Frederick Engels Essay, Research Paper
The Communist Manifesto and Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels present their
view of human nature and the effect that the economic system and economic
factors have on it. Marx and Engels discuss human nature in the context of the
economic factors which they see as driving history. Freud, in Civilization and
Its Discontents, explores human nature through his psychological view of the
human mind.
Marx states that history “…is the history of class struggles” (9).
Marx views history as being determined by economics, which for him is the
source of class differences. History is described in The Communist Manifesto
as a series of conflicts between oppressing classes and oppressed classes.
According to this view of history, massive changes occur in a society when new
technological capabilities allow a portion of the oppressed class to destroy
the power of the oppressing class. Marx briefly traces the development of this
through different periods, mentioning some of the various oppressed and
oppressing classes, but points out that in earlier societies there were many
gradations of social classes. He also states that this class conflict
sometimes leads to “…the common ruin of the contending classes” (Marx 9).
Marx sees the modern age as being distinguished from earlier periods by
the simplification and intensification of the class conflict. He states that
“Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile
camps… bourgeoisie and proletariat” (Marx 9). The bourgeoisie, as the
dominant class of capitalists, subjugates the proletariat by using it as an
object for the expansion of capital. As capitalism progresses, this
subjugation reduces a larger portion of the population to the proletariat and
society becomes more polarized.
According to Marx, the polarization of society and the intense
oppression of the proletariat will eventually lead to a revolution by the
proletariat, in which the control of the bourgeoisie will be destroyed. The
proletariat will then gain control of the means of production. This revolution
will result in the creation of a socialist state, which the proletariat will
use to institute socialist reforms and eventually communism.
The reforms which Marx outlines as occurring in the socialist state have
the common goal of disimpowering the bourgeoisie and increasing economic
equality. He sees this socialist stage as necessary for but inevitably leading
to the establishment of communism. Human beings, which are competitive under
capitalism and other prior economic systems, will become cooperative under
socialism and communism. Marx, in his view of human nature, sees economic
factors as being the primary motivator for human thought and action. He asks
the rhetorical question, “What else does the history of ideas prove, than that
intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material
production is changed?” (Marx 29). For Marx, the economic status of human
beings determines their consciousness. Philosophy, religion and other cultural
aspects are a reflection of economics and the dominant class which controls the
economic system.
This view of human nature as being primarily determined by economics may
seem to be a base view of humanity. However, from Marx’s point of view, the
human condition reaches its full potential under communism. Under communism,
the cycle of class conflict and oppression will end, because all members of
society will have their basic material needs met, rather than most being
exploited for their labor by a dominant class. In this sense the Marxian view
of human nature can be seen as hopeful. Although human beings are motivated by
economics, they will ultimately be able to establish a society which is not
based on economic oppression.
Freud, in Civilization and Its Discontents, presents a conception of
human nature that differs greatly from that of Marx. His view of human nature
is more complex than Marx’s. Freud is critical of the Marxist view of human
nature, stating that “…I am able to recognize that the psychological premises
on which the [communist] system is based are an untenable illusion. In
abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of
its instruments…but we have in no way altered the differences in power and
influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in
its nature” (Freud 71). Freud does not believe that removal of economic
differences will remove the human instinct to dominate others.
For Freud, aggression is an innate component of human nature and will
exist regardless of how society is formulated. He sees human beings as having
both a life instinct (Eros) and an instinct for destruction. In Freud’s view
of human reality, the source of conflict, oppression, and destruction in human
society is man’s own psychological makeup.
Because of Freud’s view of human nature as inherently having a
destructive component, he does not believe that a “transformation” of humans to
communist men and women will be possible. Marx’s belief that the current
capitalist society will evolve into a communist society is not supportable
under Freud’s conception of human nature because the desires of human beings
are too much in conflict with the demands of any civilized society. This
conflict does not exist because of economic inequalities, according to Freud,
but rather because it is in human nature to have aggressive desires which are
destructive to society.
Freud’s approach to the possibility of reducing conflict among humanity
focuses on understanding the human mind, the aggressive qualities of human
nature, and how human beings’ desires can come into conflict with the demands
of human society. He does not believe that the problems of human conflict,
aggression, and destruction can be solved by a radical reordering of society as
the philosophy of Marx suggests. Instead, Freud looks inside ourselves to
explore these problems. At the close of his work, Freud states, “The fateful
question for the human species seems to me to be whether and to what extent
their cultural development will succeed in mastering the disturbance of their
communal life by the human instinct of aggression and self-destruction” (Freud
111). Freud does not offer any radical solutions to human aggressiveness, but
rather sees it as something that humans must continually strive to overcome.
He states “…I have not the courage to rise up before my fellow-men as a
prophet, and I bow to their reproach that I can offer them no consolation…”
(Freud 111). Freud can not offer some vision of a human utopia, but can only
suggest that there is some possibility for the improvement of the human
condition and society, but also warns that our success at overcoming
destructive instincts may be limited.
Marx offers a radical philosophy which also sees conflict as one of the
constants of prior human existence. Unlike Freud, Marx believes that the
aggressive and conflict-oriented aspects of human nature will disappear under
the communist society which he sees as the inevitable product of capitalism.
This is the hopeful element of Marx’s philosophy. However, if communism is not
seen as inevitable or the possibilities for reducing human conflict before a
socialist revolution are considered, then Marx’s view of human nature locks
humanity into constant conflict. If the future is to be like Marx’s version of
history, then there is little hopefulness in this view of human nature.
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Ed. James Strachey. New
York: W.W. Norton, 1961.
Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York:
International Publishers, 1994.