In the spring of 1845 Karl Marx writes eleven theses on Feuerbach in a Brussels notebook, the eleventh becoming the tradition's most quoted sentence: the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. The theses, unpublished until Engels prints them in 1888, are Marxism's philosophical birth certificate: materialism turned from contemplation to practice.
Tagged: Marxism
The Event
- Date
- 1845 (exact)
- Era
- Marx; Standard periodization of Marxist history
- Location
- Brussels; today Brussels, Belgium
- Traditions
- Marxism
- Streams
- Marxism
- Key figures
- Karl Marx
- Key texts
- Theses on Feuerbach
Primary Sources
- Marx, Karl. Theses on Feuerbach. Written 1845; published by Engels, 1888.
Secondary Sources
- Anderson, Perry. Considerations on Western Marxism. London: New Left Books, 1976.
- Kolakowski, Leszek. Main Currents of Marxism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
- McLellan, David. Karl Marx: A Biography. London: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition, 2006.
Provenance: HIST-1450; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
Marxism
Marxism explains history as the struggle of classes over material production, and aims at a classless society in which exploitation and alienation are ended.