IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/euhchp/978-3-031-10115-1_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Friedrich Engels and Positivism: An Attempt at Classification

In: 200 Years of Friedrich Engels

Author

Listed:
  • Hans A. Frambach

    (Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal)

Abstract

This chapter discusses, from the perspective of an economist, the influences of the philosophy of positivism on Engels’ scientific thought and his positioning on that subject. Positivism, the “victor of the nineteenth century,” as the German philosopher and social scientist Jürgen v. Kempski once described it (Kempski, Introduction to Auguste Come: Die Soziologie, Blaschke F (ed), 2nd, 1st edn, Kröner, Stuttgart, 1974, IX), raised questions and problems which prompted scientists of the time to research in a specific way. Topics were addressed such as the role of metaphysics, the logical analysis of the methodology of science, the application of formal conclusions, the acquisition of knowledge by the methods of natural science, and the role of the social sciences. Among other things, it becomes evident that Engels himself held thoroughly positivist positions, and that in some respects, he was not far removed from those he criticized, such as the hated marginalists, but also the early socialists.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans A. Frambach, 2022. "Friedrich Engels and Positivism: An Attempt at Classification," The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences, in: Jürgen Georg Backhaus & Günther Chaloupek & Hans A. Frambach (ed.), 200 Years of Friedrich Engels, pages 63-76, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-031-10115-1_5
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-10115-1_5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-031-10115-1_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.