The Turning Point of Marx’s View on Communism

Han, Lixin

doi:10.1007/978-981-32-9618-3_12

Lixin Han²

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Abstract

The main theme of the Third Manuscript is communism, and its exposition is the most difficult part of the Paris Manuscripts for the following reasons. For one thing, since the Third Manuscript is a supplement to the Second Manuscript, Marx’s elaboration of communism therein is rather scattered and entails multiple perspectives and leads, which makes it difficult to sift for a particular line of reasoning. For another, Marx had only just converted to communism and he had yet to land on a mature notion of communism and socialism. This makes his position and articulation seem rather vague and contradictory in places, which has the knock-on effect of complicating our interpretation.

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Notes

1.
The concepts of socialism and communism were first introduced to Germany by Lorenz von Stein in his Der Sozialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreich (1842). By 1845, however, Hess and Engels are the only two German who differentiate these two concepts. In Grundsätze des Kommunismus (1847), Engels answers the question “In what way do Communists differ from socialists?” (Engels, Principles of Communism, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 6: Marx and Engels: 1845–1847, Progress Publishers, 1976, pp. 341–357). In the preface to the English edition of Manifest der kommunistischen Partei (1888), he notes: “Socialism was, in 1847, a middle-class movement, Communism a working class movement” (Engels, Preface to the 1888 English Edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 26: Engels: 1882–1889, Progress Publishers, 1990, p. 516). Yet early Marx was not consistent in his usage. In The State and Revolution, Lenin defines socialism as “the first phase of communism”, which becomes the hitherto mainstream standpoint. In fact, however, this differentiation cannot find textual support in Marx’s early writings; if there is ever a differentiation, then it is that Marx deemed socialism to be more developed than communism.
2.
Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx. A Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism. Bibliography, in: Lenin: Collected Works, vol. 21: August 1914–December 1915, Progress Publishers, 1964, p. 80.
3.
Ibid., p. 50.
4.
Vladimir Lenin, Frederick Engels, in: Lenin: Collected Works, vol. 2: 1895–1897, Progress Publishers, 1972, p. 23.
5.
History of the Marxist Philosophy, ed. by Nansen Huang et al., Beijing Publishing House, 1996.
6.
MEGA^② I-1, Apparat, S. 1032.
7.
Marx, Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 1: Marx: 1835–1843, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 220.
8.
Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Part One. Preface, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 29: Marx: 1857–1861, Progress Publishers, 1987, p. 262.
9.
Marx, Letters from Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. M. to R., in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 142f.
10.
Marx, Critical Marginal Notes on the Article “The King of Prussia and Social Reform. By a Prussian”, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 201.
11.
Ibid., p. 202.
12.
Marx, To Ludwig Feuerbach. August 11, 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 354.
13.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 232.
14.
Selected Works of Marx and Engels, vol. 1, 2009, p. 780 (translated into English by K.H.).
15.
Wataru Hiromatsu, The Fundamental Idea of Socialism. I. 5. Early Marx and Engels’s Adoption of Stein, in: Selected Works of Wataru Hiromatsu, vol. 2, Jyoukyou Shiubann, 1995.
16.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 294.
17.
Ibid., p. 292.
18.
Ibid., p. 290.
19.
Ibid., p. 293.
20.
Ibid., p. 291.
21.
Ibid., p. 294.
22.
Pierre-J. Proudhon, What is Property?, trans. by B. R. Tucker, Dover Publications, 1970.
23.
Wataru Hiromatsu, The Fundamental Idea of Socialism, in: Selected Works of Wataru Hiromatsu, vol. 2, Jyoukyou Shiubann, 1995, p. 86.
24.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 293.
25.
Ibid.
26.
Ibid., p. 297.
27.
Marx, The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical Criticism. Against Bruno Bauer and Company, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 4: Marx and Engels: 1844–1845, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 131.
28.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 294.
29.
Ibid., p. 295.
30.
Ibid.
31.
Ibid., p. 296.
32.
Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 6: Marx and Engels: 1845–1847, Progress Publishers, 1976, p. 502.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 296.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Ibid., p. 296f.
37.
Cf. Engels, Progress of Social Reform on the Continent, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 392.
38.
Ibid., p. 392f.
39.
Marx, Critical Marginal Notes on the Article “The King of Prussia and Social Reform. By a Prussian”, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 202.
40.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 312f.
41.
Engels, Progress of Social Reform on the Continent, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 407.
42.
The author shall henceforth use quotation marks to distinguish this specific concept of society.
43.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 297.
44.
Ibid.
45.
Marx, Comments on James Mill, Élémens d’économie politique, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 218.
46.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 342.
47.
Ibid., p. 298.
48.
Ibid., p. 297.
49.
Concerning the similarity between Hegel’s concept of spirit and Marx’s concept of society, see Ying Xia, On the Construction of Concept of Sprit: From the Perspective of Young Marx, in: Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), no. 4, 2013.
50.
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. by A. V. Miller, Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 110.
51.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 300.
52.
Ibid., p. 302.
53.
Ibid., p. 299.
54.
Ibid.
55.
Ibid., p. 298.
56.
Ibid., p. 301.
57.
Ibid., p. 299.
58.
Ibid., p. 301.
59.
Ibid., p. 302.
60.
Ibid., p. 300. The term “Haben” here refers to the state in which man is only bent on material benefits, only concerns whether in possession of material wealth. As such, it can also occasionally be rendered as “possessiveness” (占有欲). In the Paris Manuscripts, Marx also avails himself of several other terms similar to “Haben”, e.g. “Eigentum” (property), “Besitz” (possession), “Aneignung” (appropriation). The distinction between Besitz and Aneignung has been dealt with in the previous chapter; here, the author only wants to add an explanation of the concept of property: According to Marx’s account in the subsection [Forms preceding Capitalist Production], property designates: (1) “the relation [Verhalten]” to the “natural conditions of production”; (2) the mutual relation [Verhalten] evolved in production; (3) the consciousness that distinguishes himself from another (Marx, Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft of 1857–58) [First Instalment], in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 28: Economic Works: 1857–1861, Progress Publishers, 1986, pp. 415–420). In short, the meaning of property is that man possesses external object through labor, and ensures his ownership of this object in his relation to one another as well as in his consciousness.
61.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 300.
62.
Ibid., p. 307.
63.
Ibid., p. 309.
64.
Ibid., p. 308.
65.
Ibid., p. 307.
66.
Ibid.
67.
Ibid., p. 300.
68.
Ibid.
69.
Ibid., p. 304.
70.
Ibid., p. 302.
71.
Marx, On the Jewish Question, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 164.
72.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 313.
73.
Marx, The German Ideology, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 5: Marx and Engels: 1845–1847, Progress Publishers, 1976, p. 49.
74.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 313.
75.
Marx, To Ludwig Feuerbach. August 11, 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 355.
76.
Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 3: Marx and Engels: 1843–1844, Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 306.
77.
Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, vol. 5: Marx and Engels: 1845–1847, Progress Publishers, 1976, p. 5.

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Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Lixin Han

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Han, L. (2020). The Turning Point of Marx’s View on Communism. In: Studies of the Paris Manuscripts. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9618-3_12

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9618-3_12
Published: 23 February 2020
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9616-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9618-3
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