536 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



72. 

 Karl Marx. 



Herder and Comte) to denote a special form of mechanical 

 development, so this new movement, on its part, pro- 

 fessed to deal with the social problem par excellence and 

 termed itself Socialism. Karl Marx (1818-1883, of 

 Jewish descent) may be considered as the leader and 

 centre of this movement. It initiated and led what 

 we may term the Industrial Revolution in recent times. 

 It has attained international importance ; all the three 

 countries in which we are mainly interested, together 

 with most of the other European countries, have con- 

 tributed to it. 



For a long time the theories of Karl Marx received 

 little attention from the academic leaders of philosophi- 

 cal thought in Germany. He was known only as an 

 agitator, a demagogue and a revolutionary. Not till the 

 ideas which he put forward had found their way into 

 wide circles, including not only the middle but also the 

 working classes, did the academic and learned class 1 



1 The origin and growth of Social- 

 ism in Germany and the neglect 

 with which it was treated by 

 teachers of law as well as of 

 economics at the Universities, is 

 lucidly explained by Prof. Schmoller 

 in an Essay on Fichte's social tract 

 ' Der Geschlossene Handelsstaat,' to 

 be more fully referred to hereafter 

 (see infra, p. 547). Prof. Schmoller 

 points to the abstract and rigid 

 treatment of the two sciences, of 

 the science of jurisprudence on the 

 one side and of that of economics 

 on the other, which, whilst at- 

 t^mpting to construct logical sys- 

 tems, had lost touch with actual 

 existing social conditions. The 

 latter had in recent times changed 

 and progressed enormously under 

 the doctrines of the Revolution 

 (France) on the one side and those 



of industrialism (England) on the 

 other. "Towards these [move- 

 ments] political economy and juris- 

 prudence remained, so far as their 

 foremost representatives were con- 

 cerned, silent, unappreciative, and 

 negative. This produced among 

 philanthropists, in the face of the 

 widespread misery of the masses, 

 and latterly also among thinkers 

 who recognised the deeper condi- 

 tions of the modern age, a literary 

 and political movement which, in 

 opposition to the traditional, legal, 

 and economic notions of the schools, 

 aimed at a new social doctrine . . . 

 this new doctrine is what we call 

 Socialism, which in the beginning 

 launched out into erroneous excres- 

 cences in the same degree as it 

 was removed from the existing 

 sciences or ignored and despised 



