Karl Marx

German philosopher, economist, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, political economics critic, and socialist revolutionary was Karl Heinrich Marx. His two most well-known works are the four-volume Das Kapital and the 1848 booklet The Communist Manifesto (1867–1883). On May 5, 1818, Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier, Prussia. Herschel Marx, his father, was the first member of the family to complete a secular education. He was largely agnostic and was interested in Voltaire and Immanuel Kant's theories.
At the University of Bonn, he pursued studies in philosophy and literature but ultimately decided on law. He engaged in a duel with a student from the university's Borussian Korps in 1836. In 1843, Karl Marx wed Jenny von Westphalen. In order to be with him, she had broken off her engagement to a young aristocrat. Because of their differing religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, their union was socially taboo.
He wrote love poems for her and dedicated his dissertation thesis to her father. Karl Marx received a Ph. D. in 1841. for his dissertation, "The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature," at the University of Jena. He relocated to Cologne in 1842 to pursue a career as a journalist, contributing to the liberal Rheinische Zeitung. The goal of the Jahrbücher was to draw authors from both France and the German nations.
Marx submitted two essays to the paper: "On the Jewish Question" and "Introduction to a Contribution to a Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right." Marx contributed to Vorwärts, the last uncensored German-language radical daily, after the paper's demise. (Forward!). Karl Marx published The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844. These manuscripts detailed Marx's theory of alienated labor and covered a wide range of subjects.
By 1845, Marx was of the opinion that the new criticism of political economics he was advancing needed to be based on a fully formed materialistic worldview. The French authorities shut down Vorwärts in 1845 following a request from the Prussian king. Marx chose to relocate to Belgium after deciding he couldn't remain in France or go to Germany. Marx and Engels collaborated on what is frequently regarded as his best analysis of historical materialism. The goal of German Ideology was to distinguish between Marx's own scientific socialist ideology and the utopian socialists.
Even though German Ideology is written in a delightfully satirical style, this did not prevent censoring. It served as the starting point for the authors' most well-known book, The Communist Manifesto. On February 21st, 1848, the Communist Manifesto was first printed. The document, which was co-written by Marx and Engels between December 1847 and January 1848, outlined the principles of the emerging Communist League. The Communist League preferred to reveal its goals and objectives to the public than to keep its convictions a secret.
Marx relocated to Cologne in 1848 and launched the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. He contended that before the proletariat could overthrow the capitalism in Germany, the bourgeoisie had to overthrow the feudal monarchy. Soon after, his newspaper was shut down, and he was told to leave the country. He believed that the Communist League should push the working class to band together with progressive members of the burgeoning bourgeoisie after the 1848 upheavals across Europe were put down. Marx maintained that progressing toward revolution through phases of social development is more likely to lead to revolution than achieving it overnight by the efforts and willpower of a small group of men.
Marx used the New-York Daily Tribune as a platform to communicate with a transatlantic audience, for example, in order to promote his "secret warfare" against Henry Charles Carey. Six publications from England, the United States, Prussia, Austria, and South Africa were publishing Marx's articles. Between the Hegelian idealism of the youthful Marx and the more developed Marx's scientific ideology connected to structural Marxism, the 1850s and 1860s can be considered a philosophical turning point. The Revolutions of 1848–1849 were a formative experience for Marx and Engels as they developed their economic theory. The Panic of 1857 in the United States was the first really worldwide economic disaster, shattering all economic theory models.
Marx was compelled to stop contributing to the New York Daily Tribune in 1863. He joined the International Workers' Association (also known as the First International). Marx had amassed more than 800 pages of notes and brief articles by the year 1857 on topics like capital, landed property, wage labor, the state, and international trade. A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy was published by Marx in 1859. The fourth volume of Das Kapital is frequently referred to as Theories of Surplus Value.
Engels released Capital II: The Process of Circulation of Capital, Volume II of Das Kapital, in July 1893. Marx's health deteriorated and he became incapable of sustained effort over the last ten years of his life; Volume III was released in October 1894 with the title Capital III. Marx thought about the potential of Russia avoiding the capitalist stage of development and constructing communism on the basis of the shared ownership of land that is distinctive of the village mir in a letter to Vera Zasulich. The life of ape communities, according to him, was far greater than that of Semitic, Greek, Roman, and other societies. There were claims that Marx and his housekeeper had an unmarried son in 1962.
Due to a lack of supporting documentation, the claim is contested. Numerous authors have attempted to explain Marx's bad health, which he himself referred to as "the wretchedness of existence." Marx experienced three ailments in his senior years when he was working on Das Kapital. Overwork and a bad diet exacerbated a liver condition that was likely inherited. Overworked during the evenings caused eye inflammation.
