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“Social man…is the masterpiece of existence.”
― Émile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917)
Tag: Theorist
David Émile Durkheim, Father of Mind
Commonly credited as the father of modern sociology, David Émile Durkheim (born on April 15, 1858) drew on the philosophies of Karl Marx and Auguste Compte to create his own. In turn, his philosophy inspired Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Michel Foucault, among many others, including Alexander Tristan Riley, W.S.F. Pickering, and William Watts Miller, whose edited collection Durkheim, the Durkheimians, and the Arts is now available in paperback. Below, Riley shares what brought him to the study of Durkheim, a prediction of the collection’s reception, and what he would ask the philosopher if given the chance.
Berghahn Books: What drew you to the study of David Émile Durkheim?
Karl Marx as a Young Journalist
By Rolf Hosfeld
Excerpted by Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography by Rolf Hosfeld, Translated from the German by Bernard Heise
Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818. As a young man he was a journalist and an editor for Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal-socialist newspaper published in Germany. The paper was previously edited by Adolf Friedrich Rutenberg, who favored opinionated feuilletons, before Marx replaced him and gained recognition for his practical, evidence-based approach.
Moses Hess was the first communist Karl Marx personally encountered. Both were from the Rhineland, came from bourgeois families, and were under the influence of Hegel’s philosophy. Marx made an “imposing impression” on Hess upon their first acquaintance in September 1841. After their initial encounter Hess had the sense of having met the “greatest, perhaps the only real philosopher now living,” one who would soon—Hess was referring here to the lecture halls of Bonn University—“draw upon him the eyes of Germany.”
Continue reading “Karl Marx as a Young Journalist”
Marx is the New Black
Were he still alive, the philosopher behind The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital would be celebrating his 196th birthday today.
Marx has made a comeback recently, with new books on his life and ideas popping up more frequently, and a new wave of “Millennial Marxists” taking to social media to discuss the original socialist’s ideas in a more modern light.
In honor of the undeniable influence Karl Marx has had on economic and political discourse over the years, we invite you to take a look at our intellectual biography of the philosopher himself.
Here’s what the critics are saying about Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography by Rolf Hosfeld:
“…an elegant compact study [that] explores Marx’s ideas in all their messy complexity.” —Times Literary Supplement
“This 200 page compendium is a deftly written biography offering an informed and informative presentation of Marx’s turbulent personal and professional life. A seminal work of impressive scholarship, [this book] is enhanced by the inclusion of an extensive bibliography making it an especially useful and highly recommended contribution to academic library reference collections and Marxist Studies supplemental reading lists.” —The Midwest Book Review
“This book is a delightful gain: biography, theory, revolutionary history, modern history—altogether convincing and gripping. The lively portrait of a brilliant, eternally radical, and strictly speaking rather apolitical, philosopher is illustrated here by Rolf Hosfeld—A great achievement.” —DeutschlandRadio