Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory
Theses on Feuerbach
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it – noted down in 1845, published by Engels in 1888.
Introduction
Marx jotted down these eleven short theses in a notebook in Brussels in spring 1845, around the time he and Engels began the critique of German philosophy that became The German Ideology. They criticise all earlier materialism, Feuerbach’s included, for grasping reality only as an object of contemplation and not as “sensuous human activity”, as practice. Engels published them in 1888, lightly edited, as an appendix to his book on Feuerbach, describing them as the first document containing the germ of the new world outlook. The eleventh thesis is engraved on Marx’s tomb in Highgate Cemetery in London. Their brevity has invited many readings, among them Gramsci’s “philosophy of praxis”.
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Connections
Criticizes
- The Essence of Christianity1841 · Ludwig Feuerbach
Taken up in
- Prison Notebooks1935 · Antonio Gramsci
- Traditional and Critical Theory1937 · Max Horkheimer
More works by Karl Marx
- 1867Capital
Appears in
- Journey ‘Hegel’s Heirs’ · Stop 4 of 10
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