The locations of the enduring "carbuncles" were regularly observed. At the age of 64, Karl Marx passed away in London on March 17, 1883. hidradenitis suppurativa, a catarrh that caused him to be unwell for the last 15 months of his life, was the cause of his death. Later, Shuster developed his alienation hypothesis and thought about the disease's probable psychosocial implications. The funeral was also attended by non-family members of Marx, such as Communist Party members.
Within 25 years after his passing, socialist parties in Europe were each seeing gains of 15–47% in nations with representative democracies. Hegel's assertion that one should interpret reality (and history) dialectically had an impact on Marx's understanding of history, which later became known as historical materialism. Marx used Gothic language in several of his publications while disliking mystical words. Some Marxists came to the conclusion that a communist revolution was inevitable. Marx frequently engaged other thinkers in polemic through criticism. He has been referred to as "the first outstanding social scientist to apply the critical method."
Marx's goal in Capital was to examine "the dictatorship of capital." Fundamentally, he believed that changing human nature—which includes both material items and human beings—involves changing human history. Marx believed that human labor is what gives rise to the human nature, also known as the Gattungswesen, or species-being. The relationship between people and their own labor force was a worry for capitalists. Marx believed that the possibility of giving up ownership of one's own labor amounted to alienation from nature.
He perceived this loss as a result of the fetishism of commodities, in which the things that humans create take on a life of their own. In his famous quote, Karl Marx stated that British businesses "could but live by sucking blood, and children's blood too," making him a vocal opponent of child labor. His ideas on labor and how it serves to reproduce capital were connected to the precedence he accorded to social interactions in shaping the past, present, and future of society. Karl Marx had a dual perspective on capitalism. On the one hand, he contended that alienation, exploitation, and recurrent, cyclical depressions that result in mass unemployment are characteristics of capitalism.
He contrasted this by describing capitalism as having "revolutionizing, industrializing, and universalizing qualities of development, growth, and progressivity." Marx discusses capitalism, feudalism, and the historical significance of internal social conflicts in The Communist Manifesto. Marx emphasized that capitalism was prone to instability and recurring crises. He predicted that as time went on, capitalists would spend less and less on labor and more and more on innovative technologies. Karl Marx theorized in Capital that a global working class will take organized action to bring an end to capitalism.
There would be a period of dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the working class retains political power and forcibly socializes the means of production, between capitalism and the foundation of a socialist/communist system. Pan-Slavism was something that Karl Marx condemned because he saw it as a tool of Russian foreign policy. believed that the major threat to the European uprisings was coming from Russia. While he recognized that some nations with robust democratic institutions would experience a peaceful transition, he asserted that in other nations, "the lever of our revolution must be force." The 1860s and 1870s Narodnik revolutionaries had the support of Marx and Engels.
Marx expressed the hope that the killing of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by the Russian revolutionaries portended "the foundation of a Russian commune." Marx backed the revolutions in Poland against tsarist Russia. Marx contends in Capital that the invasion of foreign trade will bring about a social revolution in India. However, his analysis of British dominance exhibits the same ambivalence he displays regarding capitalism in Europe. Marx insists that the shift from feudal to bourgeois society is both essential and ultimately progressive despite the tremendous pain that is brought about at both instances.
There are many different ideologies that disagree with Marx's legacy. These include Leninism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Luxemburgism, and libertarian Marxism in terms of politics. Marx's writings had an intellectual impact on the development of contemporary sociology. Marx is regarded as the father of modern sociology in the discipline. In addition, he left a significant legacy in the humanities, arts, and literature.
Numerous "Marxist" revolutions occurred throughout the 20th century in various nations. His theories would also have a significant impact on later artists and art history. May 2018 saw a 4. Karl Marx's 5-meter statue was unveiled in Trier, the city where he was born. Other great leaders that credited Marx with inspiring them include Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vladimir Lenin, and Jean-Claude Juncker.
== Marxism ==
No single, definitive Marxist theory exists. Marxism has had a profound impact on global academia. It has influenced many fields, including anthropology, archaeology, art theory, criminology, cultural studies, education, ethics, film theory, geography, historiography, literary criticism, media studies, psychology, science studies, sociology, urban planning, and theatre. A Marxist would conclude that capitalism exploits and oppresses the proletariat. In a socialist society, private property would be replaced by cooperative ownership.
A socialist economy would base production on the criteria of satisfying human needs. According to Marxian crisis theory, socialism is not an inevitability but an economic necessity. Karl Marx's account of the theory of historical materialism is in The German Ideology (1845) and the preface A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859). According to Marx, the "sum total of the forces of production accessible to men determines the condition of society". From this base rises a superstructure of legal and political "forms of social consciousness" that derive from the economic base.
