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Theses on Feuerbach

Karl Marx · 1845

Marx's brief 1845 philosophical notes, ending with the famous call that philosophers should change the world, not just interpret it.

Marx wrote these notes himself, marking a turning point in his philosophical development.

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Source: Wikisource

About this source

What it is

These are eleven short notes written by Karl Marx in 1845 as an outline for the first chapter of The German Ideology. They respond to the ideas of the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach and were never published in Marx's lifetime, first appearing in print in 1888 thanks to Friedrich Engels.

Why it matters

The theses mark Marx's break from the Young Hegelian philosophers he had once admired. Its final line, insisting that philosophy's point is to change the world rather than just interpret it, became one of Marx's most famous statements and is engraved on his tombstone, showing how central the idea of practical action was to his thought.

Look closer

  • Why might Marx have written these as short numbered notes rather than a full essay?
  • What does the final thesis suggest about the relationship between thinking and acting?
  • Why do you think these notes stayed unpublished for so long?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Karl Marx on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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