ABSTRACT

For the orthodox, Engels is simply Marx's life-long ally and helper in shaping the theory and practice of the movement a figure of comparable size, though admittedly not quite his equal as a thinker. Some contemporary neo-Marxists by contrast tend to question the significance of his contribution, almost to the point of excluding him from the Marxist canon. The classic formulation of Social-Democratic Marxism in this period, the German Socialist 'Erfurt Programme' of 1891, was the joint work of its ostensible author, Kautsky, and of Engels; and its subsequent critics on the left and on the right had to reckon with the fact that fidelity to the programme was regarded as the touchstone of faith in 'scientific socialism'. Marx and Engels never ceased to regard theoretical thinking as an element of the social transformation they aimed to bring about. Viewed from the original Marxian standpoint, scientism and moralism are two sides of the same coin.