Marx considered recurring class conflicts as the driving force of human history. While historical materialism has been referred to as a materialist theory of history, Marx did not claim to have produced a master key to history. Exploitation has been a socioeconomic feature of every class society. In pre-capitalist economies, exploitation of the worker was achieved via physical coercion. Under capitalism, workers do not own the means of production and must "voluntarily" enter into an exploitative work relationship with a capitalist.
In Capital, Marx describes social classes based on ownership of means of production and control over labour power. Proletariat are wage labourers reduced to selling their labour power in order to live. The petite bourgeoisie are those who work but can afford little labour power (i.e. peasants, landlords and trade workers). In Marxism, political economy is the study of the means of production, specifically of capital and how that manifests as economic activity. This new way of thinking was invented because socialists believed that common ownership would abolish the exploitative working conditions experienced under capitalism.
Marx saw the end of class society as the fundamental division of all hitherto existing history. Karl Marx saw work, the effort by humans to transform the environment for their needs, as a fundamental feature of humankind. Capitalism, in which the product of the worker's labour is taken from them and sold at the market, is alienating to the worker. According to orthodox Marxist theory, overthrowing capitalism by a socialist revolution in society is inevitable. Classical Marxism denotes the collection of socio-eco-political theories expounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Failure of 1905 Russian Revolution led to renewed theoretical effort and contributions from Lenin and Luxemburg. In 1883, Marx wrote to Paul Lafargue and Jules Guesde, accusing them of "revolutionary phrase-mongering". Libertarian Marxism is one of the main currents of libertarian socialism. Notable theorists of libertarian Marxism include Maurice Brinton, Cornelius Castoriadis, Guy Debord, Raya Dunayevskaya, Daniel Guérin, C. L. R. James, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Negri, Anton Pannekoek, Fredy Perlman, Ernesto Screpanti, Raoul Vaneigem, and Yanis Varoufakis. Theory of Marxist archaeology was developed in the Soviet Union by Vladislav Ravdonikas in 1929.
The discipline of archaeology as it then stood was criticised as inherently bourgeois, therefore anti-socialist. These theoretical developments were subsequently adopted by archaeologists working in capitalist states outside of the Leninist bloc.
During the 1940s, the Western Marxist school became accepted within Western academia. Due to its former state-supported position, there has been a backlash against Marxist thought in post-communist states. However, it remains dominant in sociological research sanctioned and supported by communist states. Research examines and develops Marxist pedagogy in the postdigital era. Engels' treatise The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 was salient in creating the socialist impetus in British politics.
Notable histories include the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), published in the 1930s. Some notable Marxist aestheticians include Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Lifshitz, William Morris, Theodor W. Adorno, Bertolt Brecht, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukács, Louis Althusser, Jacques Rancière, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Raymond Williams. After Marx was deported from France in 1845, he and Engels moved to Belgium. In 1847, they began writing The Communist Manifesto, based on Engels' The Principles of Communism. By 1849, they had to leave Cologne for London; the Prussian authorities pressured the UK to expel them.
The Chinese Communist Revolution occurred within the context of the Chinese Civil War. Throughout the Civil War, Mao Zedong developed a theory of Marxism for the Chinese historical context. Mao found a large base of support in the peasantry as opposed to the Russian Revolution which found its primary support in urban centres. In 1959, the Cuban Revolution led to the victory of Fidel Castro and his July 26 Movement. In 1966, the Maoist government undertook the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.
The late 1980s saw the collapse of most of those socialist states that had professed a Marxist–Leninist ideology. China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam remained the only officially Marxist–Leninist states. Maoist government led by Prachanda was elected into power in Nepal in 2008. The early 21st century saw the election of socialist governments in several Latin American nations. Xi has stressed the importance of examining and continuing the tradition of the CPC and embracing its revolutionary past.
The fidelity of those revolutionaries, leaders and parties to the work of Karl Marx is highly contested. Criticism of Marxism has come from various political ideologies and academic disciplines. Leszek Kołakowski: "Marx's theory is incomplete or ambiguous in many places, and could be 'applied' in many contradictory ways". Okishio's theorem shows that if capitalists use cost-cutting techniques and real wages do not increase, the rate of profit must rise. Some argue that internally inconsistent theories cannot be correct by definition.
The relationship between Marx and other socialist thinkers and organizations has divided Marxists from other socialists since Marx's life. Orthodox Marxists opposed a less dogmatic, more innovative, or even revisionist Marxism. Anarchists and many non-Marxist libertarian socialists reject the need for a transitory state phase. Karl Marx's economic theory was fundamentally flawed because it attempted to simplify the economy into a few general laws that ignored the impact of institutions on the economy, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argue. Second-generation Austrian economist Eugen Böhm-Bawerk used praxeological and subjectivist methodology to fundamentally attack the law of value.