CHAPTER VI 
THE ENVIRONMENTAL SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGISTS 
Kart Marx (1818-1883) 
Economic Determinism 
Kart Marx, the founder of scientific socialism, finds place in our 
discussion, not so much because of his contribution to the develop- 
ment of the doctrine of adaptation as a theory of social progress as 
because of his emphasis on certain features and factors of progress 
which properly interpreted are fundamental and have been given 
saner interpretation since. 
Marx started as a disciple of Hegel and never entirely freed 
himself from Hegelian a@ priorism and dialectic. He became a 
Hegelian of the Left, however, which at the time was dominated 
by Feuerbach whose materialistic philosophy is well summed up 
in the aphoristic and much-quoted expression “ der Mensch ist 
was er isst.”” Like Comte, his French contemporary, Feuerbach 
united a scientific view of life with a passion for humanity. The 
result among the young Hegelians was Humanism linked with 
Communism. This provided a fertile soil for the production of 
scientific socialism with its philosophy of ‘‘ economic determin- 
ism.” 1 
The transformed Hegelianism of Marx led him to find the cause 
of all historical movements in material conditions.? His interest 
in the proletariat class with their bad conditions of life and labor,’ 
led him to a study of the industrial revolution and its connection 
with feudalism. Out of this study came his teaching that class 
struggle is the very essence of history and that methods of pro- 
duction and exchange are the fundamental causes of these strug- 
gles and of the social institutions and ideals growing out of them. 
1 John Rae, Contemporary Socialism, pp. 129 f.; Kirkup, History of Socialism, 
ch. VII. 
2 Manifesto of the Communist Party (1898). 
’ Capital, pp. 392 f., 502 f. 
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