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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
It would be misleading to make any reference to Marx's “theory” of truth-for nowhere in the corpus of Marx's writings will one find an essay dealing with truth in a thematic way. Marx's scattered remarks on truth occur within the context of discussions of social questions. What one can pull together on the topic of truth amounts at most to the sketch of a concept which applies to social knowledge and not knowledge in general. My aim will be to reconstruct Marx's concept of social truth on the basis of his writings on society and social theory.
Those who want a systematic essay developing a general Marxist theory of knowledge have, of course, Lenin's classical formulation of Marxist epistemology in Materialism and Empiriocriticism. We also have Leszek Kolakowski's bold and heretical attack on Lenin's interpretation in “Marx and the Classical Definition of Truth” where we find the astounding claim that Marx's view of truth is closer to that of William James than to that of Lenin.
Kolakowski's essay has been the subject of numerous attacks both by predictably indignant true believers and by independent, creative Marxists.
1 V. I. Lenin, V. I. Lenin: Selected Works, Volume XI (New York: International Publishers, no date).
2 Kolakowski, Leszek “Karl Marx and the Classical Definition of Truth”, in Toward a Marxist Humanism, translated by Peel, Jane L. (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1968).Google Scholar
3 For a good defense of the orthodox view see Schaff, Adam “Studies of the Young Marx: A Rejoinder”, in Revisionism, edited by Labedz, Leopold (New York: Praeger, Frederick A. 1962), pp. 188-94.Google Scholar
4 Kolakowski, Op. cit., p. 49.
5 Ibid., p. 49.
6 Lenin, op. cit., pp. 135–36.
7 “Theses on Feuerbach”, in Writings of the Young, Marx on Philosophy andSociety, edited and translated by Easton, Loyd and Guddat, Kurt (New York: Anchor Books, 1967), p. 400.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., pp. 3221.
9 Capital, Volume I, edited and translated by Moore, Samuel and Aveling, Edward (New York: Modern Library, 1906), p. 623.Google Scholar
10 See Marx's Letter to Annenkov, P. V. (1846), in Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick Selected Works, (New York: International Publishers, 1969), pp. 669-79.Google Scholar
11 Capital, Volume I, p. 15.
12 Ibid.
13 Letter to Annenkov, Selected Works, p. 670.
14 In Capital, Marx frequently makes use of the distinction between “essences” and “phenomenal forms.” The task of science is to go behind appearances to the hidden essence of things. Marx states:” All science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided.” Volume Ill (New York: International Publishers, 1967), p. 817.
15 Capital, Volume I, p. 24.
16 “Theses on Feuerbach”, in Writings of the Young Marx, p. 400.
17 Grundrisse, translated by Nicolaus, Martin (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), p. 708.Google Scholar