Marxist philosophy or
Marxist theory are works in
philosophy that are strongly influenced by
Karl Marx's
materialist approach to
theory, or works written by
Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into
Western Marxism, which drew out of various sources, and the official
philosophy in the Soviet Union, which enforced a rigid reading of Marx called
dialectical materialism, in particular during the 1930s. Marxist philosophy is not a strictly defined sub-field of philosophy, because the diverse influence of Marxist theory has extended into fields as varied as
aesthetics,
ethics,
ontology,
epistemology,
theoretical psychology and
philosophy of science, as well as its obvious influence on
political philosophy and the
philosophy of history. The key characteristics of Marxism in philosophy are its materialism and its commitment to political practice as the end goal of all thought.