Chapter Outline
Introduction
The Dialectic
Dialectical Method
Introduction
Marx began his most famous work, The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and
Engels 1848/1948), with the following line: “There is a spectre haunting Europe, the
spectre of communism.” It might be said that the same ghost is haunting our understanding
of Marx. It is difficult to separate the ideas of Marx from the political movements
that they inspired. Nevertheless, as Tom Rockmore (2002:96) tells us, we must
try “to free Marx from Marxism.”
For many, Marx has become more of an icon than a thinker deserving of serious
study. The symbolism of his name tends to muddle understanding of his ideas. Marx
is the only theorist we will study who has had political movements and social systems
named after him. He is probably the only theorist your friends and family have strong
opinions about. He is often criticized, as well as praised, by people who have never
actually read his work. Even among his followers, Marx’s ideas frequently are reduced
to slogans such as “the opium of the people” and “the dictatorship of proletariat,” but
the role of these slogans in Marx’s encompassing theory often is ignored.
There are many reasons for this lack of understanding of Marx’s social theory,
the main one being that Marx never really completed his social theory. He planned,
early in his career, to publish separate works on economics, law, morals, politics, and