Socialism,
Utopian and Scientific
The main downloadable linked
text below is “Socialism, Utopian
and Scientific”, by Frederick Engels.
By Utopian, Engels meant
imaginary, or ideal, and typical of the early socialists such as Robert Owen,
Henri de Saint-Simon, and François Fourier (who was the historical inventor of
the word “feminism”, among other things). Marx and Engels respected these
pioneers but also distinguished themselves critically from them. The third part
of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 is devoted to them.
In the previous post we had
Lenin’s “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism”. “Socialism,
Utopian and Scientific” has a similar three-part structure, and there is
another work of Lenin’s (written as an entry for an encyclopedia) called “Karl Marx, A Brief Biographical Sketch with an
Exposition of Marxism”, of a length that is intermediate between the
two we have given, and with a similar structure. That one might be a better
“basic” text, but Engels’ work is the real classic.
Frederick Engels begins
“Socialism, Utopian and Scientific” (see the link below), with the Great French Revolution that
started in 1789. From this point on we can meet, in their developed form, the
class protagonists who allied and clashed from that time on until now, in all
possible permutations: alliances holy and unholy, strategic and tactical,
marriages of convenience and marriages made in heaven.
These classes were the feudal
aristocrats; the peasants; the bourgeoisie; and the proletariat.
Engels’ work has the
additional benefit of introducing the rudiments of political philosophy, and
leading our thoughts towards the “democratic bourgeois republic”, which is at one
and the same time the highest form of political life before socialism, the
prerequisite of concerted proletarian action, and a form of the State that has
to be transcended and left behind.
Those in need of an
occasional quick, brief revision of the theory of socialism and communism might
like to save these two texts, and read them again from time to time. Naturally,
the same applies to all of the work used in this “basics” course.
There is no great need to
search for modern summaries of the classics, when the masters have provided
very good summaries of their work, themselves.
Please download and read
this text via the following link:
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific,
Engels, 1880 (16229 words)
Further reading:
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