This Day in Philosophy — 5 August: the death of Friedrich Engels

5 August 1895 — Friedrich Engels died in London at the age of 74.

Why it matters#

Alongside his joint work with Karl Marx, Engels compiled and prepared for publication the second and third volumes of Capital from Marx's notes after his death. Without that labour, most of the text we know today would have remained unpublished draft.

A contested legacy#

The reading Engels developed in works such as Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring, extending dialectics to the laws of nature, was argued over throughout the twentieth century. Some commentators treated it as a systematised form of Marx's thought; others read it as a departure from the original. The argument continues today under the heading of "Marx's Marxism" versus "Engels's Marxism".

Other dates in August#

• 25 August 1776 — David Hume died in Edinburgh.
• 25 August 1900 — Friedrich Nietzsche died in Weimar.
• 27 August 1770 — G. W. F. Hegel was born in Stuttgart.