 Marx in 1875  Born: 5 May 1818  Trier, Kingdom of Prussia  Died: 14 March 1883 (aged 64)  London, United Kingdom  Era: 19th-century philosophy  Region: Western Philosophy, German philosophy  School:Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Materialism  Main interests: Politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, labour, history, class struggle,

 German economist, philosopher, and revolutionist, Karl Marx’s writings form the basis of the body of ideas known as Marxism. As one of the most original and influential thinkers of modern times, Karl Marx produced, with the aid of Friedrich Engels, much of the theory of modern socialism and communism.  Marx lived in a period of unrestrained capitalism when exploitation and misery were the lot of the industrial working classes, and it was his and Engels’ humanitarianism and concern for social justice that inspired his work.  A student at the University of Berlin, Marx was strongly influenced by the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel and by a radical group called Young Hegelians, who attempted to apply Hegelian ideas to the movement against organized religion and the Prussian autocracy.  In 1841, Marx received a doctorate in philosophy.

 Marx never lived to see it, and believed that world revolution would begin in England, avowed Marxists were responsible for the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent rise of the Soviet Union.  Max Weber was a German thinker who, like Marx, was no fan of capitalism. He linked the rise of capitalism with the Protestant Work Ethic, a byproduct of the Protestant sect called Calvinism, which stressed frugality along with spirituality.  Marx believed that economic relationships were of primary importance, and the conflict between the classes was an inevitability, due to the chasm between the haves and have-nots. This is called the Social Conflict theory.  He is also famous for saying that religion was the opiate of the masses. In other words, he was not what you would call a religious man. In fact, he felt that the focus on being good little boys and girls in this life in order to be rewarded in the next led to a population of passive sheep. And this passivity was exploited by the ruling class to further their capitalist goals and keep the masses docile, yet of service.

 Though a communist, Marx put a lot of stock in materialism. He believed that the major force in world affairs is production: the making and accumulation of stuff. Workers hired to produce the goods that make the world go round feel no great pride in their labors. This only leads to alienation, unrest, and ultimately, revolution.  Marx did not foresee the fact that the communist governments that emerged in the twentieth century have been among the most cruel dictatorships and wanton human rights violators the world has ever known. The injustices of his age were real and needed repair, but the legacy he bequeathed the twentieth century brought only more terror and totalitarianism into the world.

 According to what I have read, Marx's worldview, the majority of people toiled with little reward while the upper classes reaped the fruits of their labor. He saw an inherent inequality in capitalism. Marx believed that situation could not go on forever, and it would eventually reach critical mass and result in a revolution of the working classes against their capitalist masters. He believed the results of this rebellion would lead to a paradisiacal communist form of government with freedom for all.

 “Man is directly a natural being. As a natural being and as a living natural being he is on the one hand endowed with natural powers, vital powers – he is an active natural being. These forces exist in him as tendencies and abilities – as instincts. On the other hand, as a natural, corporeal, sensuous objective being he is a suffering, conditioned and limited creature, like animals and plants”. That is to say, the objects of his instincts exist outside him, as objects independent of him; yet these objects are objects that he needs – essential objects, indispensable to the manifestation and confirmation of his essential powers  Marx says are characteristic of humans: ...for other human beings, for sexual relations, for food, water, clothing, shelter, rest and, more generally, for circumstances that are conducive to health rather than disease. There is another one... the need of people for a breadth and diversity of pursuit and hence of personal development, as Marx himself expresses these, 'all- round activity', 'all-round development of individuals', 'free development of individuals', 'the means of cultivating [one's] gifts in all directions', and so on.  “It is true that eating, drinking, and procreating, etc., are... genuine human functions. However, when abstracted from other aspects of human activity, and turned into final and exclusive ends, they are animal”.

 Marx’s contributions to philosophy and economics are broad, though, serving a clear purpose. Marx established historical, economic and social theories which lead to conclusions about capitalism and the reformation in a system of Marxist socialism. A clear evolution of Marx’s though can be seen by following his works throughout history; with Kapital being his primary economic piece, eventually, we see a transformation to one of his arguably most important works, Grundrisse, which David McLellan, described as “the most fundamental Marxist work.”  Marx’s theory of value, perhaps his most important contribution to the field of economics, albeit, the most rejected — stated that the value of any given commodity is determined by the socially average simple labour time used to create it, giving skilled labour value in multiple units of unskilled labour, suggesting that the market determines all prices based on this mythical underlying labour cost.  He introduced two topics, labour power and labour time; the first being the actual ability for people to do work, while the latter was the time/hourly basis for wages. He believed that labour power, would result in the creation of “surplus value” which would allow the exploitation of the proletariat, so long as the productive capacity of society was greater than that of its subsistence. The idea was simply that capitalists were in such a position that they could mandate the number of hours — the amount of labour time — a employee worked, or tell them they could not work at all. The need for food, then forces the workers to work.

 Therefore I conclude that this philosopher believed the results of this rebellion would lead to a paradisiacal communist form of government with freedom for all.