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Summary Leopold - Marx & Engels on Utopian Socialism
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David Leopold on Marx & Engels' account of utopian socialism
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David Leopold - The Structure of Marx and Engels’ Considered Account of Utopian Socialism● Marx and Engels were not solely critical of utopian socialism, as they have often been
interpreted
● If we interpret utopian socialism as a socialism which includes a detailed portrayal of a
future (good) society, then we retain
○ consistency with common usage - a good society which does not yet
exist
○ a distinction between Saint-Simon/Fourier/Owen and Marx/Engels
○ consistency with Marx/Engels’ understanding of utopianism
● In fact Marx/Engels make two distinctions in their accounts of utopian socialism, a
chronological distinction and a textual distinction
○ chronological distinction - Marx/Engels are generous towards the early
utopian socialists - Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen, and not so to the later ones, their
disciples
■ the early triumvirate wrote in the genesis of bourgeois
society, and thus could be forgiven for having primitive theories - they were not
to blame for their historical contexts
■ the later utopian disciples did write in more developed
bourgeois society, and hence were choosing alchemy over chemistry even when
chemistry had been proven
■ what mistakes are made by the utopians?
● they reject political engagement, strikes
etc on the part of the proletariat. reject class struggle
● passive view of the proletariat, as the
most suffering class in society
● belief in the efficacy of small scale
experiments in which history is put on hold until some dramatic
development occurs
■ scientific socialism should recognise its genesis in
utopian socialism, and be fair in its criticism (i.e. recognise historical context)
○ textual distinction - distinction between the critical (i.e. critique) and
systematic (i.e. positive) aspects of theory
■ Marx/Engels love the critique, don’t like the proposal of
systems
■ why don’t they like the proposal of new systems?
● Plans are impossible because we cannot
tell what the future action plan will need to be
● Plans are unnecessary because socialists
will only come to power when the means of operating are to hand
○ this assumes that
optimal solutions are guaranteed by history
○ it means the task of
socialists is to facilitate the birth of the being already produced
by historical development
● Problems with suggestion that plans are unnecessary
○ historical materialism doesn’t entail that appropriate solutions are
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