Thorstein Veblen Review author to: 'Die Marxistische Socialdemokratie.' Von MAX LORENZ. Leipzig: George H. Wigand, 1896. 12mo. pp. xii + 229. The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Dec., 1897), pp. 136-137. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [136] There are two features of the Marxian teaching that seem to me to be of definitive significance for today and for the future: the stress laid on the concept of society, with no complacent parade of philantrophy expressing itself in soup-kitchens and alms, but asserting itself as a dominant principle which in strain and struggle resistlessly pervades the entire cultural development - this is the first; the second is Marx's insistence on the connection between the so-called material or economic movement and the so-called spiritual movement in the evolution of society. .... It is true, Marx has exaggerated the bearing and importance of both these points, because his work, like that of any other man, was conditioned by the circumstances of his time. But on both heads Marx has also shed such light as no one before him, nor in his time, nor - at least until the present - since his time; and that comes of the pre-eminent greatness of the man (pp. viii-ix.). There is yet a further remark to be made: It is frequently assumed that the substantial core of the Marxian doctrine is the theory of labor-value and surplus-value, and that Marx arrives at his communistic demands directly from his surplus-value theory, on the basis of some assumed principle of justice or morality which requires communism as its fulfillment. .... But Engels disclaims, for Marx and for himself, any such "application of Morals to Economics." .... What comes about comes, according to Marx, not for equity's or morality's sake, but it comes as a causally, historically necessary phase of social evolution. The question is then as to the character of this causal, historical necessity in Marx's apprehension. Hence, our first effort must be directed to a presentation of the so-called "Materialistic Conception of History" (pp. xi-xii). With a reverent hand, the author then enters on a discussion of this materialistic conception, which occupies the first of the four chapters (73 pages) of the volume. He insists on the antithesis between this and the individualistic conception - the conception which has dominated all the writings of the professed historians. After [137] some exposition, and some criticism of its philosophical short-comings, he reaches (p. 50) the consideration of a serious if not irremediable defect in the Marxian theory. While the materialistic interpretation of history points out how social development goes on - by a class struggle that proceeds from maladjustment between economic structure and economic function - it is nowhere pointed out what is the operative force at work in the process. It denies that human discretion and effort seeking a better adjustment can furnish such a force, since it makes man the creature of circumstances. This defect reduces itself under the author's hand to a misconception of human nature and of man's place in the social development. The materialistic theory conceives of man as exclusively a social being, who counts in the process solely as a medium for the transmission and expression of social laws and changes; whereas he is, in fact, also an individual, acting out his own life as such. Hereby is indicated not only the weakness of the materialistic theory, but also the means of remedying the defect pointed out. With the amendment so indicated, it becomes not only a theory of the method of social and economic change, but a theory of social process considered as a substantial unfolding of life as well. It is as an expression of this materialistic theory of Marx and Engels that the Marxian Socialism is taken up in chapter II and examined point by point. The third chapter is a criticism of the aims and views of socialists as regards the outcome of the development. The author finds the extreme conclusions reached by the socialists - the dissolution of the state and the family, the disappearance of religion, etc. - are reached by a one-sided and arbitrarily limited application of their own principles. The author takes up the materialistic argument and carries it out to its logical consequences, with the result of reducing the socialistic millennium to absurdity, at least to his own satisfaction. In the hands of the social democracy, the teachings of Marx have hardened into a system and a creed, incapable of growth and incapable of meeting the practical exigencies of an unfolding political and social life. While the work of Marx was great and fruitful, "Marxism is but an episode." T. B. V.