Marx and Engels: The Intellectual Relationship

by Terrell Carver

In this book I aim to take a factual look at the M arx-Engels intellectual relationship in order to answer a specific set of questions : Why was the first meeting between M arx and Engels unsuccess ful'? What then attracted Marx to E ngels in 1 844 when the partnership was founded'? What effect did Engels's work have on Marx'? What exactly was clarified in the jointly written German Ideology and for whom'? When did the 'dialectics' , made famous by Engels, first emerge ? What was the relationship between M arx and Engels in their mature years ? To what extent is the account of the relationship given by Engels after Marx's death an accurate one ? What bearing does the Marx-Engels intellectual relationship have on our reading of their respective works ? In answering these questions I have striven to avoid certain fallacies which are all too common in the literature on M arx, Engels and Marxism. The first is the 'mirror' fallacy : if the commentator does not understand a work by M arx or a passage in one of his works, Marx must have been confused, i.e. as confused as the commentator. Too many commentators opt much too quickly for an ascription of confusion in order, fallaciously, to 'solve' a problem in textual interpretation. In my view much more sense can be made of Marx's work than is commonly supposed . Curiously, commentators are much less reluctant to ascribe confusion to Engels, whose works, the reader will discover, suffer from very considerable ambiguities of which he was apparently unaware.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Terrell Carver the professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol. He deals particularly with Marxism.