The "Theses on Feuerbach" are eleven short philosophical notes written by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

as a basic outline for the first chapter of the book ''

The German Ideology ''The German Ideology'' (German: ''Die deutsche Ideologie'', sometimes written as ''A Critique of the German Ideology'') is a set of manuscripts originally written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1846. Marx and Engels ...

'' in 1845. Like the book for which they were written, the theses were never published in Marx's lifetime, seeing print for the first time in 1888 as an appendix to a pamphlet by his co-thinker

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Marx's tomb.

Background

In February 1845 Karl Marx was deported from France at the behest of minister of foreign affairs

François Guizot François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848. A conservative liberal who opposed the ...

.Lev Churbanov, "Preface" to ''Karl Marx–Frederick Engels Collected Works: Volume 5: Marx and Engels, 1845–47.'' New York: International Publishers, 1976, p. xiii. Marx found sanctuary in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, where he was joined for a number of months by his political compatriot Frederick Engels beginning in April of that same year. It was in Brussels that Marx first began to shape the concept of

historical materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...

—the idea that underlying fundamental changes in political history was a corresponding economic struggle between ruling and oppressed classes which was at root of these structural transformations. Marx began work upon a book detailing his new philosophy of history, entitled ''

''.Churbanov, "Preface" to ''Marx-Engels Collected Works: Volume 5'', p. xiv. In connection with this project, Marx wrote a terse 11-point set of observations and

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mill ...

s regarding the ideas of

Ludwig Feuerbach Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book '' The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced gene ...

. Feuerbach was a fellow Young Hegelian who Marx regarded as the most modern exponent of

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...

, although Marx believed Feuerbach had not drawn fully satisfactory political conclusions from his philosophical insights. These "theses" were initially written as a raw outline for the first chapter of ''The German Ideology'', and most of these were developed at greater length in that work.

Content

Marx sharply criticized the contemplative

of the Young Hegelians, viewing "the essence of man" in isolation and

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abst ...

, instead arguing that the nature of man could only be understood in the context of his economic and social relations. Marx argued that understanding the origins of religious belief were not enough in moving towards its elimination; instead declaring that it was the underlying social and economic structure which gave rise to religious belief and that it was a transformation of this which was a necessary precondition to the elimination of religion.Churbanov, "Preface" to ''Marx-Engels Collected Works: Volume 5'', p. xv. The "Theses" identify political action as the only truth of philosophy, famously concluding: "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it." While the text wishes to retain the ''critical'' stance of German critical idealism, it transposes that criticism into

practical Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action (philosophy), action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, ...

, material, political terms.

Publication history

Despite their best efforts to find a publisher, ''The German Ideology'' was not published during the lifetime of either Marx or Engels. The polemical work was finally published in full only in 1932 by the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party in Moscow. Nor did Marx publish the "Theses on Feuerbach" during his lifetime. This material was instead later edited by

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy.'' Marx's original unedited text was published only in 1924 in German and Russian translation as part of ''Marx–Engels Archives, Book I'', by the Marx–Engels Institute in Moscow.

Uses of the text

The Eleventh Thesis on Feuerbach — "Philosophers have hitherto only ''interpreted'' the world in various ways; the point is to ''change'' it" — was used by

Sergey Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...

in his ''Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution'', Op. 74. The Eleventh Thesis is engraved in the entryway of

Humboldt University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiati ...

Unter den Linden Unter den Linden (, "under the linden trees") is a boulevard in the central Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. Running from the City Palace to Brandenburg Gate, it is named after the linden (lime in England and Ireland, not rela ...

in Berlin. The

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

ordered this in 1953 as part of reconstruction following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Lena Rohrbach and Thomas Schmidt
''„Vorsicht Stufe!“ – Vorsicht Marx?''
Humboldt University, 2009. The Eleventh Thesis is also Marx's

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

, engraved on his tombstone in

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

in London, along with the final line of the ''

Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...

'', " Workers of All Lands, Unite".

Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer-editor, who, after early years as a Workers Party of America, Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet Union, Soviet spy (1932–1938), defe ...

(fluent in German and translator of the 1928 English-language version of ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...

'') published his own translation in his 1952 memoir ''Witness'': "Philosophers have explained the world; it is necessary to change the world."

Footnotes

External links