Social

Theories Friedrich
in Urban Engels
Design

Soujanya, Yesheswini and Yogesh

Friedrich Engels , sometimes referred as Frederick Engels (28 November 1820 – 5
August 1895), was a German philosopher, historian, political
scientist and revolutionary socialist. He was also a businessman, journalist and
political activist, whose father was an owner of large textile
factories in Salford (Greater Manchester, England)
and Barmen, Prussia (now Wuppertal, Germany).

Engels developed what is now known as Marxism together with Karl Marx. In 1845,
he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal
observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored The
Communist Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with
Marx) many other works. Later, Engels supported Marx financially, allowing him to do
research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and
third volumes of Das Kapital. Additionally, Engels organised Marx's notes on
the Theories of Surplus Value which were later published as the "fourth volume"
of Das Kapital. In 1884, he published The Origin of the Family, Private Property and
the State on the basis of Marx's ethnographic research.

Fredric Engels Soujanya, Yesheswini and Yogesh

In spite of his criticism of the utopian socialists, Engels' own beliefs were nonetheless influenced by the French
socialist Charles Fourier. From Fourier, he derives four main points that characterize the social conditions of a
communist state.
• The first point maintains that every individual would be able to fully develop their talents by eliminating the specialization of
production. Without specialization, every individual would be permitted to exercise any vocation of their choosing for as long
or as little as they would like. If talents permitted it, one could be a baker for a year and an engineer the next.

• The second point builds upon the first as with the ability of workers to cycle through different jobs of their choosing, the
fundamental basis of the social division of labour is destroyed and the social division of labour will disappear as a result. If
anyone can employ himself at any job that he wishes, then there are clearly no longer any divisions or barriers to entry for
labour, otherwise such fluidity between entirely different jobs would not exist.

• The third point continues from the second as once the social division of labour is gone, the division of social classes based on
property ownership will fade with it. If labour division puts a man in charge of a farm, that farmer owns the productive
resources of that farm. The same applies to the ownership of a factory or a bank. Without labour division, no single social
class may claim exclusive rights to a particular means of production since the absence of labour division allows all to use it.

• Finally, the fourth point concludes that the elimination of social classes destroys the sole purpose of the state and it will
cease to exist. As Engels stated in his own writing, the only purpose of the state is to abate the effects of class antagonisms.
With the elimination of social classes based on property, the state becomes obsolete and a communist society, at least in
the eyes of Engels, is achieved.

Fredric Engels Soujanya, Yesheswini and Yogesh

Major works
The Holy Family (1844)
This book was written by Marx and Engels in November 1844. It
is a critique on the Young Hegelians and their trend of thought
which was very popular in academic circles at the time. The title
was suggested by the publisher and is meant as a sarcastic
reference to the Bauer Brothers and their supporters.
The book created a controversy with much of the press and
caused Bruno Bauer to attempt to refute the book in an article
published in Wigand's Vierteljahrsschrift in 1845. Bauer claimed
that Marx and Engels misunderstood what he was trying to say.
Marx later replied to his response with his own article published
in the journal Gesellschaftsspiegel in January 1846. Marx also
discussed the argument in chapter 2 of The German Ideology.
Fredric Engels
The Condition of the
Working Class in
England (1845)
A study of the deprived conditions of the
working class in Manchester and Salford,
based on Engel's personal observations. The
work also contains seminal thoughts on the
state of socialism and its development.
Originally published in German and only
translated into English in 1887, the work initially
had little impact in England. It was however
very influential with historians of British
industrialization throughout the twentieth
century
Soujanya, Yesheswini and Yogesh

Major works
The Peasant War in Germany (1850)
An account of the early 16th-century uprising known as the
German Peasants' War, with a comparison with the recent
revolutionary uprisings of 1848–1849 across Europe.
Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science (1878)
Popularly known as Anti-Dühring, this book is a
detailed critique of the philosophical positions of
Eugen Dühring, a German philosopher and critic of
Marxism. In the course of replying to Dühring, Engels
reviews recent advances in science and mathematics
seeking to demonstrate the way in which the concepts
of dialectics apply to natural phenomena. Many of
these ideas were later developed in the unfinished
work, Dialectics of Nature. Three chapters of Anti-
Dühring were later edited and published under the
separate title, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Fredric Engels
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
One of the best selling socialist books of the era, Engels
critiques the utopian socialists, such as Charles Fourier and
Robert Owen, and provides an explanation of the socialist
framework for understanding capitalism, and an outline of the
progression of social and economic development from the
perspective of historical materialism.
Dialectics of Nature (1883)
Dialectics of Nature (German: "Dialektik der Natur") is an
unfinished 1883 work by Engels that applies Marxist
ideas, particularly those of dialectical materialism, to
science. It was first published in the Soviet Union in 1925.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the
State (1884)
In this work, Engels argues that the family is an ever-
changing institution that has been shaped by capitalism. It
contains an historical view of the family in relation to issues
of class, female subjugation and private property.
Soujanya, Yesheswini and Yogesh