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
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Georg Hegel (1770-1831)
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Main Works: The
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Dominant
philosophical
influence in Germany
of the early 1800s
Phenomenology of
Spirit; The Philosophy
of History; The
Philosophy of Right
Hegel’s 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 Marx’s 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
“contradictions”—problems inherent to the
system that can’t be solved within the system—
thus economic development is dialectical
 History is the history of class conflict
 Utopian element: economic development is
inevitable, and terminates in communism
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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 (1820-1895)

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First met Marx in 1842
They frequently
collaborated, most
notably on the
Communist Manifesto

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Served as Marx’s
economic support during
his exile
After Marx’s death, edited
and published Capital
Engels’ Writings

The Condition of the Working Class in England

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and
the State (1884); Marxist analysis of the
(1845); first-hand exposé of the living conditions
of the working poor
economic origins of some of society’s 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 Men’s 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
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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?
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Fall of the U.S.S.R. allows us to disconnect
Marx’s ideas from Soviet policies
Influence of Marx’s 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