Karl Marx: Difference between revisions
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called [[Marxism]], and the political system called [[Communism]]. With the publication of the ''Communist Manifesto'', his ideas motivated radical political activists who joined his call to overthrow [[capitalism]]. Marx's ideas of class-based struggle, the self-destructive nature of capitalism, and the corruptive nature of material gain can be applied to many areas of study, from philosophy to history to literature. His and [[Frederick Engels]] economic theory is studied in economics classes the world over. | called [[Marxism]], and the political system called [[Communism]]. With the publication of the ''Communist Manifesto'', his ideas motivated radical political activists who joined his call to overthrow [[capitalism]]. Marx's ideas of class-based struggle, the self-destructive nature of capitalism, and the corruptive nature of material gain can be applied to many areas of study, from philosophy to history to literature. His and [[Frederick Engels]] economic theory is studied in economics classes the world over. | ||
==Overview== | |||
==Life and works== | |||
===Origins=== | ===Origins=== | ||
Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a happy, wealthy middle-class home in the Rhineland city of Trier, in Germany. On both sides of his family, he came from a long line of Jewish rabbis; but his father Heinrich Marx (1782-1838), an intellectual and highly respected lawyer, and family converted to Lutheranism in 1824. Marx received a good classical education; at age 17, he spent a year in the University of Bonn's law faculty and soaked up its cultural romanticism. At age 18 he became engaged to aristocratic Jenny von Westphalen (1814-1881), daughter of Baron von Westphalen, a prominent member of Trier society, granddaughter of a famous general, and also descended from Scottish nobility. She interested Marx in romantic literature and in the utopian socialist Saint-Simonian movement. | Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a happy, wealthy middle-class home in the Rhineland city of Trier, in Germany. On both sides of his family, he came from a long line of Jewish rabbis; but his father Heinrich Marx (1782-1838), an intellectual and highly respected lawyer, and family converted to Lutheranism in 1824. Marx received a good classical education; at age 17, he spent a year in the University of Bonn's law faculty and soaked up its cultural romanticism. At age 18 he became engaged to aristocratic Jenny von Westphalen (1814-1881), daughter of Baron von Westphalen, a prominent member of Trier society, granddaughter of a famous general, and also descended from Scottish nobility. She interested Marx in romantic literature and in the utopian socialist Saint-Simonian movement. | ||
===Intellectual roots=== | ===Intellectual roots=== | ||
In 1836 Marx transferred to the University of Berlin, at the time the foremost scholarly center in the world. He abandoned his superficial romanticism and came under the influence of the philosophy of the recently deceased [[G. W. F. Hegel]]. which dominated German thought. Lectures were less important than long conversations with Young Hegelian intellectuals, notably Bruno Bauer; they sought to use Hegelianism to battle the German religious, political, and philosophical status quo. After completing his doctoral thesis (which dealt with the atomic theories of Democritus and Epicurus), Marx at first hoped to obtain teaching post. When Bauer was dismissed for unorthodoxy in 1842, Marx turned to journalism and began writing for the ''Rheinische Zeitung,'' an opposition daily backed by liberal Rhenish industrialists. He soon became its editor, but the paper was closed by the authorities in May 1843, following an expose by Marx of the miserable poverty of farm workers in the Moselle vinyards, a piece of work that led him, as his friend [[Friedrich Engels]] later said, "from pure politics to economic relationships and so to socialism." | In 1836 Marx transferred to the University of Berlin, at the time the foremost scholarly center in the world. He abandoned his superficial romanticism and came under the influence of the philosophy of the recently deceased [[G. W. F. Hegel]]. which dominated German thought. Lectures were less important than long conversations with Young Hegelian intellectuals, notably Bruno Bauer; they sought to use Hegelianism to battle the German religious, political, and philosophical status quo. After completing his doctoral thesis (which dealt with the atomic theories of Democritus and Epicurus), Marx at first hoped to obtain teaching post. When Bauer was dismissed for unorthodoxy in 1842, Marx turned to journalism and began writing for the ''Rheinische Zeitung,'' an opposition daily backed by liberal Rhenish industrialists. He soon became its editor, but the paper was closed by the authorities in May 1843, following an expose by Marx of the miserable poverty of farm workers in the Moselle vinyards, a piece of work that led him, as his friend [[Friedrich Engels]] later said, "from pure politics to economic relationships and so to socialism." | ||
