The Poverty of Philosophy Classic Reprint Karl Marx 9781332578979 Books
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Excerpt from The Poverty of Philosophy
For Germany the present work has just at this moment a significance which Marx himself never foresaw. How could he have known that, in trouncing Proudhon, he was hitting Rod bertus, the idol of the place hunters of today, whose very name was then unknown to him?
This is not the place to deal with the relation of Marx to Rod bertus; an Opportunity for that is sure to occur to me very soon.
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The Poverty of Philosophy Classic Reprint Karl Marx 9781332578979 Books
The title of Marx's text is a deliberate jab at Proudhon's earlier text, The Philosophy of Poverty. I had read the corpus of Proudhon's works that had been translated into English some 5 or 6 years ago, being impressed with the first book of his that I read, What Is Property? It seems that Marx, too, shared my admiration for What Is Property? as he revealed in one of his letters included in the appendices to the edition of the text I read (International Publishers). However, he informed one of his correspondents that Proudhon's Philosophy of Poverty was not merely bad, but very bad.Marx sets forth a strong and stringent critique of Proudhon's work. Interestingly, however, while Marx does frequently denounce and mock Proudhon, he does so without the bitterly vituperative tone he used against Bruno Bauer in The Holy Family. It is often difficult to follow a writer critiquing another writer's work when the reader is not familiar with the work being critiqued. Even though I already had read The Philosophy of Poverty, I believe Marx includes sufficient excerpts in his text so that one who has *not* read Proudhon's text would be able to follow Marx.
Although a critique of Proudhon's text provides the superstructure for Marx's text, he goes much further in his comments, thus making it an important book for the Marx scholar. Here, for the first time, Marx raises the issue of class conflict. He elaborates extensively on the idea of a materialist approach to history only simply sketched out in The German Ideology. This indeed forms the essence of Marx's complaint against Proudhon: Proudhon (ineptly in Marx's opinion) established a quasi-dialectical scheme vaguely based on Hegel's philosophy. Marx's thinking had moved well beyond Hegel at this point, and he was able to articulate his theory concerning the central role of the means of production in determining social relations and all other elements of society. That Proudhon lacked this vision was, in Marx's opinion, his chief failing.
A few interesting instances of note: In commenting on slavery on the Southern US, Marx stated that the maintenance of slavery was an economic necessity at that point. To an extent this was true because the main US exports were cotton and tobacco, both produced in the southern states utilizing slave labor, while the northern and western US economy depended on feeding the southern states, leaving nothing to export. I laughed out loud when Marx described Proudhon in one of the letters in the appendices as bombastic, of adopting a "self-advertising, self-glorifying, boastful tone" when that is an apt description of Marx himself. Most fascinatingly, Marx and Proudhon apparently were friends at one point; Marx wrote of one boisterous drinking and talking session he shared with Proudhon. Publication of The Poverty of Philosophy seems to have terminated the friendship. I wonder why ...
Finally, towards the end of this text we begin to see language that is prophetic of what was to appear in The Communist Manifesto which would be Marx's next major work to be written with Frederick Engels. In The Holy Family, The German Ideology, and The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx wrote extended critiques of other authors' works; he wrote secondary works. The text marks the conclusion of Marx's early period before the publication of The Communist Manifesto and future original works on the road to Das Kapital. This is not one of Marx's major text's notwithstanding his introduction of class conflict and elaboration of materialist theory of history. Recommended more for those like me who seek out to read *all* of an author's works.
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The Poverty of Philosophy Classic Reprint Karl Marx 9781332578979 Books Reviews
Pretty disappointing I can't buy any books on kindle anymore sure the book is great just a revie of kindle
There are many proof reading errors in this version
Comparing Proudhon's work of the opposing title to Marx, and clearly Marx is the clearer writer. If one gets into Marx's differences with Karl Casper Schmidt's (Max Sterner), in the same way, one can really get to the essential contradictions that permeate the ideas of our modern society. Dove-tailing with Engle's Anti-Duhring. It's all good reading.
This is the first book by Marx that I cannot rank highly. Marx has a notorious reputation for belittling anarchists, and wasting too much time on responding to less worthy opponents, instead of developing his own theories. There are even rumors and notions that had Marx solely done his own work, and stopped wasting time in rhetorical matches to the philosophic death, he may have finished all his intended volumes of Capital. We'll never know, but this is certainly one of those books that gave Marx this nasty reputation.
The first half of the book is like watching Einstein mock grade schoolers for their poor math performance. Yes, Marx is that much superior to Proudhon, but instead of merely proving him wrong, and revealing the error of his ways, perhaps even offering a helping hand and guidance, Marx proceeds to bury him six feet under, and place a dunce cap on his philosophical grave stone. In a letter to a friend Marx even remarks that this reply/book, ruined their friendship forever. Some friendship...
