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Industrial Revolution and of the positive possibilities it offers to men. For the influence of Buret on Marx's economic conceptions, see G. Cottier, Du romantisme au marxisme (Paris, 1961).
126.K. Marx, Early Writings, p. 171.
127.K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts', Early Texts, pp. 133 ff.
128.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 134.
129.Ibid.
130.Ibid.
131. Ibid., pp. 134 ff.
132.Marx used two German words to express his ideas of alienation: they were EntUusserung and Entfremdung. Stricdy speaking, the first emphasises the idea of dispossession and the second the idea of something being strange and alien. Marx seemed to use the two terms indiscriminately, sometimes using both together for rhetorical emphasis.
133.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 137.
134.Ibid.
135.Ibid., p. 138.
136.Ibid., p. 140.
137.Ibid., p. 141.
138.Ibid., p. 142.
139.Ibid., p. 144.
140.See further on this point G. Cohen, 'Bourgeois and Proletarians', MEW xxi 19 (April 1968)
141. K. Marx, 'On James Mill', Early Texts, p. 192.
142.K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts,' Early Texts, p. 181.
143.Ibid., p. 182.
144.K. Marx, 'On James Mill', Early Texts, pp. 193 ff.
145.Ibid., pp. 197 ff.
146.Ibid., p. 201.
147.Ibid., pp. 202 ff.
148.K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts', Early Texts, p. 131.
149.For a closely argued analysis of the empirical features of Marx's doctrine of alienation, see D. Braybrooke, 'Diagnosis and Remedy in Marx's Doctrine of Alienation', in Social Research (Autumn 1958). There are several pieces of research that take Marx's doctrine as a basis. One of the best known is R. Blauner, Alienation and Freedom (Chicago, 1964).
150.K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts', Early Texts, p. 146.
151. Ibid.
152.Ibid., pp. 146 ff. Marx seems here to be referring to two groups active in Paris at that time - the 'Travailleurs Egalitaires' and the ,Humanitaires\ The former were followers of Babeuf with strong anti-cultural tendencies; the latter were well known for their attacks on marriage and the family. See
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further, P. Kagi, Genesis des historischen Materialismus, pp. 328 ff.; E. Dolleans,
Histoire du mouvement ouvrier (Paris, 1957) 1 179.
153.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 148.
154.Ibid.
155.Ibid.
156.Ibid.
157.Ibid., pp. 148 f.
158.Ibid., p. 149.
159.Ibid., p. 150.
160.See, for example, the interpretation of J.-Y. Calvez, La Pensee de Karl Marx (Paris, 1956) pp. 380 ff.
161. K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 151. Marx added a (not very convincing) remark on death, which 'appears as the harsh victory of the species over the particular individual and seems to contradict their unity; but the particular individual is only a determinate species-being and thus mortal'.
162.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 152.
163.K. Marx, Early Writings, p. 161.
164.The following passages show what Schiller was describing: ' . . . Enjoyment was separated from labour, the means from the end, exertion from recompense. Eternally fettered only to a single little fragment of the whole, man fashions himself only as a fragment; ever hearing only the monotonous whirl of the wheel which he turns, he never displays the full harmony of his being. . .. The aesthetic formative impulse establishes . . . a joyous empire wherein it releases man from all the fetters of circumstance, and frees him both physically and morally, from all that can be called constraint.' F. Schiller,
Uber die asthetische Erziehung des Menschen, ed. W. Henckmann (Munich, 1967) pp. 92 and 185, quoted in S. Lukes, 'Alienation and Anomie', in
Philosophy, Politics arid Society, 3rd series (Oxford, 1967).
165.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 154.
166.Ibid., p. 156.
167.Ibid., p. 157.
168.Ibid., p. 157.
169.Ibid., p. 148.
170.See above pp. 35 ff.
171. For Marx's later assessment of his |
relationship to Hegel, see the Afterword |
to the second German edition of Capital. |
|
i-]i. K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts', Early |
Texts, p. 159. |
173.Ibid.
174.'Marx to L. Feuerbach', Early Texts, p. 184.
175.K. Marx, 'Paris Manuscripts', Early Texts, p. 160.
176.K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 163.
177.Ibid., p. 164.
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178.Ibid.
179.Ibid., p. 167.
180.Ibid., p. 168 on this whole passage; see further J. O'Neill, 'The Concept of
Estrangement in the Early and Later Writings of Karl Marx', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (September 1964), reprinted in Sociology as a Skin Trade (London, 1972) ch. 9.
181. K. Marx, Early Texts, p. 168.
182.A commentary that emphasises the French materialists is P. Kagi, Genesis des historischen Materialismus, pp. 262 ff. For the debt to Feuerbach, see D. McLellan, The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx, pp. 101 ff.
183.On how fair Marx is to Hegel, see J. Maguire, Marx's Paris Writings, pp. 96 ff.
184.Jenny Marx to Marx, MEW Ergsbd. 1 650.
185.Ibid.
186.Ibid., 654.
187. See his moving correspondence with the Graber brothers, MEGA 1 i (2)
485 ff.
188.M. Hess, Briefwechsel, p. 103.
189.Cf. Karl Marx: Chronik seines Lebens (Frankfurt, 1971) p. 14.
