ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes some of the principles of Marxism, though mainly outside the economic field. The most that a Marxist can say for Marxism is that it is the best and truest philosophy that could have been produced under the social conditions of the mid-nineteenth century. But the details of Marxist theory, like those of the theories of natural science, are the result of applying the method to concrete situations. And the theory which exists was built up with far more attention to observed facts and far less pure thought than the great philosophies of the past. Lenin's welcome to the new developments in physics, such as radio-activity and electrons, is particularly interesting as showing the relation of Marxism to discoveries which have been supposed to disprove its basic principles. However, Engels is the chief source, although he states expressly that most of the leading principles in his work derived from Marx.
