30. K. Marx. Note on The Poverty of Philosophy
The Poverty of Philosophy by Karl Marx appeared in 1847(1)
shortly after the Economic Contradictions by Proudhon,(2) which bore the sub-title Philosophy of Poverty. What prompted us to reprint this book, the first edition of which is out of print, was the fact that it contains the seeds of the theory developed after twenty years' work in Capital Reading the Poverty of Philosophy and the Manifesto of the Communist Party, published by Marx and Engels in 1848, might thus serve as an introduction to the study of Capital and the works of other modern socialists who, like Lassalle, have derived their ideas from them. By authorising this republication in our journal, Marx wished to give us a token of his sympathy.
We must say a few more words about the drastic tone of this polemic against Proudhon. On the one hand, Proudhon, while attacking the official economists such as Dunoyer, Blanqui the Academician and the whole clique around the Journal des Économistes,(3) knew how to appeal to their vanity at the same time as he heaped coarse insults on the Utopian socialists and communists whom Marx honoured as the forebears(4) of modern socialism. On the other hand, to prepare the way for the critical and materialist socialism which alone can render the real, historical development of social production intelligible, it was necessary to break abruptly with the ideological economics of which Proudhon was unwittingly the last incarnation.
Besides, in an article published in the Berlin Social-Demokrat(5) on the death of Proudhon, Marx did justice to this fighter's great qualities, to his manly attitude after the days of June 1848,[37] and to his talent as a political writer.
Endnotes
[37] Engels' third article in the Refugee Literature series was written in late July-September 1874 in connection with the publication, in a journal entitled Vperyod! (Forward!), of Pyotr Lavrov's article «AfcTonncb paôonaro ABHJKCHDI» (A Chronicle of the Labour Movement), and his polemic with the Russian revolutionary Pyotr Tkachov. Engels considers the following pamphlets: n . H. TKa*ieB"b, 3adauu peeoJiwiiioHuoü nponazandu eu Pocciu. TIucbMo K& pedaxmopy xypnaJia «Bnepedb!» (The Tasks of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia. A Letter to the Editor of the Forward! Magazine), and [II. A. AaBpoB,] PyccKoü cou.iojn>HO-pe80JiwiiioHHOü MonodeDicu. TIo noeody ôpowwpvi: «3adauu pe80JiH}uioHH(w nponazaudbi eh Pocciu» (To the Russian Social-Revolutionary Youth. Apropos of the Pamphlet: The Tasks of Revolutionary Propaganda in Russia). Engels' article was printed in Der Volksstaat, Nos. 117 and 118, October 6 and 8, 1874. Italicisation in the quotations is by Engels. He does not always observe the authors' italics. This article is published in English for the first time.