per- 
 formed. The industrial organization is to function 
 as the transmiting mechanism, to transmit the 
 energy from the working class to the tool. And the 
 political organization is to function as the tool 
 proper. Only as thus constituted can the working 
 class effect its complete emancipation, the aboli- 
 tion of the exclusive possession of the means of 
 life, the existence of classes and class struggles, 
 and establish a state of society in which the well- 
 being and happiness of the one will be conditions 
 for the well-being and happiness of all. 
 
206 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Concerning the specific manner of using this war 
 machine, the reader is again referred to Lenin's 
 wonderful work, 'The State and Revolution. 9 ' 
 Since Lenin in that work covered the subject most 
 thoroughly and presented the truth in most con- 
 vincing manner, it is not necessary here to go into 
 that matter in detail. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TTAVING considered the respective roles which 
 -*--*- man and Nature play in their material inter- 
 actions, and having discovered that only the organ- 
 ized proletariat can and will start, regulate and 
 control that material interaction in accordance with 
 a preconceived ideal, we now come to the final 
 phase of the subject — the phase that contemplates 
 the respective roles which the proletariat and Na- 
 ture will play in the great historic drama, the pend- 
 ing transformation of society from the state of capi- 
 talism into the state of socialism. This is usually 
 misconceived. It will therefore be necessary first 
 to dispose of the current misconceptions. These 
 misconceptions can be stated as follows: 
 
 It is in the interest of the property owners ever 
 to increase their property possessions and, there- 
 with, also their power over the producers, so as to 
 be able to reduce the latter to a state of dependence, 
 and thereby to be able the more effectively to ex- 
 ploit and oppress them. Accordingly, the property 
 owners of all times endeavored, on the one hand, 
 to expropriate the producers, to deprive the latter 
 
 207 
 
208 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of the means of life; and, on the other hand, to 
 appropriate these means and use them for their 
 own exclusive benefit. But at no time before did 
 the owning class accomplish as much as since the 
 inauguration of the capitalist era. That which be- 
 fore the property owners could not accomplish in 
 thousands of years, since then they have accom- 
 plished in the course of but a few centuries, name- 
 ly, the complete expropriation of the producing 
 class of all means of production and distribution. 
 As the wealth of society constantly increased and 
 accumulated — all of which has been appropriated 
 by the capitalist class — the latter gradually came 
 into possession of an amount of wealth never before 
 dreamt of by mankind. And, so long as there were 
 yet farmers that owned the land which they culti- 
 vated, and artisans that owned the tools which they 
 used, so long did the capitalist class direct its ef- 
 forts against the producers, to expropriate them of 
 both the land and the tools of production. But, 
 when the capitalists completely appropriated all 
 the land and the tools of production, and reduced 
 the producers of all wealth to the state of proletar- 
 ians, then the capitalists, driven by the imanent laws 
 of the capitalist mode of production and distribu- 
 tion, directed the struggle for the exclusive pos- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 209 
 
 session of the means of life against one another. 
 One capitalist endeavored to kill another. The 
 less fortunate ones of the capitalists were killed in 
 the struggle, and were thrown down into the ranks 
 of the proletarians, and the more fortunate ones of 
 the capitalists rose still higher in wealth and in 
 power. With the increase of their wealth also in- 
 creased their power, which they used ever more for 
 the purposes of a more thorough exploitation of the 
 working class and of a more thorough removal of 
 all obstacles from competing capitalists. And, 
 though the number of proletarians steadily in- 
 creased and the number of capitalist magnates re- 
 latively diminished, nevertheless the power of the 
 latter over the former continued to increase. The 
 relation of the property owners to the propertyless 
 is comparable with one holding the long arm of the 
 lever to the one that holds its short arm. The capi- 
 talists hold the long arm, while the proletarians 
 hold the short arm of the lever. With the increase 
 of social wealth and its accumulation in the hands 
 of the capitalists, their arm became ever longer, 
 and the arm in the hands of the proletarians became 
 relatively ever shorter. And, hence, even if there 
 be but one capitalist to a million proletarians, the 
 former, by virtue of the long arm under his control. 
 
210 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 will be able to overcome the latter and oppress 
 them. 
 
 With the increase and accumulation of wealth, 
 the capitalist class comes into ever greater power, 
 which power it uses to spread and intensify the 
 capitalist mode of production and distribution for 
 its own exclusive benefit. The capitalists bend 
 their energies to increase the rate of exploitation 
 and to augment their profits. Their greed for 
 profit, their lust for power, their thirst for base 
 pleasures, all increase in volume and intensify in 
 their nature; until they become in them the domi- 
 nant and all-consuming passions. The capitalists 
 become ever more arrogant, despotic and domineer- 
 ing. All this brings upon the proletarians ever 
 greater hardship, misery and suffering. This will 
 continue until such time as the lot of the proletar- 
 ians will be rendered absolutely unbearable. Then 
 the proletariat will rise against the capitalist class, 
 will abolish the private and exclusive ownership of 
 the means of life, convert the whole land and all 
 social means of production and distribution into 
 social property, to be owned, controlled and used 
 by all members of society collectively, destroy the 
 basis of class-division of society, the class struggles 
 and anti-social consequences, and will establish the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 211 
 
 state of society based upon the co-operative owner- 
 ship, management and use of all means of life. 
 
 This conception, though in form correct, in sub- 
 stance is fundamentally wrong. To expose the 
 errors, and to bring out the truth, it will be neces- 
 sary to analyze this conception into its component 
 parts, and consider them most carefully. When 
 we shall have done this, we shall find that this con- 
 ception resolves itself into the following four as- 
 sumptions: 
 
 First. The tendency of the capitalist mode of 
 production and distribution is to concentrate all 
 social wealth into the hands of ever fewer capi- 
 talists, who, by reason of their increased social 
 power will be able to retain that ever-increasing 
 wealth in their hands indefinitely; 
 
 Second. The concentration of all social wealth 
 in the hands of the capitalists, giving them ever 
 greater power over the working class, will result 
 to the latter in ever greater hardship, misery and 
 suffering; 
 
 Third. This will continue only until such time 
 as the working class can bear it; but, when the 
 latter will not be able any longer to endure it, as 
 such time must come, then they will rise against the 
 capitalist class and overthrow capitalism; 
 
212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 Fourth. When the working class has overthrown 
 capitalism, it will at once betake itself to establish 
 the state of socialism — a state in which all members 
 of society will of their own accord and in perfect 
 harmony with one another carry on all productive 
 and distribute activities necessary for the well-being 
 and happiness of the human race. 
 
 Plausible as these assumptions seem on their 
 face, and supported, as they seem to be, by the doc- 
 trines of Marx, a close examination of these as- 
 sumptions will show that, in the main, they are 
 false in substance, because they are contrary to the 
 facts and nature of life, and not in harmony with 
 the doctrines of Marx. As this presents a task of 
 no small magnitude, we shall have to proceed care- 
 fully and methodically. We shall, therefore, 
 examine these assumptions, first separately and in 
 the inverse order here stated, and then we shall 
 consider them together in the order here stated. 
 We shall then obtain a different view of the great 
 historic drama in which the proletariat will play 
 the leading part. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ri^HE fourth assumption is based upon the belief 
 -*- that men are inherently virtuous, inclined to 
 do what is right and to feel kindly disposed towards 
 one another. From the beginning of time man was 
 so; only the bad social forms and the corrupt gov- 
 ernments, and especially capitalism made man self- 
 ish, cruel and anti-social. Therefore, it is con- 
 fidently believed, with the abolition of capitalism, 
 mankind will at once, and without any previous 
 training and preparation, manifest their true na- 
 ture, and will readily betake themselves to estab- 
 lish the state of socialism. 
 
 A rational interpretation of the facts of life and 
 an intimate knowledge of human nature contradict 
 this belief. Man, no more than other living beings, 
 is endowed by Nature with a fixed and predeter- 
 mined character. On the contrary man, like the 
 other beings, could be but what under the various 
 conditions of existence he could make himself to 
 be. But throughout all past time, including even 
 the time of primitive communism, the conditions 
 of existence were such as to make it necessary for 
 
 213 
 
214 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 human beings to struggle with one another for the 
 limited means of life. In their struggle with one 
 another, they had to resort to cunning, deception, 
 and anti-social methods. In the course of the 
 thousands of years of life necessitating fierce 
 struggles with one another, mankind retained traits 
 of character and habits entirely inconsistent with 
 the pro-social state which socialism contemplates. 
 And these traits and habits have become so organic 
 with man that, by merely taking thought he cannot 
 change his nature. Such deep-seated traits and 
 organic habits can be overcome and in their stead 
 established traits and habits favoring pro-sociality, 
 only through persistent training and adequate pre- 
 paration. 
 