190.Translated in F. Engels, Selected Writings, ed. W. Henderson (Harmondsworth, 1967).
191. Further on Engels, see the classic biography by G. Mayer, Friedrich Engels, Eine Biographie, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1934).
192.Cf. K. Marx, Dokumente seines Lebens, p. 167.
193.F. Engels, 'On the History of the Communist League', MESW 11 311 .
194.F. Engels, 'Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy', MESW 11 349.
195.For two discussions of this question, see A. Schmidt, The Concept Nature in Marx (London, 1971) ch. 1; A. Gamble and P. Walton, From Alienation to Surplus Value (London, 1972) ch. 3.
196.'Criticism' was the order of the day: one of the replies by a follower of Bauer was entided Critique of the Critique of Critical Criticism.
197.Engels to Marx, MEW XXVII 26.
198.K Marx and F. Engels, The Holy Family, pp. 51 ff.
199.Ibid., p. 52.
200.Ibid., p. 125.
201.Ibid., p. 160.
202.Ibid., p. 176.
203.Marx to Engels, MEW xxxi 290.
T H R E E
Brussels
When in the spring of 1845 we met again, this time in Brussels, Marx had already advanced to the main aspects of his materialist theory of history. Now we set about the task of elaborating the newly gained theory in the most different directions.
F. Engels, 'History of the Communist League', MEW XXII 2 1 2 .
I . T H E M A T E R I A L I S T C O N C E P T I O N O F H I S T O R Y
Brussels was to be Marx's home for the next three years. It was still in many ways a provincial city, capital of a very rapidly industrialising country independent only since 1830, with a Catholic-conservative government and a vocal liberal opposition. Belgium was something of a political haven for refugees as it enjoyed greater freedom of expression than any other country on the continent of Europe. Marx arrived with a list of instructions written in his notebook by Jenny: the children's room and his study were to be 'very simply furnished'; the kitchen did not need to be furnished at all and Jenny would get the utensils herself, as also the beds and linen. She finished: 'The rest I leave to the wise judgement of my noble protector; my only remaining request is to have particular regard for some cupboards; they play an important role in the life of a housewife and are extremely valuable objects, never to be overlooked. How should the books best be stored? And so amen!'1 At first it was impossible to find a satisfactory lodging. Jenny arrived about ten days after Marx and the family lived for a month in the Bois Sauvage guest house. Then they moved into Freiligrath's old lodging on his departure for Switzerland. Finally in May they rented a small terraced house in the rue de l'Alliance in a Flemish-speaking, countrified area at the eastern edge of the city, where they stayed for more than a year.
Jenny found herself pregnant on her arrival in Brussels and her mother now sent her her own maid, Helene Demuth, a practical young baker's daughter from a village near Trier, then aged twenty-five, who had grown up in the Westphalen family from the age of eleven or twelve and who
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was to be the constant, if often unmentioned, companion to the family until Marx's death.2 Marx at first found difficulty in obtaining a residence permit: the Belgian authorities were afraid that he would publish a resuscitated version of Vorwiirts and also the Prussian police were applying pressure. Marx had to show the authorities the contract he had signed for a book on Economics and Politics and declared that he was living off his wife's money while waiting for the royalties. Only after signing a promise to abstain from all political activity did he finally obtain permission to stay. In October 1845 Marx thought of emigrating to the United States and even applied to the mayor of Trier for a permit. When the Prussian police continued to demand his extradition Marx abandoned Prussian nationality in December 1845.
Nevertheless, the years in Brussels were probably the happiest ever enjoyed by the Marx family. There was a comfortable source of income from the sale of the furniture and linen in Paris and the 1500 francs advance that Marx received for his forthcoming book. In addition, on learning of his expulsion from Paris, Engels, together with Hess and Jung, had organised a subscription for him 'in order to spread your extra expenses among us all communistically'.' This appeal yielded almost 1000 francs, mainly from friends in the Rhineland, and Engels also put at Marx's disposal the royalties from his own book The Condition of the Working Classes in England. When Engels moved to Brussels he rented a house next to the Marx family and Hess and his wife Sibylle soon moved in next door to Engels. Sibylle acted as an 'auntie' to the Marx children. They had an agreeable circle of friends, including the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath and a socialist journalist Karl Heinzen, and Jenny remembered with pleasure their evenings in the gay cafes of the city.4 Joseph Weydemeyer, an artillery officer with socialist leanings, who was to become a lifelong friend of Marx, described one of their outings in early 1846: 'To crown our folly, Marx, Weitling, Marx's brother-in-law and myself spent the night playing cards. Weitling was the first to tire. Marx and I spent some hours on a sofa and the next day, in the company of his wife and brother-in-law, we vagabonded in the most agreeable manner imaginable. Early in the morning we went to a cafe, then we took the train to Villeworde, a nearby village, where we had lunch. We were madly gay, and came back on the last train.'5
The sorties were only reliefs from long periods of intense intellectual activity. On the day he left Paris Marx had signed a contract with Karl Leske, a progressive Darmstadt publisher, for a book to be entitled A Critique of Economics and Politics to be finished by the summer of 1845. The economic side would no doubt have been a reworking of the 'Paris Manuscripts'. Marx got as far as sketching out a table of contents for the