Marx and Engels's "German ideology" Manuscripts

Presentation and Analysis of the "Feuerbach chapter"

Terrell Carver, Daniel Blank

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781349503698
  9781137485434
• eBook ISBN:
  9781137485458
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Modern History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Since the 1920s, scholars have promoted a set of manuscripts, long abandoned by Marx and Engels, to canonical status in book form as The German Ideology, and in particular its 'first chapter,' known as 'I. Feuerbach.' Part one of this revolutionary study relates in detail the political history through which these manuscripts were editorially fabricated into editions and translations, so that they could represent an important exposition of Marx's 'theory of history.' Part two presents a wholly-original view of the so-called 'Feuerbach' manuscripts in a page-by-page English-language rendition of these discontinuous fragments. By including the hitherto devalued corrections that each author made in draft, the new text invites the reader into a unique laboratory for their collaborative work. An 'Analytical Introduction' shows how Marx's and Engels's thinking developed in duologue as they altered individual words and phrases on these 'left-over' polemical pages.

BRIEF APPARATUS CRITICUS

deletion = excised word or phrase

later insertion appears here

appears here

inserted word or phrase by Marx or Engels =

{insertion}/{end insertion} = insertions by Marx or Engels too long to go easily above the line

[square brackets] = insertions by the editors of Jahrbuch 2003

{braces} = insertions by present editors

roman typeface = Engels’s handwriting

bold typeface = Marx’s handwriting

underline = emphasis in the manuscript

pp = German abbreviation for “and so forth”

Punctuation and capitalization are in conformity with English usage, but I have taken the transcription of the German manuscript into account as much as possible.

according to {The Holy Fa}mily refutes

{the idea} over & over again that the holy

philosophers & theologians have “produced”

the “non-autonomy of the individual”, “by” –

serving up a few chewed over phrases about

absolute spirit. As if the “individual”, i.e. each

man, would become “non-autonomous” by

that means, would actually be “transformed

{aufgehoben} “into absolute spirit” by

that means, {as} if a few speculati{ve}

speculating word-merchants – because not

because of the “dependence non-autonomy of

the individual” but rather because of a

miserable condition of society {–}, could

start up their philosophical fancies all by

themselves, {could} prate this to the

“individual”, command him that he should

suddenly & without thinking about it “be

absorbed into absolute spirit”! Naturally of

course we will not take the trouble to enlighten

to our wise philosophers with the fact that the

“liberation” of “man” does not get a single

step further when they have dissolved

philosophy, theology, substance & all that

foolery into “self-consciousness”, when they

have liberated “man” from domination by

these phrases to which he had never been in

Philosophical hairsplitting{.}

Just like his rivals Feuerbach believes

{himself} to have transcended philosophy!

The act{ual} The struggle against general

conceptions, which have previously

oppressed the individual, summarises the

standpoint of German philosophical

criticism. We maintain that this struggle,

pursued in this manner, is itself founded on

philosophical illusions of the sovereignty of

general conceptions.

Feuerbach.

Philosophical and actual liberation.

Man. Individuality. The Individual.

Geological, hydrographical etc. conditions.

The human body. Needs and labour.

{The Holy F}amily refutes {the idea} over

& over again that the holy philosophers &

theologians have “produced” the “non-

autonomy of the individual”, “by” – serving

up a few chewed over phrases about absolute

spirit. As if the “individual”, i.e. each man,

would become “non-autonomous” by that

means, would actually be “transformed

{aufgehoben} into absolute spirit” by that

means, {as} if a few speculating word-

merchants – not because of the “non-

autonomy of the individual” but rather because

of a miserable condition of society {–},

could start up their philosophical fancies all by

themselves, {could} prate this to the

“individual”, command him that he should

suddenly & without thinking about it “be

absorbed into absolute spirit”! Naturally of

course we will not take the trouble to enlighten

our wise philosophers with the fact that the

“liberation” of “man” does not get a single

step further when they have dissolved

philosophy, theology, substance & all that

foolery into “self-consciousness”, when they

have liberated “man” from domination by

these phrases to which he had never been in

Philosophical hair-splitting{.}

Just like his ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Analytical Introduction
• Brief Apparatus Criticus
• Abbreviation and Bibliography
• Index