 Now, if men, who by character and habits are 
 still largely anti-social, were to be driven by un- 
 bearable anti-social conditions to rise against their 
 cruel oppressors, is it likely that such men will at 
 once find themselves fit for the pro-social state of 
 socialism, and actually desire such state? Men, 
 who have just emerged from a cruel anti-sociality 
 and who themselves have retained the anti-social 
 traits and habits, cannot at once become pro-social, 
 so that they should find themselves fit for socialism 
 and actually desire it. It is true, as already 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 215 
 
 pointed out, that the proletariat crystallizes out of 
 its revolutionary efforts great mental and moral 
 treasures. This fact led some sociologists and his- 
 torians, like Kropotkin, to ascribe native goodness 
 and inherent virtue to the individual proletarians 
 as they are. But this is a mistake. Individually, 
 the proletarians cannot be much better than the 
 hard, cruel anti-social conditions permit them to be. 
 Only when, as in the time of a proletarian revo- 
 lution, the proletarians unite their efforts and fuse 
 together their mind and soul, does the proletariat 
 bring out a social mind and a social soul, which are 
 far more comprehensive and superior than their 
 several individual minds and souls. It is this social 
 consciousness that brings out the great truths and 
 the sublime ideals. And the individual proletarians, 
 by virtue of their contact with the social mind and 
 soul, become better beings than they were before 
 the revolution. Nevertheless, the improvement in 
 the mind and soul of the proletarians cannot be so 
 great and fundamental as to leave them for all 
 times to come in that improved state, without addi- 
 tional effort and constant vigilance on the part of 
 the proletarians themselves. It therefore usually 
 happened that after the revolution was over the 
 proletarians relapsed, if not to the level of their 
 
216 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 state before the revolution, to a state not much 
 higher. 
 
 Now, the state of socialism is not a thing of air. 
 It is possible only through the fulfillment of cer- 
 tain essential requirements of life. Mankind will 
 have to divide the functions of life and assign to 
 each group of individuals definite social functions. 
 The land will have to be cultivated, the mines will 
 have to be worked, the necessaries of life will have 
 to be produced, and the means of transportation 
 will have to be manipulated. All of these func- 
 tions will have to be carried on in a rational man- 
 ner and in accordance with a preconcerted plan. 
 This plan will have to be carried out by the mem- 
 bers of society, not as the blind obedience of wage- 
 slaves, but as the voluntary cooperation of free 
 members of society. How can such plan of social 
 life be carried out by men that are still largely 
 anti-social in character and habits, without any pre- 
 vious preparation and training? 
 
 To say that the working people want socialism, 
 and that they would of their own accord betake 
 themselves to this state, if only they emancipate 
 themselves from the yoke of their exploiters, is to 
 close one's eyes to the facts of life. It is true the 
 working class, as a class, more readily than any 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 217 
 
 other class of society, can be taught to want social- 
 ism. It is also true that the class-conscious portion 
 of the working class want socialism and are more 
 or less prepared for that state. But that the state 
 of socialism may be established permanently, all 
 of the working class must both want socialism and 
 be prepared for it. Such is not the case. The great 
 mass of the working people are not even sufficiently 
 class-conscious. Among them there are many who, 
 though class-conscious, are anarchists, individual- 
 ists, and by nature anti-social and therefore are un- 
 fit for the state of socialism. And, as a matter of 
 fact these workers are as much opposed to socialism 
 as the capitalists are. 
 
 We must not deceive ourselves. Though in the 
 course of time mankind gradually prepared them- 
 selves and the material conditions of existence for 
 a higher life, yet they and the material conditions 
 are far from the state of socialism and though it is 
 equally true that through intelligent and conscious 
 effort mankind can expedite and direct to their own 
 benefit the process that will transform society from 
 a state of capitalism into a state of socialism, yet 
 mankind cannot all of a sudden, and without ade- 
 quate preparation, emerge from a state of indi- 
 vidualism and competition and enter into a state of 
 
218 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 pro-sociality and cooperation. Is it not clear that, 
 though the working class may be driven by unbear- 
 able oppression and suffering to rise in revolt 
 against their oppressors, yet in the end they may 
 fail to realize socialism? Is it not also clear that 
 the belief in the inherent virtues of the proletarians 
 is not well-founded, and if this belief is not based 
 upon the facts of life, the assumption based upon 
 this belief falls to the ground? 
 
 We now come to the third assumption. It is gen- 
 erally assumed that, when the oppression and suf- 
 fering of the proletariat will become unbearable, 
 it will rise against the capitalist class, and continue 
 in its struggle until it completely destroys the power 
 of the ruling class. This assumption is based upon 
 the belief that there are fixed limits to human en- 
 durance, and that, therefore, when those limits are 
 reached, the oppressed must and will rise in revolt 
 against their oppressors, and will not let up until 
 they have attained their complete emancipation. 
 And, hence, it is confidently hoped that the time 
 is not far off when, driven by unbearable suffering, 
 the proletariat will rise in revolt against the ruling 
 class, destroy its power, abolish capitalism and 
 establish socialism. We shall presently see that 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 219 
 
 this assumption is no more valid than the fourth 
 assumption which we have disposed of. 
 
 The facts of life show that Nature does not in 
 advance fix and determine the form, the nature and 
 the habits of living beings; but that all these are 
 determined by the perpetual endeavor of the living 
 beings to make the best of the conditions of exist- 
 ence. Therefore, when the conditions of existence 
 require a change either in the form, the nature or 
 the habits of life, the living beings will submit to 
 the necessary change rather than perish. Life, as 
 we already saw, is a continuous adjustment of in- 
 ner relations to outer relations. The adjustment 
 may be fast or slow, it may be painful or not, but 
 it must take place. The essence of every living 
 being is an irresistible will to live and, for the sake 
 of its continued existence, it will sacrifice every- 
 thing, short of the very existence itself. Science 
 abounds in illustrations, showing the extent to 
 which living beings will go to adjust themselves to 
 the conditions of life. A few illustrations will 
 suffice. 
 
 The whales, like most cetaceans, were formerly 
 terrestrial mammals, and are still mammals. But 
 the conditions of existence must have required a 
 change of life, from a terrestrial to an aquatic ex- 
 
220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 istence; and what was the result? A complete 
 change of form, structure and habits of life. They 
 assumed a form, and adjusted themselves to a mode 
 of existence appropriate to beings millions of years 
 behind them in evolution. But they did bring them- 
 selves into the changed state, and now seem to be 
 perfectly satisfied with it. 
 
 Darwin tells us that the animals which inhabit 
 the caves of Carniola and of Kentucky are blind. 
 "In some of the crabs the footstalk for the eye re- 
 mains, though the eye is gone — the stand for the 
 telescope is there, though the telescope with its 
 gasses has been lost. As it is difficult to imagine 
 that eyes, though useless, could be in any way 
 injurious to animals living in darkness, their loss 
 may be attributed to disuse." And what Darwin 
 tells us of these creatures, the works on natural 
 history abound in. Every reader can satisfy him- 
 self by studying these works, that there is prac- 
 tically no limit to the extent to which living beings 
 will submit to change in order to continue their 
 existence. And that which is true of living beings 
 generally we shall find to be equally true of man- 
 kind. 
 
 We already saw that Nature does not in advance 
 fix and determine the nature of man. He is now 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 221 
 
 what in the course of evolution, living amidst de- 
 termined conditions of existence, he could make of 
 himself. When the conditions of existence per- 
 mitted him to attain to a state of freedom and 
 power, he attained to such virtues as corresponded 
 with freedom and power. But, on the other hand, 
 when the conditions of existence deprived him both 
 of freedom and of power, he meekly submitted to a 
 state of slavery and oppression. Perhaps, here 
 and there an individual, disdaining the life of a 
 slave, committed suicide or accepted death as the 
 alternative; but mankind never hesitated, it always 
 submitted to the conditions of existence. It is 
 necessary, for the sake of illustration, to consider 
 a few cases. 
 
 In his "Principles of Psychology,' 9 Spencer tells 
 us of the slave: "Assuming him to be tolerably 
 well treated, the slave has the amount of freedom 
 required for satisfying his desires as well as most 
 of the poorer members of the human race satisfy 
 them; and generally he has not to put out effort so 
 great as that which the free man puts out. Only by 
 representation of those activities and those suc- 
 cesses which complete freedom would make pos- 
 sible, but which slavery prevents, is he made aware 
 
222 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of the evil he suffers. A considerable reach of 
 representative power is needful for anything like 
 a vivid consciousness of this evil; and hence the 
 fact shown us by the less developed human races, 
 that if the physical comforts are secured and the 
 treatment is mild, slavery is borne with equanimity. 
 Only when there exists that higher power of repre- 
 sentation common to the more developed races, do 
 we meet with the sullen discontent and estlessness 
 caused by the consciousness of remote benefits that 
 are forbidden and of remote ills that may have to 
 be borne. Only then does the love of freedom 
 reach that highly representative form in which 
 imaginations of the distant and the indirect evils of 
 restraint constitute the promptings to rebel; and 
 in which the consciousness of having no one to hin- 
 der any activities that may be desired, constitutes 
 delight in liberty." 
 
