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Primary sourceBook1876

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man

Friedrich Engels · 1876

An unfinished 1876 essay by Engels forming part of Dialectics of Nature, linking labour, evolution, and materialist philosophy.

Engels wrote this essay himself, applying his materialist philosophy to human evolution and labour.

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Cover of a Russian book. Red text at top reads 'Институт Маркса-Энгельса-Ленина при ЦК ВКП(б)'. Below is an oval portrait of a bearded man. Red title 'Роль труда в процессе превращения обезьяны в человека', author 'Ф. ЭНГЕЛЬС', and publisher line 'ОГИЗ, Государственное издательство политической литературы, 1929' at bottom.
Cover of the 1929 Russian edition of Friedrich Engels's essay 'The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man', originally written 1876.

About this source

What it is

This unfinished essay was written by Friedrich Engels in the spring of 1876 and first published in 1896, after his death. It forms a chapter of his larger work, Dialectics of Nature, which argued for a materialist view of natural and human history.

Why it matters

The essay argues that humans are part of nature rather than separate from it, and that labour played a central role in human evolution, including the development of language and the brain. It connects to ideas Engels developed together with Karl Marx since the 1840s, and engages with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Later scientists, including Stephen Jay Gould, praised the essay's early insight into how culture and biology shaped each other.

Look closer

  • Why do you think Engels connected the idea of labour to human evolution?
  • What does it mean that the essay was left unfinished and only published after Engels's death?
  • How does this essay show Engels using scientific ideas of his time to support his political philosophy?

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