Karl Marx's infamous statement that "I am not a Marxist" contains a profound truth deeply connected to his philosophy. This could mean that he disdained the hundreds of performances of his works after their publication. However, this statement resonates with a more important idea, which is that a person cannot “follow” a philosophy at all. Or perhaps even philosophy does not exist, at least not in the sense in which men normally understand the term. to be independent of the philosopher, the reader, or the conditions of the material world in which they live, has fallen into the dustbin of idealism. Marx insists that “life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life.” .. When reality is represented, philosophy as an independent branch of knowledge loses its means of existence. (155) When one treats "Marxism" as an idea separate from their consciousness of the material world, they have placed it in the murky realm of ideology, which contains the very chains of oppression that Marx is trying to combat. the most extreme example, since Marx's philosophy is entirely materialist. For Marx, any other ideology, philosophy, or religion is inherently idealistic both because of its ideological nature and what it preaches: "there is a truth separate from the material world." , and that ideas can be the driving force of history. For Marx, however, if we ask how philosophy or religion transforms history or politics, we are asking the question in reverse. Marx illustrates that no ideology moves history, but all are created by history, or more precisely, by the current state and relationship with the productive forces of society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Marx's attack on ideology is not just about whether specific philosophies/religions are good or bad ( although this is part of the battle), it is first and foremost the very approach that men adopt towards ideology that is the problem. The idea that ideologies can transform history neglects the origins from which ideology springs: history. He declares that “the production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is first of all directly linked to the material activity and the material relations of men, to the language of real life”. Ideas are not phantoms that men assiduously try to capture through logic or any other means. They arise from the material world, including the physical environment and the relationships that people have with each other and with the productive forces of their society. Marx's statements contradict an objective (i.e. timeless) reality or objective truth towards which ideologies tend. “Morality, religion, metaphysics, all the rest of ideology and their corresponding forms of consciousness, thus no longer retain the appearance of independence. They have neither history nor development; but men, developing their material production and their material relations, modify, with this, their real existence, their thought and the products of their thought. » (154) This concept, according to which ideas have no history, is emblematic of Marx's philosophy: if history is nothing other than the succession of productive forces transmitted from generation to generation, there is no room for ideology to “transform” history. This does not mean that ideas do not exist, in fact, they are ideas that change and alter the..