 Again, in his "Principles of Ethics," Spencer 
 says: "If the life usually led under given social 
 conditions is such that suffering is daily inflicted, 
 or is daily displayed by associates, sympathy can- 
 not grow: to assume growth of it is to assume that 
 the constitution will modify itself in such a way as 
 to increase its pains and therefore depress its en- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 223 
 
 fergies; and is to ignore the truth that bearing any 
 kind of pain gradually produces insensibility to 
 that pain, or callousness." 
 
 These citations, which might be multiplied in- 
 definitely, show that man's nature is but what he 
 was able to make it under the conditions of exist- 
 ence. When the conditions of existence make it 
 necessary for him to submit to daily abuse, exploi- 
 tation and slavery, he will gradually adapt himself 
 to those conditions, and in due time he will become 
 so habituated to them that of his own accord he 
 would neither be able to rise above those conditions 
 nor would he even want to rise above them. To 
 refer to a previous expression, he would then be- 
 come part of natura naturata, of the passive nature, 
 and therefore helpless. Numerous cases are known 
 of prisoners who, after a long period of confine- 
 ment, have become so adjusted to prison life that 
 they could not any more bear the life out of prison. 
 Indeed, the history of mankind is but the history 
 of their bearing most patiently all sorts of oppres- 
 sion and exploitation. 
 
 In his "History of Civilization in England," 
 Buckle tells us: "In India, as in every other coun- 
 try, poverty provoked contempt, and wealth pro- 
 
224 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 duced power. When other things are equal, it must 
 be with classes of men as with individuals, that the 
 richer they are, the greater the influence they will 
 possess. It was therefore to be expected, that the 
 unequal distribution of wealth should cause an 
 unequal distribution of power; and as there is no 
 instance on record of any class possessing power 
 without abusing it, we may easily understand how 
 it was that the people of India, condemned to pov- 
 erty by the physical laws of their climate, should 
 have fallen into a degradation from which they 
 have never been able to escape. A few instances 
 may be given in illustration of the principle which 
 the preceding arguments have, I trust, placed be- 
 yond possibility of dispute. 
 
 "To the great body of the Indian people the 
 name of Sudras is given; and the native laws re- 
 specting them contain some minute and curious 
 provisions. If a member of this despised class pre- 
 sumed to occupy the same seat as his superiors, he 
 was either to be exiled or to suffer a painful and 
 ignominious punishment. If he spoke of them 
 with contempt, his mouth was to be burned; if he 
 actually insulted them, his tongue was to be slit; 
 if he molested a Brahmin, he was to be put to 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 225 
 
 death; if he sat on the same carpet with a Brahmin, 
 he was to be maimed for life; if, moved by the 
 desire of instruction, he even listened to the read- 
 ing of the sacred books, burning oil was to be 
 poured into his ears; if, however, he committed 
 them to memory, he was to be killed; if he were 
 guilty of crime, the punishment for it was greater 
 than that inflicted on his superiors; but, if he him- 
 self were murdered, the penalty was the same as 
 for killing a dog, a cat, or a crow. Should he 
 marry his daughter to a Brahmin, no retribution 
 that could be exacted in this world was sufficient. 
 It was therefore announced that the Brahmin must 
 go to hell, for having suffered contamination from 
 a woman immeasurably his inferior. Indeed, it 
 was ordered that the mere name of a laborer should 
 be expressive of contempt, so that his proper stand- 
 ing might be immediately known. And, lest this 
 should not be enough to maintain the subordina- 
 tion of society, a law was actually made forbidding 
 any laborers to accumulate wealth; while another 
 clause declared, that even though his master should 
 give him freedom, he would in reality still be a 
 slave; for, says the lawgiver, of a state which is 
 natural to him, by whom could he be divested? 
 
226 THE PHILOSOPHY. OF MARX 
 
 "By whom, indeed, could he be divested? I 
 ween not where that power was by which so vast a 
 miracle could be worked. For, in India slavery, 
 abject, eternal slavery, was the natural state of the 
 great body of people ; it was the state to which they 
 were doomed by physical laws utterly impossible 
 to resist. Among nations subjected to these condi- 
 tions, the people have counted for nothing; they 
 have had no voice in the management of the state, 
 no control over the wealth their industries created. 
 Their only business has been to labor; their only 
 duty to obey. Thus there have been generated 
 among them those habits of tame and servile sub- 
 mission, by which, as we know from history, they 
 have always been characterized. For it is an un- 
 doubted fact, that their annals furnish no instance 
 of their having turned upon their rulers, no war of 
 classes, no popular insurrections, not ,even one 
 great popular conspiracy. In those rich and fer- 
 tile countries there have been many changes, but 
 all of them have been from above, and not from 
 below." 
 
 Buckle also tells us that the same was true in 
 Egypt, Peru and Mexico. And, we may add, the 
 same was true in all countries and among all na- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 227 
 
 tions. The cases of the Negroes in the United 
 States arid the Serfs in Russia are but two of the 
 numerous modern instances. Particularly signifi- 
 cant is the case of the Russian serfs, which will 
 therefore require some special consideration. But, 
 before we do this, the reader's attention must be 
 called to the erroneous interpretation which Buckle 
 puts upon the facts. According to Buckle, the great 
 masses in India, as well as the masses in other 
 countries were condemned to poverty and slavery 
 by the physical laws of Nature, from the effects of 
 which the masses could never escape. This makes 
 the division of mankind into classes as the inevit- 
 able result of Nature, and not as the result of his- 
 tory; that is, it makes Nature responsible for the 
 existence of classes, and not mankind. This is a 
 false, crudely materialistic interpretation of the 
 facts of life. We already saw that in the inter- 
 action between man and Nature man is the active 
 factor, while Nature is the passive factor. There- 
 fore, man was primarily responsible for the state 
 of life that he had. Especially is this true of the 
 division of mankind into classes. There is nothing 
 in Nature that makes that division necessary. If 
 Nature supplies mankind bountifully, that should 
 
228 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 be a reason why mankind should live happily to- 
 gether. But it is no reason why one class should 
 appropriate the fruit of the labor of another class. 
 On this point we must hear Marx. In chapter 16, 
 volume one of "Capital/ 9 speaking of the produc- 
 tion of Absolute and Relative Surplus Value, 
 Marx says the following: 
 
 "Favorable natural conditions alone give us only 
 the possibility, never the reality, of surplus-labor; 
 nor, consequently, of surplus-value and a surplus- 
 product. The result of difference in the natural 
 conditions of labor is this: that the same quantity 
 of labor satisfies, in different countries, a different 
 mass of requirements; consequently, that under 
 circumstances in other respect analogous, the neces- 
 sary labor-time is different. These conditions 
 affect surplus-labor only as natural limits, i.e., by 
 fixing the points at which labor for others can be- 
 gin. In proportion as industry advances, these 
 natural limits recede. In the midst of our Western 
 European society, where the laborer purchases the 
 right to work for his own livelihood only by paying 
 for it in surplus-labor, the idea easily takes root 
 that it is an inherent quality of human labor to fur- 
 nish a surplus product. But consider, for example, 
 
The philosophy of marx 229 
 
 an inhabitant of the eastern islands of the Asiatic 
 Archipelago, where sago grows wild in the forests. 
 When the inhabitants have convinced themselves, 
 by boring a hole in the tree, that the pith is ripe, 
 the trunk is cut down and divided into several 
 pieces; the pith is extracted, mixed with water and 
 filtered; it is then quite fit for use as sago. One 
 tree commonly yields 300 lbs., and occasionally 
 500 to 600 lbs. There, then, people go into the 
 forests, and cut bread for themselves, just as with 
 us they cut firewood. Suppose, now, such an East- 
 ern bread-cutter requires 12 working-hours a week 
 for the satisfaction of all his wants. Nature's di- 
 rect gift to him is plenty of leisure-time. Before 
 he can apply this leisure-time productively for 
 himself, a whole series of historical events is re- 
 quired; before he spends it in surplus-labor for 
 strangers, compulsion is necessary. If capitalist 
 production were introduced, the honest fellow 
 would perhaps have to work six days a week, in 
 order to appropriate to himself the product of one 
 working-day. The bounty of Nature does not ex- 
 plain why he would then have to work six days a 
 week, or why he must furnish five days of surplus- 
 labor. It explains only why his necessary labor- 
 
230 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 time would be limited to one day a week. But in 
 no case would his surplus-product arise from the 
 occult quality inherent in human labor." 
 
