[Classics] Anti-Dühring

A classic of Marxism, Anti-Dühring was highly recommended by Lenin as a ‘text book’ of scientific socialism. It was originally written as a polemic against Eugen Dühring, a German revisionist who challenged the basic ideas of Marxism by counterposing his own ‘scientific’ theories within the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Very reluctantly, Engels was forced to take up these ideas and in doing so explained in the clearest fashion the revolutionary theories of Marxism.

The original title was Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science, but it became popularly known as Anti-Dühring. It was the first popular exposition of Marxist theory as a whole and the titles of the three parts – philosophy, political economy, socialism – are enough to indicate the broad scope of this famous work.

Originally published in parts in the Leipzig Vorwärts, starting in 1877, and in book form in 1878, Anti-Dühring set out to demolish the ‘system creating’ claims of Dühring. Whilst Dühring himself is now a completely forgotten figure, this polemic has been a masterpiece of Marxist literature for more than 130 years and served to educate numerous generations in the fundamental ideas of scientific socialism.

Written: September 1876 - June 1878;
Published: in Vorwärts, Jan 3 1877-July 7 1878;
Published: as a book, Leipzig 1878;
Translated: by Emile Burns from 1894 edition;
Source: Frederick Engels, Anti-Dühring. Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science, Progress Publishers, 1947;
Copyleft: Marxists Internet Archive;
Marxist.com version: HTML reworked and further edited, December 2019. Footnotes have been integrated from Marx-Engels Collected Works and for ease of reading are displayed at the bottom of every chapter (Engels' notes are indicated with an asterisk);

Contents

Prefaces

Original Preface: London, June 11, 1878
1885 Preface: London, September 23, 1885
1894 Preface: London, May 23, 1894

Introduction

Chapter 1: General
Chapter 2: What Herr Dühring promises

Part I: Philosophy

Chapter 3: Classification. Apriorism
Chapter 4: World Schematism

Philosophy of Nature

Chapter 5: Time and Space
Chapter 6: Cosmogony, Physics, Chemistry
Chapter 7: The Organic World
Chapter 8: The Organic World (Conclusion)

Morality and Law

Chapter 9: Eternal Truths
Chapter 10: Equality
Chapter 11: Freedom and Necessity

Dialectics

Chapter 12: Quantity and Quality
Chapter 13: Negation of the Negation

Chapter 14: Conclusion

Part II: Political Economy

Chapter 1: Subject Matter and Method
Chapter 2: Theory of Force
Chapter 3: Theory of Force (Continuation)
Chapter 4: Theory of Force (Conclusion)
Chapter 5: Theory of Value
Chapter 6: Simple and Compound Labour
Chapter 7: Capital and Surplus-Value
Chapter 8: Capital and Surplus-Value (Conclusion)
Chapter 9: Natural Laws of the Economy. Rent of Land
Chapter 10: From Kritische Geschichte

Part III: Socialism

Chapter 1: Historical
Chapter 2: Theoretical
Chapter 3: Production
Chapter 4: Distribution
Chapter 5: State, Family, Education

Fragments

Fragment on Ireland
Fragment on Thomas More