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View allLandmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"
Engels
1878
A polemic against a forgotten rival that became the fullest statement of Marxist philosophy.
Landmarks of Scientific Socialism: "Anti-Duehring"
Friedrich Engels · 1878
Engels set out to demolish one man's system — Eugen Duehring's sweeping claims to have refounded philosophy, natural science, economics, and socialism all at once — and ended up writing the closest thing Marxism has to a systematic textbook. Part I works through philosophy and the dialectic (quantity into quality, the negation of the negation), Part II through political economy and value theory, Part III through socialism itself, refuting Duehring on each front before laying out the positive argument. Three chapters of Part III were later lifted almost unchanged into the standalone pamphlet Socialism, Utopian and Scientific — read this fuller book to see the argument with its full philosophical and economic scaffolding intact.
10 chapters · 76,030 words · ~5.8 hr read
Contents
Introductions and Prefaces
The translator's own framing essay, then Engels's three prefaces to the German editions, then his opening statement of the case against Duehring.
Part I — Philosophy
Duehring's a priori system taken apart, then Engels's own natural philosophy, ethics, and the chapter on dialectics — quantity into quality, the negation of the negation.
Part II — Political Economy
Duehring's "force theory" of exploitation refuted, then Engels's own account of value, labor, and surplus value.
Part III — Socialism
The positive argument: production, distribution, and the state, family, and education under socialism — later condensed into the pamphlet Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.
Appendix
The translator Austin Lewis's closing note on Engels's scientific care and modesty.