Friedrich Engels: 5 reflections to understand Socialism

Friedrich Engels: 5 reflections to understand the philosopher's thinking
The German philosopher worked together with Karl Marx to create the theory of Socialism
Karl Marx's right-hand man, Friedrich Engels was a German revolutionary theorist and philosopher who helped create scientific socialism. He was born on November 28, 1820, in Prussia, and died on August 5, 1895, in London, more than ten years after his friend. Precisely for this reason, he was responsible for helping to publish the last two volumes of O Capital, Marx's most famous work and with which he collaborated.

Here are five reflections to understand the philosopher's thinking.

1. "The history of humanity is the history of the class struggle"
The phrase summarizes the theory developed in partnership with Marx, which became known as Marxism. It involves the application of economic and socio-political questions to analyze the development of capitalism and the role of social conflict in changing this system.

2. "Those who work in the bourgeois regime do not profit and those who profit do not work"
In Engels' view, one of the greatest class conflicts that occur in capitalism is the fact that a small portion of the population (called by them the bourgeoisie) appropriates the surplus product (profit) produced by another (proletariat). In the society idealized by them, there would be no difference between classes and everything would be based on the principle that “each of them, according to their abilities, each according to their needs”.

3. "The modern state is nothing more than a committee that manages the problems of the bourgeois class"
In the book The Origin of Private Property, the State and the Family, Engels argues that the State arose together with private property in order to protect it. In his view, the State does not represent an ideal of morality or reason, but an external force of society that stands above it to guarantee the domination of one class by another, instead of seeking to reconcile interests.

4. "When it is possible to speak of freedom, the State as such will cease to exist"
For the author, the State only appeared to help the ruling class to remain in power. For this reason, however democratic it may be, it will always be a form of dictatorship and an apparatus for the domination of one class by another. Although he accepts that the revolution necessary for the construction of socialism is a form of state, Engels argues that it would be more of a kind of anti-state, as it reverses the relations of dominance and creates the bases for its own end.

5. "One people who oppresses the other will never be free"
The ultimate goal of socialism idealized by Marx and Engels is to end the division of society into classes.