The German Ideology

Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner, and of German Socialism According to Its Various Prophets¹

Table of Contents

Volume I: Critique of Modern German Philosophy According to Its Representatives Feuerbach, B. Bauer and Stirner 3

Preface 4

I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook 5

A. Idealism and Materialism 5

The Illusions of German Ideology 5

Ideology in General, German Ideology in Particular 6

First Premises of Materialist Method 8

[3. Production and Intercourse. Division of Labour and Forms of Property – Tribal, Ancient, Feudal] 9

[4. The Essence of the Materialist Conception of History. Social Being and Social Consciousness] 12

History: Fundamental Conditions 14

Private Property and Communism 17

History as a Continuous Process 19

[5. Development of the Productive Forces as a Material Premise of Communism] 20

B. The Illusion of the Epoch 21

Civil Society and the Conception of History 21

Conclusions from the Materialist Conception of History 22

Feuerbach: Philosophic, and Real, Liberation 26

[II. 1. Preconditions of the Real Liberation of Man] 27

[2. Feuerbach’s Contemplative and Inconsistent Materialism] 28

Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas 30

C. The Real Basis of Ideology 33

Division of Labour: Town and Country 33

[2. The Division of Material and Mental Labour. Separation of Town and Country, The Guild System] 34

Further Division of Labour 36

The Rise of Manufacturing 37

[4. Most Extensive Division of Labour. Large-Scale Industry] 41

The Relation of State and Law to Property 43

Notes, written by Marx, intended for further elaboration 12. FORMS OF SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 45

D. Proletarians and Communism 47

Individuals, Class, and Community 47

Forms of Intercourse 50

Contradiction between individuals and their conditions of life as contradiction between productive forces and the form of intercourse 50

[5. The Contradiction Between the Productive Forces and the Form of Intercourse as the Basis for Social Revolution] 53

Conquest 53

Contradictions of Big Industry: Revolution 54

[9. Contradiction Between the Productive Forces and the Form of Intercourse] 55

[10. The Necessity, Preconditions and Consequences of the Abolition of Private Property] 56

The Necessity of the Communist Revolution 57