Philosophy and Religion, Part 4b
Lenin’s
Encyclopaedia entry on Marx
The attached item today is
Lenin’s “Biographical Sketch and Exposition” of Karl Marx, written and first published
as an encyclopaedia entry. It has all the hallmarks of Lenin’s precision of
style, being concise and concrete, but it also has traces of the worst side of
Lenin’s didacticism, almost to the point of dogma. “Marxism is the system of Marx’s views and teachings,” writes
Lenin, cheerfully beginning a section headed “The Marxist Doctrine”. The next
section is called “Marx’s Economic Doctrine”.
But Marx did not write
economics, and he didn’t write “doctrine” of any kind.
We will be dealing with such
un-Marx-like formulations as “Marx’s Economic Doctrine” in later parts of this
course.
Lenin was the greatest
practical revolutionist in history, to date, but he was not the greatest
philosopher. Karl Marx was the greatest philosopher, to date, and Marx stood on
the shoulders of Hegel.
Lenin was one of hundreds of
millions of followers of Marx. All of them have struggled to understand Marx.
Lenin wrote, also in 1914:
“It is
impossible completely to understand Marx's Capital, and especially its first
chapter, without having thoroughly studied and understood the whole of Hegel's
Logic. Consequently, half a century later none of the Marxists understood
Marx!!”
Lenin’s long book on
philosophy is called “Materialism and
Empirio-Criticism” (1909).
The main downloadable
document is an outstanding summary of Karl Marx’s life and work. A large
portion of it is about philosophy. Do not be put off by any reservations that
may have been expressed above. This text is a “must read”, in any case, as well
as being a significant part of this course.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: Karl Marx, Biographical Sketch and Exposition,
1914, Lenin, Part 1 and Part 2.