[[Ludwig Feuerbach]] (1804-72) in his 1841 book ''The Essence of Christianity'' strongly influenced Marx, who responded with "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law. Introduction (1843-44), which includes his famous line that "religion is | [[Ludwig Feuerbach]] (1804-72) in his 1841 book ''The Essence of Christianity'' strongly influenced Marx, who responded with "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law. Introduction (1843-44), which includes his famous line that "religion is | ||
[[Image:Karl Marx grave.jpg|right|thumb|250px|{{#ifexist:Template:Karl Marx grave.jpg/credit|{{Karl Marx grave.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}Grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, [[London]]]] | [[Image:Karl Marx grave.jpg|right|thumb|250px|{{#ifexist:Template:Karl Marx grave.jpg/credit|{{Karl Marx grave.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}Grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, [[London]]]] | ||
Marx | == Theoretical contributions== | ||
=== Philosophy=== | |||
===Marx's view of Russia=== | === Economics=== | ||
=== Historicism=== | |||
=== Politics=== | |||
====Marx's view of Civil society==== | |||
Hungarian scholar László Tüto has argued that Marx believed that the bourgeois revolutions meant the worldwide historical liberation of the individual from the hierarchies of traditional societies. However, this liberation carried its own price. On the one hand, civil society and the state separated from each other in the bourgeois system, and as a result the individual became intrinsically split into a private person and a citizen of a state, two forms of existence that became opposed to each other. On the other hand, the economic freedom of private persons as members of civil society could only survive in the service of the spontaneous mechanisms of the market, that is, if people made themselves the tools of the tangible powers of the economy: goods, money, and capital. After the decline of freely competitive capitalism (into monopoly capitalism) this economic freedom was pushed into the background because of the property hierarchies. Freely competitive capitalism was characterized by the basic tendency of revolutionizing the means of production, and Marx concluded that the continuation of this tendency could only be ensured by going beyond the capitalist system to a socialist environment for civil society. | |||
====Marx's view of Russia==== | |||
Initially, Marx's attitudes were marked by Russophobia, pronounced anti-Pan-Slavism, and assessments of Russia as an outpost of European reaction and counterrevolution, and even as the head of a conspiracy to block the world revolution. With time, however, Marx came to consider Russia as the country in which the outbreak of the revolution was most likely. In his research for successive volumes of Capital, he read Russian theoretical works by, among others, Vasili Bervi-Flerovski and A. I. Koshelev. Marx's attitudes to the anticipated peasant revolution in Russia remained ambivalent; to a certain degree he feared its occurrence, suspecting that it could take on an "Asiatic" hue.<ref>Ewa Borowska, "Marx and Russia," ''Studies in East European Thought'' 2002 54(1-2): 87-103. ISSN: 0925-9392 | Initially, Marx's attitudes were marked by Russophobia, pronounced anti-Pan-Slavism, and assessments of Russia as an outpost of European reaction and counterrevolution, and even as the head of a conspiracy to block the world revolution. With time, however, Marx came to consider Russia as the country in which the outbreak of the revolution was most likely. In his research for successive volumes of Capital, he read Russian theoretical works by, among others, Vasili Bervi-Flerovski and A. I. Koshelev. Marx's attitudes to the anticipated peasant revolution in Russia remained ambivalent; to a certain degree he feared its occurrence, suspecting that it could take on an "Asiatic" hue.<ref>Ewa Borowska, "Marx and Russia," ''Studies in East European Thought'' 2002 54(1-2): 87-103. ISSN: 0925-9392 | ||
Fulltext: [[Ebsco]] </ref> | Fulltext: [[Ebsco]] </ref> | ||
=== | == Legacy== | ||
=== Intellectual impact=== | |||
=== Political impact=== | |||
=== | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references/> | <references/> | ||
Revision as of 02:47, 30 March 2012
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was the most important of all socialist thinkers and the creator of a system of thought called Marxism, and the political system called Communism. With the publication of the Communist Manifesto, his ideas motivated radical political activists who joined his call to overthrow capitalism. Marx's ideas of class-based struggle, the self-destructive nature of capitalism, and the corruptive nature of material gain can be applied to many areas of study, from philosophy to history to literature. His and Frederick Engels economic theory is studied in economics classes the world over.
