Karl Marx ()—born in German Rhineland to Jewish parents who converted to Christianity just before Karl’s birth
• entered the University of Bonn in 1835 to study law, but had to withdraw because he spent too much time drinking and partying
• transferred to the University of Berlin, but tur...
Karl Marx (1818-1883)—born in German Rhineland to Jewish parents who converted to
Christianity just before Karl’s birth
• entered the University of Bonn in 1835 to study law, but had to withdraw because he spent too
much time drinking and partying
• transferred to the University of Berlin, but turned to study of philosophy after exposure to the
ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831)
• Hegel’s theory was attractive to many students at the time because it was an ambitious
attempt to provide a comprehensive and systematic account of human development
culminating in complete human freedom and fulfillment
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, • Hegel’s theory described history as a rational process that followed a predictable
path, and not just a series of random or disconnected events
• Geist (translated as mind or spirit) was the prime moving force in history
• as student, Marx joined Young Hegelians—group of radical leftists who debated what
should replace the role of Christianity or “absolute spirit” in Hegel’s philosophy
• Marx turned to journalism, writing for Deutsche Jahrbücher and the Rheinische Zeitung
• Marx moved to Paris in 1843, where he mixed with radicals
• he briefly settled in Brussels, where he organized a Communist Correspondence Committee
• Marx eventually settled in London, where he remained until his death
• Marx’s struggles in London and his dependence on Friedrich Engels
• part-time foreign correspondent publishing articles for the New York Tribune
• prolific publications, including The Poverty of Philosophy (1847); The Eighteenth
Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852); The Civil War in France; and 3-volume Capital
• early versus late Marx
• early Marx—humanist phase dominated by problem of alienation (estrangement
from human essence)
• late Marx—scientific phase dominated by problem of exploitation (lack of
satisfaction of human needs)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
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, Marx and Engels
• Marx first met Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) in 1842 in office of the Rhenische Zeitung, but
their work together started two years later in Paris
• Engels was the son of a wealthy industrialist who owned cotton mills in Manchester England
• significance of textiles at this time in history—at the forefront of the Industrial
Revolution and the sweeping social and technological changes ushered in during the 19 th
century
• Engels described working conditions in factories in lurid detail in The Conditions of the
Working Class in England (1844)
• Engels supported Marx, who was always broke, throughout his life
• Marx and Engels produced a number of important works: The German Ideology (1846); The
Communist Manifesto (1848); The Holy Family (1845)
• together they helped organize and found various international communist and worker’s
organizations, most importantly including the First International (International Working Men’s
Association) in 1864, and the Second International after Marx’s death in 1889
• after Marx’s death Engels edited several volumes of Marx’s works and made them more readily
available
Dialectical Materialism (Historical Materialism)—ambitious theory of historical development
that stresses the priority of economic conditions in shaping political, social, and intellectual life
—but sees all these activities and realms as part of single totality
• basic claim—the best explanation of human life, including political change, lies in productive
activities
• the aim is to develop a comprehensive and systematic theory of human development and
explanation of political change over time from one period or epoch of human existence to
another
• Marx’s approach seeks to understand society as a totality where every part of society is
interconnected
• 2 dimensional goal: to understand the world and to change it—analytical and critical
dimensions
• critical dimension of the theory was motivated by desire to emancipate or
liberate humans from necessity and unfreedom
• analytical dimension of the theory consists of 2 parts: 1) materialist ontology,
and 2) historical analysis
Materialism
• idea that objective reality exists independent of human consciousness
• emphasizes the need to examine humans as they “really live,” to examine them in their actual,
concrete material conditions
• understand humans as they “really are” rather than how they ought to be
• philosophy has treated ideas as if they are the real determining forces of human
existence rather than analyzing the actual circumstances of life
• Marx starts his analysis with basic empirical facts about humans—physical needs, e.g.,
food, shelter, etc.
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