 We see, then, that the physical conditions of the 
 country may be the passive conditions for the 
 possibility of exploitation and the division of man- 
 kind into exploiters and exploited; but the active 
 cause of that exploitation and division of mankind 
 into antagonistic classes must be sought in human 
 history. We already saw how mankind came to be 
 divided into property owners and propertyless, and 
 the consequences that necessarily followed. With 
 this correction of Buckle's interpretation of the 
 facts of history, the facts cited by him are true. 
 And as such we take them here. 
 
 Now, coming to the case of the Russian serfs, we 
 find that their case differed substantially from 
 similar cases known to history. The serfs, as a rule, 
 were originally free-born Russians. They were 
 blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the 
 Russian nation. When, however, the pressure of 
 circumstances forced upon them a state of serfdom, 
 they submitted to that state; and in time they lost 
 so completely their capacity to resist oppression 
 and exploitation, and became so habituated to their 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 231 
 
 jpondition, that, even though they suffered as cruelly 
 as slaves ever before suffered, they neither could, 
 nor of their own accord would, rise against their 
 masters. And, were it not for the great pressure 
 brought to bear upon the ruling class by the revo- 
 lutionists and the rising tide of liberalism, the 
 mass of Russian serfs would probably still have 
 continued in the state of serfdom until the Great 
 Revolution of 1917 liberated them. And, what 
 is most depressing in thinking about it is the fact 
 that the oppressed and enslaved in time accepted 
 their lot as the best for them, and even prospered 
 physically under their conditions of slavery and 
 oppression, so that, like the Israelites in Egypt, the 
 more they were afflicted, the more they increased 
 and multiplied. In the course of three centuries, 
 their numbers swelled up to about forty-six mil- 
 lions. Think of it! Think of the complacency of 
 the Russian serfs, to be able to reconcile themselves 
 with their lot and increase to that stupendous 
 number! 
 
 Now, if it is true, as it is usually assumed, that 
 with the development of capitalism and the con- 
 centration of wealth in the hand of relatively few 
 magnates, the misery, the degradation and the 
 
232 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 suffering of the working class will constantly in- 
 crease, what hope is there that the oppressed and ex- 
 ploited workers will ever rise against their oppress- 
 ors? It is true that, if the ruling class should try 
 to screw down the vise of exploitation and oppres- 
 sion suddenly and to a great depth, the working 
 class in countries like the United States, who still 
 retain in themselves some self-respect and some 
 power of resistance, will rise against the ruling 
 class. But, if the vise of exploitation and oppres- 
 sion should be screwed down gradually, as in the 
 nature of things it will be the case, then the vise 
 pan be screwed down to any extent, and the work- 
 ing class will not revolt. The histories of Egypt, 
 Babylon, Rome, and other countries, show that the 
 nations perished from a hopeless degeneration of 
 the working class, and yet the working class did 
 not revolt. If a revolt took place, it was the result, 
 not of the oppression and the degradation of the 
 working class, but because that working class was 
 aroused and inspired by an ideal, as it was the 
 case with the early Christians. But, as Buckle 
 tells us of the Sudras, we may say of all sudras 
 of all nations, that oppression and exploitation, 
 ever so intense and degrading, never aroused the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 233 
 
 oppressed and degraded to revolt against their 
 masters. A most striking and convincing case is 
 furnished us right here at home. 
 
 Until recently we prided ourselves at being an 
 independent and liberty-loving nation. Any at- 
 tempt on the part of the Government to interfere 
 with the liberties of the people and their property- 
 possessions would be resisted by all, the poor as 
 well as the rich. Nevertheless, when the war con- 
 ditions made it necessary for the Government to 
 curtail the traditional liberties of the people, to 
 conscript our lives and to confiscate our property, 
 that the war against Germany might be successfully 
 carried on, the Government made short work of all 
 our liberties, possessions and our inalienable rights 
 to life, to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness. 
 Conscription on a universal scale \fras established, 
 universal military training imposed upon all of 
 the young, millions of our boys and men were 
 drafted against their will, the Government assumed 
 control of the railroads, and passed measures plac- 
 ing the industries and the commerce of this coun- 
 try under the control and supervision of the Gov- 
 ernment, and the rights of speech, press and as- 
 sembly were curtailed to such extent that we are 
 not far from the state of Czarist Russia. And, 
 
234 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 though we are compelled to submit to restrictions 
 and put up with privations that we never thought 
 we would bear, nevertheless we do not revolt. This 
 is so because the Government proceeded very 
 wisely; it introduced all these restrictive measures 
 gradually and when the nation was hypnotized into 
 believing that it was fighting for democracy. And 
 so we have the restrictions, the limitations, the 
 burdens, which from day to day become ever more 
 difficult to bear, and yet we take them as matters 
 of course. 
 
 This being the case, can we hope that the work- 
 ing class, driven by an unbearable exploitation and 
 oppression, will rise in revolt against the ruling 
 class? And, not only rise in revolt, like beasts of 
 burden sometimes kick from sheer despair, but 
 also to rise class-conscious and determined to over- 
 throw the power of the ruling class, and themselves 
 take possession of the power of government and 
 with determination proceed to establish the state 
 of socialism! What historic or natural basis is 
 there for this hope? 
 
 The third assumption, upon examination, proves 
 to be no more valid than the fourth assumption 
 proved to be. Now we. umst proceed to examine, 
 the: second assumption*, 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 rpHE second assumption is that, with the develop- 
 -■- ment of capitalism and the concentration of all 
 accumulated wealth in the hands of the capitalist 
 class, grows the exploitation, the misery, the deg- 
 radation and the oppression of the working class. 
 Upon this assumption, as we already saw, is based 
 the third assumption, that a state will be reached 
 which will be unbearable for the working class, and 
 that then they will rise against the capitalist class. 
 That the third assumption should ever have been 
 seriously entertained is proof of the fact that we 
 have not yet learned to read the facts of life accu- 
 rately. An accurate observation of the facts of 
 life would show that just the opposite was the 
 effect of the development of capitalism upon the 
 ^material wellbeing of the working class. The latter 
 shared, even though to a very small extent, in the 
 benefits that accrued to the human race from the 
 'development of industry, the perfecting of the 
 machines of production, and the wonderful in- 
 crease in. th eproductivity of labor. It would be 
 
 23S 
 
236 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 an insult to the intelligence of the reader to cite 
 facts from history to prove a fact of universal 
 knowledge. One need but cast a glance at the 
 material conditions of labor in the more developed 
 countries with the same conditions of labor in the 
 less developed countries to convince himself that, 
 with the development of capitalism, the material 
 well-being of the working class Constantly im- 
 proves. Nay, more than this; if we compare the 
 material conditions of the working class fifty years 
 ago with the same condition today, we cannot help 
 but see that, with the development of capitalism in 
 the country, came a decided improvement in the 
 material well-being of the working class. The 
 workers today enjoy a greater material prosperity 
 than they ever enjoyed before. Let one read the 
 10th and the 27th chapters in the first volume of 
 "Capital," and he will at once convince himself 
 that the material conditions of the working class 
 of the past centuries would be absolutely impos- 
 sible today. In addition let him read the 9th sec- 
 tion of the chapter on machinery and modern in- 
 dustry. There Marx shows that the factory system 
 compelled society to pass factory measures, to 
 improve the sanitary conditions of labor, short- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 237 
 
 H'i.h ii^H-l-l i - d'$J : ^- : i 
 tening the hours of labor, and making provisions 
 
 for the educational improvement of the working 
 class. Marx sums this up in his preface to the first 
 volume of "Capital/' by saying: "Where capital- 
 ist production is fully naturalized among the Ger- 
 mans the conditions of things is much worse than 
 in England, because the counterpoise of the Fac- 
 tory Acts is wanting." Since the time that Marx 
 wrote that preface we have seen the material con- 
 ditions of the working class in Germany consider- 
 ably improved. Nay, more than this, the Factory 
 Acts of Germany even exceeded in their benefits to 
 the working class those that had been passed in 
 England. And the same is true in the United 
 States and other countries. 
 
