Political Philosophy Moves On

Political Philosophy Moves On

1841 Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach* (1804-72), a German philosopher, launches his best known work, The Essence of Christianity*. This guy is busy rejecting idealism for materialism* and his works influence another fellow named Karl Marx* to develop a view of things called dialectical materialism*. [more about all this as we go along.]

Meanwhile the Europeans are busy exploring the interior of Africa. This year a Scottish explorer, David Livingstone* (1813-73), goes off as a medical missionary into the wilds of Botswana. He'll go on to find [that is the conventional way of saying that the white European is discovering for the first time a number of things well known to the native Africans] a lot of spots there [like the Kalahari desert, the Victoria Falls, that sort of thing].

1842 This year Karl Marx* begins his editorship of a radical paper (the Rheinische Zeitung). It'll be suppressed next year. He is a German social philosopher who has studied both law and philosophy and has some very definite ideas about how society ought to work. Along with Darwin, his works will have the greatest influence on what happens in the world for the next hundred and fifty years. This is why we will keep up with these two guys. At the moment Marx* is taking in the ideas of Feuerbach* (see above) and Moses Hess* (1812-75) who introduces him (Marx) to the study of social and economic problems (of which there are a lot around just now).

In England Shaftesbury* (Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-85) is busy passing laws to help with the terrible conditions of workers and the poor. This year he gets a law limiting child labor.

Dickens* does an American lecture tour and goes back to Great Britain with a very dim view of the U.S. which he writes up in American Notes*.

The Russian, Gogol*, comes out with his novel, Dead Souls*. 1843 This year in Great Britain, William Wordsworth* (1770-1850), the romantic nature poet,

is named poet laureate. Also, Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol* and spends some of his time managing amateur theatricals.

1843- A little Austrian monk, Gregor Johann Mendel* (1822-84) is busy [between now and 1868] analyzing how peas reproduce. This may sound pretty obscure and esoteric, but his findings will provide the basis for genetics.

1843 - In America, a guy named Dan Emmett* (1815-1904) builds on those Ethiopian Operas* (see above) and comes up with a full-length entertainment, the "Virginia Minstrels." Also, around this time, another American character type shows up. This is the "city boy", a good-natured city roughneck.

In Great Britain, the Theatre Regulation Act* puts an end to the old monopoly of the Patent theatres. Now new theatres can open. It will take a while for this to make a difference.

1844 - In America the hit play is the melodrama The Drunkard, [a still popular item] by William H. Smith* (1806-72). He is the stage manager of the troupe at the Boston Museum*.

1844 This is the year when Marx* meets Engels* in Paris. They begin a life-long collaboration. Friedrich Engels* (1820-95), who has been managing a factory in England, comes out this year with his first major work, The Condition of the Working Class in England* (it'll be published next year). Engels* is a German social philosopher and a revolutionary. These two guys will begin working on other works immediately.

Meanwhile one of the first important communication devices, the telegraph*, is being put together. Several guys have been working on this, but this year Samuel Morse* (1791-1872) demonstrates his version to Congress. He gets associated with the system and it starts being put into use (especially as the railroads are built, they raise telegraph lines along side).