KARL MARX

126 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY
of the Young Hegelians, he and Engels completed the 'settling of accounts
with our erstwhile philosophical consciousness', 12 a process which had
lasted since the Doctoral Thesis of 1841.
The first thesis contained the essence of Marx's criticism of Feuerbach's
materialism: 'The chief defect of all hitherto existing materialism (that of
Feuerbach included) is that the things, reality, sensuousness, is conceived
only in the form of the object or of contemplation, but not as sensuous
human activity, practice, not subjectively'. 15 In the second thesis Marx
outlined his ideas on the unity of theory and practice: 'The question
whether objective truth can be achieved by human thinking is not a
question of theory but is a practical question. Man must prove the truth,
i.e., the reality and power, the this-sidedness of his thinking in practice.
The dispute over the reality or non-reality of thinking that is isolated
from practice is a purely scholastic question.' 14 And in the third thesis Marx
pointed out the deficiencies of the French materialists of the previous
century, who had not realised that their own thinking was just as much a
part of the historical process as anybody else's: 'The materialist doctrine
concerning the changing of circumstances and upbringing forgets that
circumstances are changed by men and that it is essential to educate the
educator himself. This doctrine must, therefore, divide society into two
parts, one of which is superior to society.' 15 In the following theses Marx
declared that Feuerbach was correct in resolving religion into its secular
basis: but he had failed to account for the existence of religion and this 'can
only be explained by the cleavages and contradictions within this secular
basis. The latter must, therefore, in itself be both understood in its
The famous eleventh thesis on Feuerbach. The text reads: 'Die Philosophen haben
die Welt nur verschieden interpretiert, es kommt darauf an, sie zu verandern.' Translation:
'The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways; the
point is to change it.'