 Indeed, it would be most marvellous if, with all 
 the wonderful achievements of the human race in 
 science, art and industry, not a particle thereof 
 fell to the lot of the working class! Now, in the 
 face of these undoubted facts, how can we base 
 our hope for socialism upon the ever-increasing 
 misery, degradation and suffering of the working 
 class? If, with the development of capitalism the 
 material conditions of the working class improve, 
 may it not happen that, though the material con- 
 
238 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAKJt 
 
 ditions of the capitalists improve infinitely more, 
 the working class will find itself more or less tol- 
 erably comfortable, so as to feel neither the neces- 
 sity nor find the motive to rise against the capitalist 
 class and run the risk and danger of a revolution? 
 We must always remember that a revolution is not 
 merely a game of chess; it is a very serious affair. 
 A revolution involves a life and death struggle. 
 The participants in a revolutionary struggle must 
 be ready to pay with their lives. Before a class of 
 oppressed may fell determined to die for a cause, 
 there must be very strong motives for such deter- 
 mination. The material conditions of the working 
 class cannot furnish such motive, because, as we 
 ^aw, they do not become ever worse than what 
 they generally were; and, also, because there are 
 no fixed limits to human endurance. 
 
 Take the case of Germany. Before their de- 
 feat in the present war, the German people regarded 
 itself as the most cultured, the most heroic and the 
 most proud. The Germans looked with contempt 
 upon such nations as the Russians and the like. 
 The whole world actually feared the Germans. 
 Yet, with their defeat, came poverty, starvation, 
 suffering and humiliation, without a parallel in 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 239 
 
 modern history. Do the Germans rise? Not only 
 do they submit to the foreign exploiters and op- 
 pressors of the Allied nations, they also submit to 
 their own exploiters and oppressors, just risen into 
 power. And, though from time to time a resolute 
 band of stout revolutionists rose and called the 
 masses to revolt, the masses did not respond, and 
 the stout-hearted revolutionists expiated with their 
 life the sins of the masses. And this, too, at a time 
 when the German proletariat could have wonderful 
 assistance from the Russians — an assistance that 
 would not only enable them to overthrow the yoke 
 of foreign oppression and exploitation, but also 
 the yoke of their own oppressors and traitors. And 
 yet, though so much was to be won, the masses 
 humbly submitted and still submit to all this. 
 What, then, becomes of the second assumption? 
 
 Finally, we come to the first assumption — the 
 assumption that is the basis of the other three as- 
 sumptions. The first assumption is that the tend- 
 ency of capitalism is to concentrate all accumu- 
 lated wealth in the hands of a few magnates, who 
 by virtue of their ever-increasing wealth acquire 
 an ever-increasing power over the working class, 
 which power the capitalist magnates will use ever 
 
240 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 more effectively to exploit and oppress the work- 
 ing class. As this leads, as it were, into a blind 
 alley, the working class will have to cut the Gor- 
 dian knot, rise against the master class, overthrow 
 its power, and abolish the basis for classes and 
 class-struggles. 
 
 Before we proceed to examine the first assump- 
 tion, the reader's attention must be called to a great 
 inconsistency. Those that make the assumptions 
 as stated above are, what Marx would call, crude 
 materialists; that is, socialists who believe in What 
 is called economic determinism. According to this 
 belief, man is what the material conditions of ex- 
 istance make him to be. Man himself comes into 
 existence a perfect blank, and he is what the mate- 
 rial conditions write upon his being. Therefore, 
 these materialists tell us, socialism is inevitable, 
 whether we want it or not, because the material 
 conditions of existence inevitably develop towards 
 the state of socialism. According to this belief, 
 the proletariat has no active function to perform. 
 All the proletariat has to do is to keep itself in 
 readiness for the time when the material condi- 
 tions of existence will tell them, "We are now ripe 
 for socialism." That the proletariat has to pre- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 241 
 
 pare itself in advance, and that the proletariat must 
 assume an active and controlling role in shaping 
 and determining the course of development of the 
 material conditions — these are views entirely re- 
 pudiated by these materialists. And yet, these 
 materialists lead us into a blind alley, and tell us: 
 "Hie Rhodus, hie salta : thus far the material con- 
 ditions go, and no further; and if you want to go 
 further, you must go independently of the material 
 conditions of existence." In other words, accord- 
 ing to the view of the crude materialists, the ten- 
 dency of the capitalist appropriation is to concen- 
 trate all wealth and power in the hands of the 
 capitalist magnates. That is as far as the material 
 conditions go. From thence on all wealth and power 
 will remain an eternal heritage of the few capitalist 
 magnates. If the expropriated and oppressed will 
 want to be free themselves from the exploitation 
 and oppression entailed upon them by that eco- 
 nomic determinism, they will have to rise above the 
 economic determinism, defy the tendency of cap- 
 italist appropriation and, in spite of all laws of 
 Nature, assert their emancipation. Is not this most 
 inconsistent? If the material conditions are every- 
 
S42 THE PHILOSOPHY OP MARX 
 
 thing and man is nothing, how can men transcend 
 the material conditions? 
 
 This inconsistency was inevitable. Once the 
 crude materialists assumed that man is nothing, 
 and the material conditions were everything, they 
 were driven into an impassable inconsistency. But 
 this inconsistency reveals also the cause of it. These 
 crude materialists who built so strongly and firmly 
 upon economic determinism are compelled in the 
 hour of danger to abandon their theory and appeal 
 to the independent action of the proletariat. This 
 cry of the crude materialist speaks volumes. It 
 tells us in the clearest manner that man is the active 
 factor, while the material conditions of existance 
 are but the passive factor. And now, by exposing 
 the inconsistency of the crude materialists, we con- 
 firm our own position. Having accomplished this, 
 we are prepared to proceed with the examination of 
 the first assumption. 
 
 Here, when we come to consider the first assump- 
 tion, we shall somewhat modify the procedure. 
 Instead of considering it separately from the other 
 three assumptions, as we proceeded with the latter, 
 we shall, on the contrary, consider them all to- 
 gether, since the first assumption is really the basis 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 243 
 
 of the other three assumptions. As the argument 
 will be somewhat involved and voluminous, it will 
 )}e conducive to a ready understanding of the argu- 
 ment as it is unfolded, if the reader is at once 
 informed what the argument will show. 
 
 In the interaction between man and Nature, man 
 is the controlling factor. In the past, the property 
 owners, to a considerable extent, controlled that 
 interaction and that control gave them a decided 
 advantage over the propertyless. The develop- 
 ment of capitalism creates an ever increasing mass 
 of proletarians, who are brought ever more closely 
 together. This gives rise in them to a class-con- 
 sciousness and a class ideal. The tendency of the 
 capitalist mode of production is but to complete a 
 great historic evolution of the human race. Start- 
 ing in a communistic form of life on a very small 
 scale, mankind had to tear itself away from that 
 narrow form of life, so as to spread over the whole 
 earth and to conquer Nature. This was possible 
 through the dissolution of primitive communism, 
 and the spread of private property. Private prop- 
 erty for thousands of years was a benefit to man- 
 kind. When, however, mankind has conquered 
 Nature and covered the whole earth, the process of 
 evolution comes to the closing of the cycle. Pri- 
 
244 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 vate property becomes a hindrance, and therefore 
 must be abolished. In its stead mankind reintro- 
 duces communism. The tendency of Capitalism is 
 just this — to return to society all the land and all 
 means of life, to be owned, controlled and used by 
 society communistically. At first, capitalism ex- 
 propriates the masses, then it expropriates the cap- 
 italists themselves. In this process of transforma- 
 tion the proletariat functions most actively and 
 most determingly. Therefore, in the bringing about 
 of this transformation, the proletariat meets with no 
 blind alleys. The tendency of capitalism is, not 
 to leave all wealth and power in the few capitalists, 
 Jmt to take away all property from all individuals 
 and turn over that property to society. This is the 
 great historic process, and this is the role which 
 the proletariat will play in this great drama. 
 
 From this point of view the matter presents itself 
 in an entirely different aspect — an aspect that is 
 free from the contradictions and errors which we 
 met with in the consideration of the assumptions 
 before us. 
 
 With this as a preliminary, let us betake our- 
 selves to a careful consideration of the great social 
 process that will transform society from a state of 
 capitalism to a state of socialism. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TN HIS "Landmarks of Scientific Socialism," 
 =t Engels tell us: "All civilized peoples began 
 with common property in land. Among all peoples 
 which pass beyond a certain primitive stage the 
 pommon property in land becomes a fetter upon 
 production in the process of agricultural develop- 
 ment. It is cast aside, negated, and, after shorter 
 or longer intervening periods, is transformed into 
 private property. But at a higher stage, through 
 the development still further of agriculture, pri- 
 vate property becomes in its turn a bar to produc- 
 tion, as it is today the case with both large and 
 small land proprietorship. The next step, to ne- 
 gate it in turn, to transform it into social property, 
 necessarily follows. This advance however, does 
 not signify the restoration of the old primitive 
 common property, but the establishment of a far 
 higher, better developed form of communal pro- 
 prietorship, which, far from being an impediment 
 to production, rather, for the first time is bound 
 to put an end to its limitations and to give it the 
 
 245 
 
246 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 full benefit of modern discoveries in chemistry and 
 mechanical inventions." 
 
