marx karl (theses on feuerbach)
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Karl Marx 1845
Theses On Feuerbach
Written: by Marx in Brussels in the spring of 1845, under the title 1) adFeuerbach;Marxs original text was first published in 1924, in German and in Russian translation,
by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism inMarx-Engels Archives, Book I, Moscow. The
English translation was first published in the Lawrence and Wishart edition of The
German Ideologyin 1938. The most widely known version of the Theses is that based
on Engels edited version, published as an appendix to hisLudwig Feuerbachin 1888,
where he gave it the title Theses on Feuerbach;
Translated: by Cyril Smith 2002, based on work done jointly with Don Cuckson.
1
The main defect of all hitherto-existing materialism that of Feuerbach included is
that the Object [der Gegenstand], actuality, sensuousness, are conceived only in the form of
the object [Objekts], or of contemplation [Anschauung], but not as human sensuous activity,
practice [Praxis], not subjectively. Hence it happened that the active side, in opposition to
materialism, was developed by idealism but only abstractly, since, of course, idealismdoes not know real, sensuous activity as such. Feuerbach wants sensuous objects [Objekte],
differentiated from thought-objects, but he does not conceive human activity itself as
objective [gegenstndliche] activity. In The Essence of Christianity [Das Wesen des
Christenthums], he therefore regards the theoretical attitude as the only genuinely human
attitude, while practice is conceived and defined only in its dirty-Jewish form of appearance
[Erscheinungsform][1]. Hence he does not grasp the significance of revolutionary, of
practical-critical, activity.
2
The question whether objective truth can be attributed to human thinking is not a question
of theory but is a practicalquestion. Man must prove the truth, i.e., the reality and power, the
this-sidedness [Diesseitigkeit]of his thinking, in practice. The dispute over the reality or non-
reality of thinking which is isolated from practice is a purely scholastic question.
3
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm#jewishhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm#jewish -
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Feuerbach consequently does not see that the religious sentiment is itself a social
product, and that the abstract individual that he analyses belongs in reality to a particular
social form.
8
All social life is essentially practical. All mysteries which lead theory to mysticism find
their rational solution in human practice and in the comprehension of this practice.
9
The highest point reached by contemplative [anschauende] materialism, that is,
materialism which does not comprehend sensuousness as practical activity, is the
contemplation of single individuals and of civil society [brgerlichen Gesellschaft].
10
The standpoint of the old materialism is civil society; the standpoint of the new is human
society or social humanity.
11
Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to
change it.
1.Dirty-Jewish according to Marhsall Berman, this is an allusion to the Jewish God
of the Old Testament, who had to get his hands dirty making the world, tied up with a
symbolic contrast between the Christian God of the Word, and the God of the Deed,
symbolising practical life. See The Significance of the Creation in Judaism, Essence ofChristianity 1841
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Deutsch| 1938 Translation| Engels edition
Engels on Feuerbach| Image of Thesis 11| Works Index
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/date/index.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/cw/volume05/thesis11.gifhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/feuerbach.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/original.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/marx-engels/1845/thesen/thesfeue-or.htm