.jpg?width=500 "Kant")
This Day in Philosophy — 5 August: the death of Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels died in London on 5 August 1895. Marx's close collaborator was decisive in the spread of historical materialism.
Newsroom
The Philosophers News editorial board.
.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1600&w=3840&q=75)
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 Without that labour, most of the text we know today would have remained unpublished draft.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.
Related Stories
.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1600&w=3840&q=75)
Clarke, Kelsen, Tschirnhaus, Zwingli and a letter on Roosevelt's desk: 11 October
Samuel Clarke, Newton's advocate against Leibniz, was born on 11 October 1675; Hans Kelsen, author of the Pure Theory of Law, on 11 October 1881. Tschirnhaus died on the date in 1708, Zwingli in battle in 1531, and in 1939 Alexander Sachs carried Einstein's letter into the Oval Office. The thread is where reason's reach ends and responsibility begins.
Charles Taylor, Scott J. Shapiro, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Robert Alexy
Comments
0Loading comments…