 This gives us a correct view of the great historic 
 process that will transform society from a state of 
 capitalism to a state of socialism. Capitalism is 
 but a phase in the evolution of property. Originally 
 mankind, no more gregarious animals, knew of 
 property. In time they learned to recognize prop- 
 erty. The first form of property was that of com- 
 munism. This form must have continued for a 
 long time, and must have prevailed among all races 
 of men. A time, however, came when this form of 
 property, instead of being a benefit to mankind and 
 a help to their further growth and development, 
 became rather a hindrance in the way of their 
 progress and a detriment to their well-being. It 
 threatened to petrify mankind into a fixed social 
 form of existence akin to that of the bees and the 
 ants. The further growth and progress of mankind 
 required a freer scope of activity for the individual, 
 that he might bring out his powers, than the primi- 
 tive community afforded scope. Communism, 
 therefore, became a fetter upon the further develop- 
 ment of the human race. It had to be dissolved 
 and it was. dissolved.. The progressive elements. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 247 
 
 of the human race then began to struggle for the 
 abolition of communistic ownership of property, 
 and the establishment of private property. The 
 enterprising races left their primitive bee-hives, 
 launched out into the free and open world, con- 
 quered all opposing elements, and became the mas- 
 ters of the world. This continued until private 
 property became the dominant and prevailing form 
 of ownership in the most civilized countries. A 
 time, however, came when private property, instead 
 of continuing to be a benefit to mankind and an 
 encouragement to individual enterprise, became 
 rather a fetter upon the further development of 
 mankind and a hindrance in the way of individual 
 enterprise. Mankind reached a stage in their de- 
 velopment requiring the abolition of private prop- 
 erty. The period of the dissolution of private 
 property begins with the inauguration of capitalism. 
 The historic function of capitalism is, not to 
 concentrate the wealth of society in the hands of a 
 few capitalists, but to dissolve private property, 
 to expropriate mankind of their individual pos- 
 sessions, to consolidate all property and to restore 
 it back to mankind, to be owned, controlled and 
 used by them. in. common*. At first, capitalism, ex- 
 
248 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 propriates those members of society that offer the 
 least resistance, namely, the farmers and the ar- 
 tisans. When the farmers are divested of their 
 land and the artisans of their tools, then the pro- 
 cess of expropriation proceeds to expropriate the 
 capitalists themselves. One capitalist kills an- 
 other, and thereby the number of property-owners 
 becomes ever smaller, until a time will come when 
 all property will be taken away from the individ- 
 uals and turned over to society. 
 
 This process, however, does not work itself out 
 without the aid of mankind. On the contrary, man- 
 kind play a most active and determining role in 
 this process of transformation. Simultaneously 
 with the appearance of capitalism this process man- 
 ifests itself, on the one hand, in the expropriation 
 of the farmers of his land and of the artisan of his 
 tools; and, on the other hand, in the introduction 
 of socialized labor and processes of production and 
 distribution. Manufacture, division of labor, ma- 
 chinery, the factory system, conglomeration of in- 
 dustries, the trusts, and the rise of the world-market 
 — these steps follow one another as manifestations 
 of this great process of transformation. With the 
 socialization and the consolidation of the produc- 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 249 
 
 tive and distributive activities of the human race 
 also grows the mass of the working class and the 
 solidarity among them. This manifests itself in 
 the rise of labor parties, trades unions, and the 
 class-consciousness of the workers. The producers 
 become ever more identified with one another and 
 become ever more welded into a social body. They 
 begin to exercise an ever-increasing influence over 
 the life of the human race. Their increasing growth 
 in solidarity and power manifests itself in an ever- 
 increasing pro-sociality in the productive, intellec- 
 tual, moral and social activities of the race. Social 
 institutions come into existence, the municipalities 
 extend their scope and function, and enter into the 
 productive and distributive functions of life and, 
 on an ever-increasing scale and degree, serve the 
 needs and the comforts of society. 
 
 As capitalism develops, the municipalities be- 
 come ever more active in their service of mankind, 
 and the material conditions of existence for the 
 workers become ever more improved. The work- 
 ing people become ever more enlightened, ever 
 more enlightened, ever more independent in spirit, 
 and ever more competent to understand the condi- 
 tions of existence and the best way to serve their 
 
250 THE raiLOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 interests. And, though the material conditions be- 
 come ever more improved, the working men be- 
 come ever more dissatisfied and feel themselves 
 ever more fettered and crippled by the capitalistic 
 order. Their dissatisfaction and their feeling of 
 constraint grow, not because their material condi- 
 tions of existence become ever worse, but rather in 
 spite of and because of their improvement. The 
 working men grow mentally and morally. This 
 growth of theirs manifests itself in an increase of 
 capacity to enjoy and a desire for ever more en- 
 joyment. The workingmen become ever more pain- 
 fully conscious of the incompatibility of capitalism 
 with their own well-being. Ever more keenly do 
 they realize that their life does not improve pro- 
 portionately to the rapid and wonderful progress 
 mankind makes in the arts, the sciences and the 
 industries. They perceive that, not only are all 
 advantages of progress and civilization monopo- 
 lized by the idlers, parasites and swindlers, but 
 also that these gentry, like swine, destroy and be- 
 foul everything which they themselves cannot use, 
 or which they cannot dispose of at a profit, thus 
 depriving the workingmen of the benefits of the 
 increase in the productiveness of labor. Though 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 251 
 
 the conditions of existence for the workingmen im- 
 prove, yet that improvement, relatively to the real 
 progress of mankind, is absolutely insignificant; 
 so insignificant, indeed, that the conditions of the 
 working class fall ever more and more behind the 
 progress of the race. The chasm between them the 
 capitalist class becomes ever deeper and wider, 
 producing in the workers the deepest despair with 
 the capitalist system. This Marx expressed, by 
 saying: 
 
 "A house may be large or small; as long as the 
 neighboring houses are likewise small, it satisfies 
 all social requirements for a residence. But let 
 there arise next to the little house a palace, and the 
 little house shrinks into a hut. The little house 
 now makes it clear that its inmate has no social 
 position at all to maintain, or but a very insig- 
 nificant one; and however high it may shoot up in 
 the course of civilization, if the neighboring palace 
 rise in equal or even in greater measure, the occu- 
 pant of the relatively little house will always find 
 himself more uncomfortable, more dissatisfied, 
 more cramped within his four walls. 
 
 "An appreciable rise in wages presupposes a 
 rapid growth of productive capital. Rapid growth 
 
252 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 of productive capital calls forth just as rapid a 
 growth of wealth, of luxury, of social needs and 
 social pleasures. Therefore, though the pleasures 
 of the laborer have increased, the social gratifica- 
 tion which they afford has fallen in comparison 
 with the increased pleasures of the capitalist, which 
 are inaccessible to the worker, in comparison with 
 the stage of development of society in general. Our 
 wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we 
 therefore measure them in relation to society we do 
 not measure them in relation to the objects which 
 serve for their gratification. Since they are of a 
 social nature, they are of a relative nature." 
 
 Because the improvement in the life of the work- 
 ing people does not keep pace with the progress of 
 mankind, the workers become ever more thoroughly 
 dissatisfied with their lot and ever more painfully 
 conscious of the ever-widening and ever-deepening 
 chasm between themselves and the capitalists. Their 
 discontent causes them to concern themselves ever 
 more seriously about the capitalist order and grad- 
 ually to discover the secret of their miseries, and 
 they begin seriously to think of abolishing the 
 capitalist order. They extend their political and 
 industrial organizations over an ever- widening area, 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 253 
 
 comprehending ever greater portions of the work- 
 ing class. Their daily struggles with the ruling 
 class arouse them, bring out their latent powers and 
 yield them a rich harvest of knowledge and experi- 
 ence. Their growing strength and increasing self- 
 confidence inspire them to ever greater tasks. They 
 begin to make greater demands upon the body 
 politic and to force their influence over increasing 
 areas of human affairs. And so, in the words of 
 Marx> from day to day they become ever more 
 disciplined, united, organized, by the very mechan- 
 ism of the process of capitalist production itself, 
 and daily become ever more prepared for their 
 great historic [task — the complete overthrow of 
 capitalism and the full inauguration of socialism. 
 And, while capitalism is losing ground, socialism 
 is gaining ground; while capitalism is receding, 
 socialism is advancing; and, while the capitalists 
 lose power, the workers gain power. The time is 
 near at hand when rising socialism will challenge 
 declining capitalism to mortal combat. In that 
 great struggle, the proletariat, trained, disciplined 
 and organized, will accomplish its great historic 
 task, will emerge victorious, and, by means of the 
 power won in that struggle, the proletariat will 
 
254 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 then proceed to inaugurate the state of socialism. 
 The final struggle may be a struggle for years, but, 
 once begun, the proletariate will not let up until 
 it will come out universally victorious. 
 
