Book: Anti-Dühring

Overview
"Anti-Dühring" is a sustained polemic by Friedrich Engels that dismantles the ideas of Eugen Dühring across philosophy, political economy, and social theory. Engels combines rigorous argumentation with emphatic rebuttal to show how Dühring's system diverges from materialist and historical perspectives. The text moves from abstract methodological disputes to concrete analyses of economics, social institutions, and the scientific character of socialism.

Philosophical Method
A central thrust is defence of dialectical materialism against Dühring's mechanistic and abstract rationalism. Engels argues that reality must be understood as a dynamic totality of interrelated processes, not as isolated entities fixed by abstract reason. He insists that philosophy must be grounded in material conditions and historical development, and criticizes any attempt to erect timeless moral or metaphysical systems detached from socio-economic realities.

Science and Nature
Engels engages with contemporary natural science to show the compatibility of dialectical thinking with empirical discovery. He rejects simplistic appeals to "natural law" as a justification for social arrangements, demonstrating instead how scientific knowledge reveals processes of change, contradiction, and emergence. This section aims to dispel the notion that socialism is antiscientific, presenting it as consistent with the best scientific understanding of nature and society.

Political Economy
The critique of Dühring's economic ideas is detailed and technical. Engels defends the labour theory of value against Dühring's revisions and misinterpretations, explaining how capitalist production, exchange, and the exploitation of labour form the material basis of class relations. He places emphasis on historical conditions that produce particular economic forms, arguing that abstract utopian blueprints fail because they ignore the structural dynamics of capital and class struggle.

Socialism and History
Engels contrasts "scientific" socialism with utopian schemes, insisting that socialism should arise from objective social conditions and class struggle rather than moral persuasion alone. He traces the historical evolution of social institutions such as the family, the state, and property relations, showing how their forms reflect material interests and productive forces. Revolution is presented not as a mere ideal but as the historically rooted means by which the proletariat overturns capitalist relations.

Tone and Rhetoric
The book combines rigorous exposition with sharp polemic. Engels systematically dismantles arguments while also appealing to empirical data and historical examples. The rhetorical energy serves to underline what he sees as the practical stakes of theoretical clarity: mistaken ideas about society and history have political consequences. Clarity of method and historical insight are presented as prerequisites for effective political intervention.

Impact and Legacy
"Anti-Dühring" played a formative role in popularizing Marxist perspectives and clarifying their philosophical and scientific claims. Its condensed popularization, "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific," distilled the analysis for a broader audience and helped shape socialist thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book remains a key source for understanding the methodological foundations of Marxism and its critique of rival socialist and philosophical currents.