Karl Marx

KARL MARX

As one of the world’s most well-known philosophers, Marx is still important today because of his great contributions to the ways that the world works and concepts of how governments should be run. With his socialist ideals Marx helped pave way for future communist leaders, forming the Communist Correspondence which lead to the Communist League, writing numerous essays on socialism within society, Marx changed how socialist philosophies were thought of.

Born in 1818 in Germany, Marx was raised in a household of Jews - turned - Christians in attempt to get out of some rather unfortunate rules directed towards Jews. His parents were big supporters of the Prussian reforms raising Marx and his siblings on their beliefs. For his education Marx went to a Jesuit Gymnazium (Germany has three schools: Gymnazium, Realshule, and, Hauptschule. Gymnazium is the school system that allows students to go to college). There he was taught by a respected liberal until the school was shut down when he was in year eleven.

Enrolling in the University of Bonn, seventeen year old Marx tried for a law degree. However his plan of getting a degree from Germany’s part school did not work out for Karl Marx as he was arrested during his freshman year for having a drunken bar fight, prompting his parents to transfer him to a different University. Moving to the University of Berlin, Marx, was introduced to the philosophy of G.W. F. Hegel, something he found - after a few semesters of --- - fascinating. At the university he was also introduced to philosopher Bruno Bauer, and his wife, Jenny von Westphalen.

Hegelianism: the thing every German teen was into. Based on the beliefs of Georg Hegel (hence the name), this philosophy was set on principles of Absolute. A thought movement based on history and logic, Hegelianism, caught on fast in Germany. Marx was just one in millions of supporters. George Hegel believed that everything should be based off of a series of what he claimed as “Absolutes”. This coined Absolute claimed itself as embracing total reality, that way, at least Hegel thought, nobody would be forgotten- a consideration of all of history.

Karl Marx as Prometheus

Wilhelm Weitling

Manuscript of Das Kapital

After graduating Karl got a job as editor of a Rheinische Zeitung, a liberal magazine in Cologne, Germany. Then Germany decided that they much rather preferred not to have a liberal magazine slamming their political decisions and the Rheinische Zeitung was shut down.To run away from a very ticked off government, Marx, went to France. In France he became acquainted with his good friend and partner Frederick Engels. The two where philosophy buddies, earning their reputation for life long essay places with their criticism on Bruno Bauer's philosophy -on of Marx’s old university friends. It was here where Marx became a communist instituting his new found philosophies within his series of writings, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

Being expelled from France by the Prussian Government, Marx took off to Brussels with Engels and his wife. In Brussels, Marx, found himself infatuated with yet another philosophy, Socialism. To Marx, socialism was a way of disbanding inequality, the answer to society's ever increasing bourgeoisie, and a chance to study a topic that fascinated him: historical capitalism and how its increase due to the industrial revolution will eventually collapse. This belief lead Marx to write the German Ideology, construct the communist correspondence committee , and write many other essays, the famed Communist manifesto among them.

The communist manifesto is an essay written in attempts to explain communist views and the underlying theme of the way that the communist movement works. Explaining the difference between the bourgeoisie (upper class) and proletariat (lower class) Marx shares his opinions on how the two social classes get divided and how communist ideals would deal with the inequality.

The Communist Correspondence Committee was a community founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in Brussels. The committee was aim around uniting socialist of March 03 1846, Marx gave a speech chastising  Wilhelm Weitling leveling of communism. Marx’s view of Scientific Communism influenced the committee's attributes in the movements to create a better workplace for people who strive for progression in the workplace. This committee paved way for the communist league.

A series that Marx began writing before his death was Das Kapital. This series expounded on his theory of the inevitable demise of a capitalist society. In Das Kapital,  Marx, establishes his theory on surplus value in labor and how that affects capitalist beliefs, claiming his purpose was to lay bare “the economic law of motion of modern society.” According to Marx it is not the population growth that is increasing unemployment, but capitalism instead, urging the use of communist philosophies to govern instead - the main point of his unfinished series.

Marxism: It takes a lot of effort to get a philosophy named after you, Karl Marx achieved that. With his ideals of how the classes should live together, Marx’s theories constructed Marxism. It is a philosophy based on his thoughts of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, how the two classes should live together in a way that would not be such a way of causing both of the parties to be so unequal to one another.