Prompt: In his 1883 speech at Karl Marx’s graveside, Frederick Engels said, “Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law
of development of human history” (Tucker 681). In his preface to The Communist Manifesto, Engels argues that the Communists’ “fundamental proposition” is “destined to
do for history what Darwin’s theory has done for biology. . .” (6). Based on your reading
of Richard Dawkins’s River Out of Eden, what would you say Engels means here when
he refers to “Darwin’s theory” and its impact? Dawkins, in his own preface, for instance,
claims that the Darwinian theory “has a sinewy elegance, a poetic beauty that outclasses
even the most haunting of the world’s origin myths” (xi). Based on a reading of The
Communist Manifesto proper, do you think Marx and Engels would argue that Communism “outclasses” other political systems, just as Dawkins believes Darwinism “outclasses” the world’s “origin myths”? In short, both Communism and Darwinism would seem to have been (and perhaps still are) “revolutionary,” at least according to Engels and Dawkins, respectively. Broadly speaking, how do these two ideologies complement one another, at least in terms of their impact on history? What is their relevance today?
Must be about 1200 words. Times New Roman point 12 font. Double spaced. Must use direct quotes from the two books River out of Eden and the Communist Manifesto to support essay.
