Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Term Paper

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Wheen (1999), in his biography of Marx's life, argued that Engels had greater knowledge and understanding of capitalism and its dynamics than Marx, thereby making the very concept of alienation as an idea that originated from and was put forth by Engels, and was only expounded upon theoretically by Marx (75):

Though he had already decided that abstract idealism was so much hot air, and that the engine of history was driven by economic and social forces, Marx's practical knowledge of capitalism was nil. He had been so engaged by his dialectical tussle with German philosophers that the condition of England -- the first industrialised country, the birthplace of the proletariat -- had escaped his notice. Engels, from his vantage point in the cotton mills of Lancashire, was well placed to enlighten him.

In the preceding passage, Wheen brought into light how, despite Marx's authority on the issues of oppression and alienation, the ideology of socialism emerged out of Engels's discourses. This discovery was not at all surprising, considering that "Communist Manifesto" was actually based on a draft on political economy created and authored by Engels. From Wheen's point-of-view, Engels's exposure to the realities of capitalism during the 19th century helped him become the authority on Socialist ideas.

Carver (1984) echoed Wheen's assumption in his analysis of the political discourses of Marx and Engels. While Wheen asserted that the important concepts of oppression and alienation originated from Engels, Carver went so far as to argue that the deterministic approach adopted by Marx and Engels in developing "Communist Manifesto" was influenced by latter, rather than the former. It was Engels's experiences engaging in a capitalist society, developing Socialist ideas, and knowledge of economy that allowed him to have a firmer concept of Socialism as an ideology.

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Once Engels's ideas took shape, Marx developed it further to create a political theory, which gave him greater credit than Engels (157).

Evidence of Engels's knowledge of political economy, specifically of socialism and capitalism, was reflected in his discourse "The condition of the working class in England," created in 1842. In it, the political theorist first extended his idea of oppression and alienation, stating that,

The Factory Report says on this subject, that employers must be made responsible for all cases, since children cannot take care, and adults will take care in their own interest. But the gentlemen who write the report are bourgeois, and so they must contradict themselves and bring up later all sorts of nonsense on the subject of the culpable temerity of the operatives.... from whatever point-of-view, the blame falls ultimately on the manufacturer, and of him should be required, at the very least, lifelong support of the incapacitated operative, and support of the victim's family in case death follows the accident... As the foregoing cases prove, to raise grave questions as to a state of things which permits so many deformities and mutilations for the benefit of a single class, and plunges so many industrious working people into want and starvation by reason of injuries undergone in the service and through the fault of the bourgeoisie.

From his criticisms of the poor working conditions that workers were forced to live in, Engels had already set the ground for the development of the socialist political theory that he and Marx proposed in "Communist Manifesto.".....

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