Three days after the death of Karl Marx (1818-83) his capitalist friend and.
collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820-95) spoke briefly in English at.
Marx's graveside in Highgate Cemetary, London, England. The speech later.
appeared in a German newspaper after being translated into German.
Engels expressed the finality of Marx's death and the significance his.
death would have throughout the world as the "greatest living thinker.
ceased to think." He spoke of Marx having discovered the "law of.
development of human history." Which is based on the simple facts that.
mankind must be able to first have the basic necessities of food, drink,.
shelter, and clothing before it can be expected to pursue science,.
politics, art, religion etc. That logically the production of the.
immediate material means of basic material economic necessities and the.
degree of economic development attained by the people during a given time.
period form the foundation upon which the "state institutions, the legal.
conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion," of the concerned human.
beings have evolved and been explained with the knowledge of these very.
evident "simple facts" to explain the evolution, which previously had not.
been the case.
Engels further explained that Marx also discovered the "special law of.
motion," which governs the capitalist's mode of production and the.
resulting bourgeois society as an end product that this mode of production.
created. The discovery of "surplus value" provided sudden understanding of.
the problem which had previously not been solved during investigations of.
both the bourgeois economists and socialist critics.
Engels said that Marx's two discoveries should have been enough for.
any man to have achieved in a lifetime, but Marx investigated every field.
he chose to pursue in great depth, even in Mathematics, he made independent.
discoveries. Marx was a "man of science," but this aspect of his life was.