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Theses on Feuerbach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The "Theses on Feuerbach" are eleven short philosophical notes written by Karl Marx in 1845. They outline a critique of the ideas of Marx's fellow Young Hegelian philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. But the text is often seen as more ambitious than this, criticizing the contemplative materialism of the Young Hegelians alongside all forms of philosophical idealism. The "Theses" identify political action as the only truth of philosophy, famously concluding: "Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it". (in the German original: "Die Philosophen haben die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert; es kömmt drauf an, sie zu verändern".) While the text wishes to retain the critical stance of German critical idealism, it transposes that criticism into practical, material, political terms (leading directly to Marx's later assertion that the "criticism of weapons" must at some point do the work of the "weapons of criticism").
Marx did not publish the "Theses on Feuerbach" during his lifetime; they were later edited by Friedrich Engels and published in 1888, with the original text emerging in 1924. They seem to have been intended as a note on principles which Marx wished to write out once, clearly, as a reminder to himself; the text may actually have been hung above his writing-desk.
The Eleventh Thesis was used by Sergey Prokofiev in his Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Op. 74.