MARX AND ENGELS

1. In the “The Communist Manifesto” Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx establish the foundation of the Marxist movement. First published in 1848 at dawn of revolutions across Europe, it accounts on their world-view and peculiarly on the nature of human societies. The concepts of class and community is prominent as the opening sentence of the Manifesto demonstrates: “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” underlining the dehumanization of men by humanization of nature (Marx and Engels, 1992:3). This piece of political propaganda defends that class struggle and materialist circumstances are what enables social change. However, one should ask himself: To what extent does Marx and Engel’s “The Communist Manifesto” conceive free will as the driving force of social change? First, I will lead an analysis on Marx’s materialist conception of history to contextualize his thoughts whilst giving a quick summary of Hegel’s nuancing views on society. After studying the concepts of “free-will” and “determinism”, we will see that the Manifesto, which seems to reject all conception of free will in the causation of social change, can appear to embrace it as the driving force of class consciousness alongside material circumstances. Finally, I will enable a debate on alienation per Marx and Engel and expose how the rejection of free will alienates us from our human nature.

First, I will study Marx’s views on history as his conception was revolutionary at the time. To fully understand his standpoint on history, we need to know from whom he was inspired. Hegel has undoubtedly had the most prominent influence on Marx’s philosophy. He drew on his predecessor’s philosophy whilst altering his dialectical conception of history by applying his concepts to the “real” history of man and criticizes Hegel’s mystification of the relationship between society and man. (reading que jai fait) Thus, he reduces society to its means of production. For instance, a given production mode enables a certain judicial and political system. This system won’t change until the material conditions and circumstances in which it evolves do change. Once the material conditions that govern the economic establishment of the society change, social change is possible. Hence, in his materialist approach of the world, Marx considers human beings as products of their material circumstances.

Communities and society can only change when the material circumstances ^[a]change. Marx’s theory lies upon the fact that the world does not depend on the intellectual conception we have of it. Instead, it depends on the material tools, structures and technologies we have created to subsidy to our primary needs and safety. For instance, he explains, “The hand-mill gives you a society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist.” (reference). Society is defined by the means of production for our own consumption. For the author, political, judicial, social infrastructures and political ideas are merely superstructures and do not participate in history: “the people alone is what is concrete.” (reference) 

Marx’s conception of history is that it ^[b]is determined by concrete and external circumstances. ^[c]He wrote “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.” (1852, 16). This seemingly implies that free will is excluded from Marx and Engel stand point as our history is governed by the material circumstances alone. Furthermore, it cuts out all concepts of hazard and implies that our future relies entirely on the circumstances of our past which constitutes a prominent determinism. But to what extent does this imply that social determinism is the sole underlying principle of Marxism?

1. Determinism is the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will (which dictionary etc). Hence, if Marx’s theory lies upon this belief, doesn’t it compromise his concept of revolution? It is the common belief that revolutions are driven by free will, partly at least. On the contrary, free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate.

I will now lead my study onto the importance of the presence free will implemented in The Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto appears to put forward determinism in the frame of historical materialism as the basis of society and social change. However, this vision clashes a priori with Marx’s own definition of freedom: “freedom is the right and capacity of people to determine their own actions.” (reference) In parallel, one can argue that people’s ability to determine their action lies within their will to do so. ^[d]

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