A MAIN SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR MARX

LANGE, FRIEDRICH ALBERT.

J. St. Mill’s Ansichten über die soziale Frage und die angebliche Umwälzung der Sozialwissenschaft durch Carey.

Duisburg, Falk & Lange, 1866. 8vo. Original publisher's black cloth with gilt lettering to spine and blindstamped borders to boards. Small tears to top capital and a small tear to the top of hinges. Otherwise very clean and fresh, aslo internally. VIII, 256 pp.

Scarce first edition of Lange's highly influential work, which came to serve as a great source of inspiration to Karl Marx, who read it extensively. Especially Lange's theories on rent theory and soil exhaustion (chapter 4 in the present work) influenced Marx profoundly.
Apart from his influence through Marx, Lange was seminal in the spreading of Darwinism in Germany. Nietzsche was introduced to Darwin via Lange, which became pivotal in his construction of his theory of the Übermensch.

"[Lange], elucidates his critique against the Leibig school in the 1866 book [the present], the title which ironically mocks Dühring's book. Marx made some excerpts from this book in the beginning of 1868 and possessed a copy in his library. These excerpts are important because Marx focused on chapter 4 in which lange criticizes Carey's and Dühring's view on agriculture. Marx documented a passage in which Lange rejects Carey's idea of the harmonious development; especially the latter's treatment of a "protective tariff" as "panacea" which should automatically lead to the establishment of an autarchic. " (Karl Marx's Ecosocialism).

"Thus in 1868 Marx began reading the work of authors who took a more critical stance toward Liebig's Agricultural Chemistry. He was already familiar with arguments such as Roscher's, which held that the robbery system should be criticized from the point of view of "natural science" but could be justified from an "economic" standpoint insofar as it was more profitable. According to Roscher, it was only necessary to stop the robbery just before it became too expensive to recover the original fertility of the soil-but market prices would take care of that. Adopting Roscher's arguments, Friedrich Albert Lange, a German philosopher, argued against Dühring's reception of Liebig and Carey in his J. St. Mill's Views of the Social Question [J. St. Mills Ansichten über die sociale Frage] published in 1866.
Marx read Lange's book at the beginning of 1868, and it is no coincidence that his notebook focuses on its fourth chapter, where Lange discusses the problems of rent theory and soil exhaustion. Specifically, Marx noted Lange's observation that Carey and Dühring denounced "trade" with England as a cause of all evils and regarded a "protective tariff" as the ultimate "panacea," without Lange's recognizing that "industry" possesses a "centralizing tendency," which creates not only the division of town and country but also economic inequality. Similar to Roscher, Lange argued that "despite the natural scientific correctness of Liebig's theory," robbery cultivation can be justified from a "national economic" perspective."( Saito, Marx's Ecological Notebooks)

Lange is a significant figure among the mid nineteenth century German intellectuals who were concerned to think through the impact of developments in natural science for philosophy, pedagogy, and politics.
"Lange was one of the originators of "physiological neo-Kantianism" and an important figure in the founding of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He played a significant role in the German labour movement and in the development of social democratic thought. He articulated a socialist Darwinism that was an alternative to early social Darwinism." (SEP)

Die Bibliotheken von Marx und Engels (MEGA IV.32).

Order-nr.: 57461