of the usual classificatory schemes. As an idealist, Fichte has been thought to oppose all forms of materialism. Conversely, it has been held that Marx was at odds with all kinds of idealism. In fact, from the Marxist perspective a perhaps stronger point has often been made concerning the relation of Marx to the philosophical tradition. Since the publication of Engels Anti-Dühring ( 1878), followed by his Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy ( 1888), the tendency has been to regard philosophy as nonscientific ideology and Marxism as nonideological science, although there are signs that a revision in this attitude with respect to Marx's position is now under way. ¹

Perhaps for these reasons, although there are some exceptions to be mentioned, for the most part there has been little attention to the possibility of a relation between the two positions. Books on Fichte rarely mention Marx. Discussions of Marx, if they mention Fichte at all, usually go no further than to stress that although Fichte's influence is perceptible in the thought of the Young Hegelians, it is absent from the Marxian position. ²

If the usual view of the positions of Fichte and Marx were to be accepted, it would indeed be difficult to argue for a relation between them since there would not be any relevant common ground. To be sure, both thinkers were interested in socialism, social progress, and radical social change, but this limited area of common concern is hardly sufficient to suggest an important relation between two of many others in the nineteenth century who held similar views. But a stronger indication of the presence of a relation, if not a parallel, between Fichte and Marx, is given by the same person who did so much elsewhere to suggest that Marxism makes a clean break with the philosophical tradition. In the foreword to the first German edition of Die Entwicklung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft, Engels writes "that German socialists are proud to be descended not only from Saint Simon, Fourier, and Owen, but from Kant, Fichte, and Hegel as well." ³

Although Engels does not state that Marxism is philosophy, he suggests here that German socialism, including Marxism, is in part indebted to three of the most important German philosophers. But for the most part, this suggestion has been followed up in a selective manner only. In the early part of this century, attention was directed to the relation between Kant and Marx by a number of writers. ⁴ And since the appearance of Lukács History and Class Consciousness ( 1923), there has further been wide discussion of the genesis of Marx's position in relation to Hegel and the Young Hegelians. But although Engels also indicates the rela-

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