Economically, there's little here that is not stated clearer, and with more depth in Capital, EP Manuscripts, and Wage Labor and Capital. Moreover, the chapters dealing with metaphysics and philosophy are very cursory glances into Marx's clearer theory of historical materialism, as found in The German Ideology.
However the book warrants three stars for two reasons. First it dispels the myth that Marx saw history as a teleological process whereby communism was inevitable and the light at the end of the tunnel. Two, he mirrors a critique anarcho-primitivist have been moving towards (I'm thinking of Derrick Jensen, DGR, and John Zerzan).
Proudhon develops his own dialectic whereby everything in history has a good side and a bad side. Marx quips about the good side to slavery, in typical sarcasm. Proudhon also believes that the tensions between the good and the bad are inevitably leading to equality. All history for Hegel is the realization of the absolute, and for Proudhon, it's the realization of equality. Marx spends ample time refuting this view. Thus, Marx does not see history as a trajectory towards equality as he has been accused of doing.
The second praise worth point is summed up in a quote, where Marx sees civilization as the falling point of humanity, and not its rise into progress "The very moment civilization begins, production begins to be founded on the antagonism of orders, estates, classes, and finally on the antagonism of accumulated labor and actual labor. No antagonism, no progress. This is the law that civilization has followed up to our days. Till now the productive forces have been developed by virtue of this system of class antagonisms."
Overall, read Marx's other works, this isn't a very good one. Unless you're like me, and just want to read everything he wrote, including the lousy stuff...
The title's a poke at Proudhon's "The Philosophy of Poverty". Marx uses his retort to Proudhon's analysis of commodity exchange to provide an in-depth, but accessible, understanding of how commodity production works, including demystifying how the market decides what products are more valuable than others, despite their lack of real utility. I wouldn't recommend this before reading his "Value, Price and Profit" or "Wage-Labor and Capital", but may be a good work to read before tackling Das Kapital
The title of Marx's text is a deliberate jab at Proudhon's earlier text, The Philosophy of Poverty. I had read the corpus of Proudhon's works that had been translated into English some 5 or 6 years ago, being impressed with the first book of his that I read, What Is Property? It seems that Marx, too, shared my admiration for What Is Property? as he revealed in one of his letters included in the appendices to the edition of the text I read (International Publishers). However, he informed one of his correspondents that Proudhon's Philosophy of Poverty was not merely bad, but very bad.
Marx sets forth a strong and stringent critique of Proudhon's work. Interestingly, however, while Marx does frequently denounce and mock Proudhon, he does so without the bitterly vituperative tone he used against Bruno Bauer in The Holy Family. It is often difficult to follow a writer critiquing another writer's work when the reader is not familiar with the work being critiqued. Even though I already had read The Philosophy of Poverty, I believe Marx includes sufficient excerpts in his text so that one who has *not* read Proudhon's text would be able to follow Marx.
Although a critique of Proudhon's text provides the superstructure for Marx's text, he goes much further in his comments, thus making it an important book for the Marx scholar. Here, for the first time, Marx raises the issue of class conflict. He elaborates extensively on the idea of a materialist approach to history only simply sketched out in The German Ideology. This indeed forms the essence of Marx's complaint against Proudhon Proudhon (ineptly in Marx's opinion) established a quasi-dialectical scheme vaguely based on Hegel's philosophy. Marx's thinking had moved well beyond Hegel at this point, and he was able to articulate his theory concerning the central role of the means of production in determining social relations and all other elements of society. That Proudhon lacked this vision was, in Marx's opinion, his chief failing.
A few interesting instances of note In commenting on slavery on the Southern US, Marx stated that the maintenance of slavery was an economic necessity at that point. To an extent this was true because the main US exports were cotton and tobacco, both produced in the southern states utilizing slave labor, while the northern and western US economy depended on feeding the southern states, leaving nothing to export. I laughed out loud when Marx described Proudhon in one of the letters in the appendices as bombastic, of adopting a "self-advertising, self-glorifying, boastful tone" when that is an apt description of Marx himself. Most fascinatingly, Marx and Proudhon apparently were friends at one point; Marx wrote of one boisterous drinking and talking session he shared with Proudhon. Publication of The Poverty of Philosophy seems to have terminated the friendship. I wonder why ...
Finally, towards the end of this text we begin to see language that is prophetic of what was to appear in The Communist Manifesto which would be Marx's next major work to be written with Frederick Engels. In The Holy Family, The German Ideology, and The Poverty of Philosophy, Marx wrote extended critiques of other authors' works; he wrote secondary works. The text marks the conclusion of Marx's early period before the publication of The Communist Manifesto and future original works on the road to Das Kapital. This is not one of Marx's major text's notwithstanding his introduction of class conflict and elaboration of materialist theory of history. Recommended more for those like me who seek out to read *all* of an author's works.
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