ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in previous volume in this book. This book explores the development of Marx's methodology and the theoretical underpinnings of his social and political thought. Rather than catalogue where Marx was right or wrong one have attempted a general presentation of his intellectual development, indicating its sources and presuppositions. Lenins famous statement that the sources of Marxism are 'German philosophy, English political economy and French Socialism' is widely regarded as a fair summary. Marx's scientific theory of capitalist society is an account of its contradictions which both develop out of a given situation and tend to undermine it. Thus the contradictions which Marx's science focuses upon are opportunities and resources for groups that Marx assumed would know how and when to act through an understanding of social processes. In Marx, science is critique, necessity the basis of freedom, and theory the precondition of action.