Overview
Life and works
Origins
Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a happy, wealthy middle-class home in the Rhineland city of Trier, in Germany. On both sides of his family, he came from a long line of Jewish rabbis; but his father Heinrich Marx (1782-1838), an intellectual and highly respected lawyer, and family converted to Lutheranism in 1824. Marx received a good classical education; at age 17, he spent a year in the University of Bonn's law faculty and soaked up its cultural romanticism. At age 18 he became engaged to aristocratic Jenny von Westphalen (1814-1881), daughter of Baron von Westphalen, a prominent member of Trier society, granddaughter of a famous general, and also descended from Scottish nobility. She interested Marx in romantic literature and in the utopian socialist Saint-Simonian movement.
Intellectual roots
In 1836 Marx transferred to the University of Berlin, at the time the foremost scholarly center in the world. He abandoned his superficial romanticism and came under the influence of the philosophy of the recently deceased G. W. F. Hegel. which dominated German thought. Lectures were less important than long conversations with Young Hegelian intellectuals, notably Bruno Bauer; they sought to use Hegelianism to battle the German religious, political, and philosophical status quo. After completing his doctoral thesis (which dealt with the atomic theories of Democritus and Epicurus), Marx at first hoped to obtain teaching post. When Bauer was dismissed for unorthodoxy in 1842, Marx turned to journalism and began writing for the Rheinische Zeitung, an opposition daily backed by liberal Rhenish industrialists. He soon became its editor, but the paper was closed by the authorities in May 1843, following an expose by Marx of the miserable poverty of farm workers in the Moselle vinyards, a piece of work that led him, as his friend Friedrich Engels later said, "from pure politics to economic relationships and so to socialism."
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-72) in his 1841 book The Essence of Christianity strongly influenced Marx, who responded with "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law. Introduction (1843-44), which includes his famous line that "religion is
Theoretical contributions
Philosophy
Economics
Historicism
Politics
Marx's view of Civil society
Hungarian scholar László Tüto has argued that Marx believed that the bourgeois revolutions meant the worldwide historical liberation of the individual from the hierarchies of traditional societies. However, this liberation carried its own price. On the one hand, civil society and the state separated from each other in the bourgeois system, and as a result the individual became intrinsically split into a private person and a citizen of a state, two forms of existence that became opposed to each other. On the other hand, the economic freedom of private persons as members of civil society could only survive in the service of the spontaneous mechanisms of the market, that is, if people made themselves the tools of the tangible powers of the economy: goods, money, and capital. After the decline of freely competitive capitalism (into monopoly capitalism) this economic freedom was pushed into the background because of the property hierarchies. Freely competitive capitalism was characterized by the basic tendency of revolutionizing the means of production, and Marx concluded that the continuation of this tendency could only be ensured by going beyond the capitalist system to a socialist environment for civil society.
Marx's view of Russia
Initially, Marx's attitudes were marked by Russophobia, pronounced anti-Pan-Slavism, and assessments of Russia as an outpost of European reaction and counterrevolution, and even as the head of a conspiracy to block the world revolution. With time, however, Marx came to consider Russia as the country in which the outbreak of the revolution was most likely. In his research for successive volumes of Capital, he read Russian theoretical works by, among others, Vasili Bervi-Flerovski and A. I. Koshelev. Marx's attitudes to the anticipated peasant revolution in Russia remained ambivalent; to a certain degree he feared its occurrence, suspecting that it could take on an "Asiatic" hue.[1]