 This view of the great historic process that is 
 now consummating itself is the view of Marx. It 
 is a view perfectly in harmony with the facts of 
 life, consistent in itself, and thoroughly realizable. 
 It now remains to show how Marx understood this 
 view. Marx bequeathed to the proletariat many 
 very valuable legacies but few of the legacies can 
 compare in their grandeur and sublimity with the 
 wonderful truths and sublime prophecy embodied 
 in the 32nd chapter of the first volume of "Capital. 
 Nothing known in human literature can compare 
 with this. It is the most marvellous achievement of 
 the human mind. This places Marx far above all 
 prophets and seers of all times. We shall therefore 
 proceed to read and interpret this chapter. 
 
 Marx tells us that private property, as the anti- 
 thesis to social, collective property, exists only 
 where the means of labor and the external condi- 
 tions of labor belong to private individuals. But, 
 according as these private individuals are laborers 
 or not laborers, private property has a different 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 255 
 
 character. The numberless shades that it at first 
 sight presents correspond to the intermediate stages 
 lying between these two extremes. The private 
 property of the laborer in his means of production 
 is the foundation of petty industry, whether agri- 
 cultural, manufacturing, or both. Petty industry, 
 again, is an essential condition for the develop- 
 ment of social production and of the free individ- 
 uality of the laborer himself. This mode of pro- 
 duction pre-supposes parcelling of the soil and 
 scattering of the other means of production. As 
 it excludes the concentration of these means of pro- 
 duction, so also it excludes cooperation, division 
 of labor within each separate process of production, 
 the control over and the productive application of 
 the forces of nature by society, and the free devel- 
 opment of the social productive powers. It is com- 
 patible only with a system of production and a 
 society, moving within narrow and more or less 
 .primitive bounds. At a certain stage of develop- 
 ment it brings forth the material agencies for its 
 own dissolution. From that moment new forces 
 and new passions spring up in the bosom of society; 
 but the old social organization fetters them and 
 keeps them down. It must be annihilated; it is 
 
256 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 annihilated. Its annihilation, the transformation 
 of the individualized and scattered means of pro- 
 duction into socially concentrated ones, of the 
 pigmy properties of the many into the huge prop- 
 erty of the few; the expropriation of the great mass 
 of the people from the soil, from the means of sub- 
 sistence and from the means of labor; this fearful 
 and painful expropriation of the mass of the people 
 forms the prelude to the history of capital. 
 
 As soon as this process of transformation has 
 sufficiently decomposed the old society from top 
 to bottom; as soon as the laborers are turned into 
 proletarians, their means of labor into capital; as 
 soon as the capitalist mode of production stands on 
 its own feet; then the further socialization of labor 
 and the further transformation of the land and 
 other means of production into socially exploited 
 and, therefore, common means of production, as 
 well as the further expropriation of private propri- 
 etors, take a new form. That which is now to be 
 expropriated is no longer the laborer working for 
 himself, but the capitalist exploiting many labor- 
 ers. This expropriation is accomplished by the 
 immanent laws of capitalist production itself, by 
 the centralization of capital; that is, not by the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 257 
 
 concentration of capital into the hands of capital- 
 ists, but by the centralization, organization and 
 cooperation of capital. The capitalists whose capi- 
 tals have been consolidated and centralized kill 
 out the capitalists whose capitals have not yet been 
 consolidated and centralized. Hand in hand with 
 this centralization or this expropriation of many 
 capitalists by few develop, on an ever-extending 
 scale, the cooperative form of the labor process, 
 the conscious technical application of science, the 
 methodical cultivation of the soil, the transforma- 
 tion of the instruments of labor into instruments 
 of labor only usable in common, the economizing 
 of all means of production by their use as the 
 means of production of combined, socialized labor, 
 the entanglement of all peoples in the net of the 
 world-market, and with this the international char- 
 acter of the capitalistic regime. And though 
 older modes of production continue to linger here 
 and there, the capitalist mode of production be- 
 comes the prevailing, the dominant and the de- 
 cisively controlling mode of production. This 
 dominance of the capitalist mode of production 
 gives to those nations that have adopted it a pre- 
 eminence and power of control and determination 
 
258 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 over the nations still clinging to the older modes of 
 production. The advanced capitalist nations be- 
 come the leading nations of the world. 
 
 Along with the constantly diminishing number of 
 magnates of capital, that is, with the diminishing, 
 not of the number of capitalists or of property 
 owners, but with the diminishing of the number of 
 capitalists that rule and control the capitalist world, 
 and who, by virtue of their supreme power, are 
 able to usurp and monopolize all advantages of 
 this process of transformation, that is, the process 
 that transforms property from the individuals to 
 society, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slav- 
 ery, degradation and exploitation, not only of the 
 actual producers of all wealth, but also of all 
 expropriated, all proletarians, whether laborers, 
 small business men, or professionals. For, in con- 
 trast with the enormous wealth and power possessed 
 by the magnates of capital, and the great advan- 
 tages thus placed in the hands of these usurpers, 
 the luxury, the pleasure and the security enjoyed 
 by them, the expropriated shrink ever more into 
 insignificance and are reduced to mere pariahs, 
 slaves, miserable and degraded, that are to live 
 and work only for the enrichment of the magnates 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 259 
 
 of capital. But, while the great mass of expro- 
 priated may remain inactive, the producing pro- 
 letarians are thereby aroused into great activity. 
 The working class — the class that always increases 
 in numbers, disciplined, united and organized by 
 this very mechanism of the process of capitalist 
 production itself, now comes to the fore, monopo- 
 lizes the entire political arena, ready for the final 
 conflict. 
 
 In the meantime the monopoly of capital be- 
 comes a fetter upon the mode of production, which 
 has sprung up and flourished along with and under 
 it. Centralization, and not merely concentration, 
 of the means of production and the socialization of 
 labor at last reach a point where they become in- 
 compatible with their capitalist integument. This 
 integument must burst asunder, and it does burst 
 asunder. The knell of capitalist private property 
 sounds. The expropriators are at last expropriated 
 themselves. 
 
 The capitalist mode of appropriation, the result 
 of the capitalist mode of production, produces cap- 
 italist private property. This is the first negation 
 of individual property, as founded on the labor of 
 the proprietor. But capitalist production begets, 
 
260 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 with the inexorability of a law of Nature, its own 
 negation. It is the negation of negation. This does 
 not re-establish private property for the producer, 
 but gives him individual property b^sed on the 
 acquisitions of the capitalist era, i.e., on coopera- 
 tion and the possession in common of the means of 
 production. The capitalist mode of production 
 prepares society, at first, for the socialization of 
 the processes of production and the cooperation of 
 labor, and, afterwards, for the collective use and 
 enjoyment of the products of this social mode of 
 production. 
 
 The transformation of scattered private prop- 
 erty, arising from individual labor, into capitalist 
 private property, is, naturally, a process incompar- 
 ably more protracted, violent and difficult than the 
 transformation of capitalistic private property al- 
 ready practically resting on socialized production, 
 into socialized property. In the former case we 
 had the expropriation of the mass of the people by 
 a few usurpers; in the latter we have the expro- 
 priation of a few usurpers by the mass of people. 
 
 The Rhythm of Motion, spoken of by Spencer, is 
 well exemplified by the evolution of property. At 
 first, property was owned by mankind in common. 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 261 
 
 Communism was the prevailing property-owner- 
 ship. In course of time this form of property- 
 ownership became incompatible with the further 
 growth and development of the human race. It 
 had to be dissolved, and it was dissolved, making 
 room for privately owned property. This con- 
 tinued until, in turn, it became incompatible with 
 the further growth and development of the human 
 race. Capitalism was inaugurated, the sole func- 
 tion of which was to dissolve private property and 
 reintroduce socialized property: property owned 
 and used by all members of society in common. At 
 first, capitalism expropriates the producers, and, 
 when this is accomplished, it expropriates the ex- 
 propriators. Capitalism recedes, socialism ad- 
 vances, and in time socialism becomes fully estab- 
 lished. 
 
