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Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Early Life
Born

May 5, 1818 in Trier, Rhineland


Family converted from Judaism to
Catholicism in 1820
Went to Bonn University in 1835 to
study law
Transferred to the University of Berlin
in 1836

Georg Hegel (1770-1831)

Main Works: The


Phenomenology of
Spirit; The
Philosophy of
History; The
Philosophy of Right
Dominant
philosophical
influence in Germany
of the early 1800s

Hegels Influence on Marx


Emphasized

the idea of philosophy


as a practice
Historicity of knowledge; reality is a
living, evolving system
Emphasized the economic nature of
society in The Philosophy of Right;
many of Marxs earliest writings are
examinations of this work

The Dialectic
Historical process of development:
intellectual, moral, political, social, etc.
Thesis generates its antithesis
Out of the conflict of these arises a
synthesis which serves as a new thesis
In principle this never ends, though
Hegel in fact ends this process in his
philosophy and the Prussian state

Dialectical Materialism

Fundamental reality is purely physical


All behavior is law-governed
Social structures are determined by the mode
of economic production
Each mode of production leads to
contradictionsproblems inherent to the
system that cant be solved within the
systemthus economic development is
dialectical
History is the history of class conflict
Utopian element: economic development is
inevitable, and terminates in communism

Early Career
Father

dies in 1838
Transfers to the University of Jena in
1839
Earns his PhD from the University of
Jena in 1841 with a dissertation on
the atomism of Democritus
1842 becomes editor of the leftist
journal Rheinische Zeitung

Friedrich Engels (18201895)

First met Marx in 1842


They frequently
collaborated, most
notably on the
Communist Manifesto
Served as Marxs
economic support
during his exile
After Marxs death,
edited and published
Capital

Engels Writings

The Condition of the Working Class in


England (1845); first-hand expos of the
living conditions of the working poor
The Origin of the Family, Private Property
and the State (1884); Marxist analysis of
the economic origins of some of societys
central institutions
Other major works include: Anti-Duhring,
Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy,
The Peasant War in Germany and
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

Exile
Exiled

to Paris in 1843 by the


Prussian government
Exiled to Brussels in 1845 by the
French government
Returned to Prussia after the 1848
revolution, but exiled to London in
1850 after the Prussian government
was restored

Paris Manuscripts
1844
Also called Economic and Philosophical
Manuscripts, written in exile in Paris
during 1844 but not published until 1927
Developed the concept of alienation that
would be influential on many later
thinkers
Developed a moral critique of Capitalism
as fundamentally relying on conflicts
whose resolution must be unjust

Constructing a Politics

1844-1846 developed his own unique


approach to Socialism in contrast to both the
French and Prussian socialists
The German Ideology (1845, written with
Engels) contrasted his ideas with other
Prussian leftists, especially Ludwig Feuerbach
The Poverty of Philosophy (1846) criticized
early French socialists, especially Paul
Proudhon
Theses on Feuerbach (1845) proclaimed
the revolutionary aims of philosophy

REVOLUTION!!
In

1848, Marx and Engels were invited


by The Communist League to produce a
platform statement
The Communist Manifesto that resulted
was as much a call to revolution as it
was a platform statement
Wave of socialist revolutions throughout
Europe: France, Hungary, Italy, Prussia

The Science of Economics

After the failures of the 1848 revolutions,


Marx focused more on developing a
scientific economics
Contribution to a Critique of Political
Economy (1859) involved a critique of
British Capitalism, esp. that of John Stuart
Mill
Capital (v.1, 1867) was his masterwork on
developing a science of economics and an
economic critique of Capitalism

A Life of Involvement
Ran the Neue Rheinische Zeitung from 18481850
Was a prominent supporter and spokesman
for labor unions, and served as President of
the Working Mens International Association
in 1864
Worked as a foreign correspondent for the
New York Times, where he publicly criticized
colonialism and supported many national
independence movements in Africa and India

The Specter of Communism

1917 Russian Revolution (led by V. I. Lenin


and Leon Trotsky)
1945 Chinese Revolution (led by Mao
Zedong)
1959 Cuban Revolution (led by Fidel Castro
and Ernesto Che Guevara)
Marxist influence on anti-colonial
movements (Julius Nyerere, Kwame
Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba)
Liberation Theology, developed in the 1960s,
was heavily influenced by Marxism

Why Marx Now?

Fall of the U.S.S.R. allows us to disconnect


Marxs ideas from Soviet policies
Influence of Marxs ideas on the political
consciousness of the third world
In some places, communism has been
somewhat successful (China, Cuba,
Mondragon)
Rise of global capitalism
Growing wealth disparities in industrialized
nations

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