As was already pointed out, the Marxian theoretical system is one solid structure and cannot be properly understood unless viewed as a whole from foundation-stone to roof-coping. To criticize any of its parts as if it were a complete structure in itself is, therefore, a mistake which must necessarily lead to all sorts of fallacious conclusions; and to accept any one of its parts and reject the others, as many of the latter-day critics do, simply betrays ignorance of the parts which are accepted and rejected alike. The Marxian theoretical system must be examined as a whole, and accepted or rejected in its entirety, at least as far as its structural parts are concerned.
It is rather the fashion among Marx-critics to treat the Marxian "philosophy" and "economics" as if they had absolutely nothing whatever to do with each other, and to accept one and reject the other according to the critic's fancy. As a matter of fact, however, Marx's "philosophy" is nothing more than a generalization deducted from the study of the economic conditions of the human race during its entire course of historical progress, and his "economics" is merely an application of his general historical theory to the particular economic structure known as the capitalist system.
How Marx came to take up the studies which resulted in the formulation by him of the theoretical system which bears his name, and the course which those studies took, is very illuminating in this respect, and his own account of