 This is the great truth which Marx perceived, 
 and in most wonderful and convincing manner he 
 presented to us this truth in his monumental work. 
 Since the time that Marx wrote "Capital," all events 
 that have transpired but confirmed this great truth. 
 The present great war was but the inevitable mani- 
 festation of the inherent contradictions of the cap- 
 italist system and it brought out the great revolu- 
 
262 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 tions. Even if capitalism should succeed in main- 
 taining itself for another short term, it will soon 
 be driven by its inherent contradictions to a final 
 struggle of a nature that will surpass in extent 
 and intensity the present great war. Out of that 
 final struggle, socialism over the whole earth will 
 emerge triumphant. 
 
 Enricco Ferri, in his work, "Socialism and Modern 
 Science/ 9 tells us: "The law of apparent retrogres- 
 sion proves that the reversion of social institutions 
 to primitive forms is a fact of constant recurrence. 
 The example of this reversion to primitive forms 
 are only too obvious and too numerous, even in 
 the category of social institutions. This same phe- 
 nomenon may be traced in the organization of prop- 
 erty. Spencer himself was forced to recognize that 
 there has been an inexorable tendency to a rever- 
 sion to primitive collectivism, since ownership in 
 land, at first a family attribute, then individual, has 
 reached its culminating point, so that in some coun- 
 tries land has become a sort of personal property, 
 transferrable as readily as a share in a stock- 
 company. 
 
 "Moreover, this process of socialization of prop- 
 erty, though a partial and subordinate process, is 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 263 
 
 nevertheless so evident and continuous that to deny 
 its existence would be to maintain that the economic 
 and consequently the juridical tendency of the 
 organization of property is not in the direction of a 
 greater and greater magnification of the interests 
 and the rights of the collectivity over those of the 
 individual. This, which is only a preponderance 
 today, will become by an inevitable evolution a 
 complete substitution as regards property in land 
 and the means of production. 
 
 "The fundamental thesis of socialism is then in 
 perfect harmony with the sociological law of ap- 
 parent retrogression, the natural reason for which 
 has been so admirably analyzed by Mr. Loria 
 thus: the thought and the life of primitive man- 
 kind are moulded and directed by the natural en- 
 vironment along the simplest and most fundamen- 
 tal lines; then the progress of intelligence and the 
 complexity of life increasing by a law of evolution 
 give us an analytical development of the principal 
 element contained in the first genus of each insti- 
 tution; this analytical development is often, when 
 finished, detrimental to each one of its elements; 
 humanity itself, arrived at a certain stage of evolu- 
 tion, reconstructs and combines in a final synthesis 
 
264 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 these different elements, and thus returns to its 
 primitive starting point. 
 
 "The reversion to primitive forms is not, how- 
 ever, a pure and simple repitition. Therefore it is 
 called the law of apparent retrogression, and this 
 removes all force from the objection that socialism 
 would be a return to primitive barbarism. It is 
 not a pure and simple repetition, but it is the con- 
 cluding phase of a cycle, of a grand rhythm, which 
 infallibly and inevitably preserves in their integ- 
 rity the achievements and conquests of the long 
 preceding evolution, in so far as they are vital and 
 fruitful; and the final outcome is far superior, 
 objectively and subjectively, to the primitive social 
 embryo. 
 
 "The track of the social evolution is not repre- 
 sented by a closed circle, which, like the serpent in 
 the old symbol, cuts off all hope of a better future; 
 but, to use the figure of Goethe, it is represented by 
 a spiral, which seems to return upon itself, but 
 which always advances and ascends." 
 
 When we consider but a small arc of the great 
 cycle of the economic evolution in the life of the 
 human race, the tendency of capitalism seems to be 
 towards a concentration of all social wealth in the 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 265 
 
 hands of a few capitalists and to leave that wealth 
 in their hands. But, when we contemplate that 
 economic evolution in its comprehensive totality, 
 we perceive that the tendency of capitalism is to 
 complete the cycle of economic evolution, by abol- 
 ishing private property and establishing collective 
 or communistic property in its stead. And now we 
 shall appreciate the following statement of Marx, 
 given at the outset: 
 
 "In broad outlines we can designate the Asiatic, 
 the ancient, the feudal, and the modern bourgeois 
 methods of production as so many epochs in the 
 progress of the economical formation of society. 
 The bourgeois relations of production are the last 
 antagonistic form of the social process of produc- 
 tion — antagonistic, not in the sense of individual 
 antagonism, but of one arising from conditions 
 surrounding the life of individuals in society; at 
 the same time the productive forces developing in 
 the womb of bourgeois society create the material 
 conditions for the solution of that antagonism. This 
 social formation constitutes, therefore, the closing 
 chapter af the prehistoric stage of human society." 
 
 The great cycle of social evolution, which had 
 its beginning in the prehistoric stage of society, is 
 
266 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 now reaching completion, bringing mankind to a 
 higher and more satisfactory plane of existence. 
 As Spinoza states, the order and connection of ideas 
 are the same as the order and connection of things. 
 The socialist philosophy is but the intellectual re- 
 flex of the material evolution of life. The ideals 
 and the dreams of mankind are but the adumbra- 
 tions, the harbingers, of the coming reality. The 
 ripening of the material conditions of existence for 
 a state of communism manifests itself in the mind 
 of the pioneers of thought in the form of a socialist 
 philosophy. Once they perceive the coming reality 
 and begin to desire it, they exert themselves to at- 
 tain that desirable reality. This, again, manifests 
 itself in a socialist movement, which is but the con- 
 scious and organized effort of the most enlightened 
 members of society to attain in the speediest and 
 most direct manner that desirable state. The road 
 to socialism, therefore, does not pass through dark- 
 ness of night, the marshes of ignorance and deg- 
 radation, and the despair of the slough of despond. 
 On the contrary, that road passes through educa- 
 tion, organization, preparation and discipline of 
 the proletariat. 
 
 The socialists, therefore, must direct all their 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 267 
 
 efforts to help the proletariat to rise ever higher 
 and higher, mentally and morally, so that it may 
 come nearer and ever nearer to the apex of the 
 pyramid of creation, partake ever more of the 
 natura naturans, and make ever more consciously 
 and effectively their own history. "Nevertheless 
 I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of 
 Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
 in the clouds of Heaven." The Son of Man, the 
 proletariat, who, unlike the foxes that have holes 
 and the birds that have nests, has nowhere to lay 
 his head, will, spite of all opposition and difficulty, 
 Attain to the right hand of power and will rise to 
 the clouds of heaven and enjoy economic security 
 and supreme happiness. 
 
 The future belongs to the proletariat. And who- 
 ever wants to earn for himself eternal life, to iden- 
 tify himself with the future, must sever all relation- 
 ship with the past and the present, cast his lot with 
 the proletariat, live with it, suffer with it, struggle 
 with it, hope with it and with it attain to the glory 
 that awaits the proletariat. Let the Russian Revolu- 
 tion be a confirmation and an inspiration to every 
 noble soul. It is the duty of every one that can fur- 
 ther this great cause to help bring light and knowl- 
 
268 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MARX 
 
 edge to the proletariat. And, when the proletariat 
 shall realize fully that it is in its own hands to attain 
 to an infinite world with infinite possibilities, that it 
 it can convert this vale of tears into a world of 
 joy, then it will cast off all fetters, remove all hind- 
 rances, come into its own and then in fact and in 
 truth, become the lord and master of creation. 
 The emancipation and the salvation of the pro- 
 letariat lie in its own hands. And happy is he, 
 who, having seen the light, at once casts his lot with 
 the proletariat; for only by identifying one-self 
 with the proletariat can one save himself in this 
 ^world of sin, corruption and destruction. 
 
 #4t GRAPHIC PRESS, NEW YORK 
 
H 58 85-'* 
 
)* *^' °, ** •£L # %^» ,0* *p\^ V 
 
 V>^ ;5 
 
 •.I**'- > 
 
 
 
 
 •^d* 
 
 tC*" 
 
 
 
 
 •s: J ^ 
 
 
 »»,!' 
 
 >* .. C ^"*°»" ' Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
 
 <5& 4*. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 
 • %x- & Treatment Date: Sept. 2004 
 
 $$?: %% PreservationTechnologies 
 
 4> ? %, VWJW* A* ^ AWOBLDLIAOM.HPAPMPBMERVATIOII 
 
 .-AT <*» • €T » * . * ";• m Thomson Park Onve 
 
 O 'o e »» A Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 
 CT .• W J I f^ ^>, 4> «°J£«S (724)779-2111 
 
 9 ^ A* * 
 
 _ 
 
 *'^7-A»i». 
 

 
 
 r ^o x 
 
 
 
 
 HECKMAN 
 
 IINDERY INC. 
 
 FEB 85 
 
 N. MANCHESTER, 
 INDIANA 46962 
 
 
 
 f\ °°yws +*% 
 
 
 • » * A 
 
 V c ° w ° ♦ <^ 
 
 «. • c ' * * "o 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 062 468 6