Section 4 (pg. 65-94) Summary and Analysis

Rius has divided up Marx's work into three "basics" and summarizes some of the work on each. These three basics are: the philosophy of Marx, his economic doctrine, and his ideas on historical materialism.

Philosophy sees two kinds of men: materialist and idealist. Idealism assumes the existence of the divine while materialism states that there is nothing beyond the natural. Idealism does not offer proof for those things that it proposes. In contrast, materialism seeks scientific proof for what it examines, including religion. Marx is a materialist and his work attempts to bring more consistency to materialism. Many philosophers before Marx deny the existence of God without providing any proof. During the sixteen and seventeenth centuries, discoveries were made in mathematics and the mechanics of astrology. Materialism at this time became mechanistic, examining everything from a mechanical...