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Ariana Marshall

PHIL105

Essay 2

02 May 2023

Karl Marx

When an individual thinks of Communism, Karl Marx is the person that may come to

mind. What individuals need to understand is that Communism didn’t come directly from Marx

himself. Marx cultivated Marxism which became the “intellectual foundation of Communism”

(Magee, 164). Marxism was to be the only true form of socialism. Marx was treated as a

revolutionary/activist rather than a philosopher. Nevertheless, Marx was trained as a philosopher.

He studied social sciences and history and is proclaimed to have influence in the creation of the

modern world. Marx understood morality, which helped him explain the class systems better

than any other philosopher.

Marx was born in Prussia in the town of Trier on the year 1818. He was one of nine

children and came from Jewish families on both his mother and father’s side of the family; both

families had distinguished rabbinical lineages. His father had a prominent career as a lawyer but

had to change his religion to Christianity if he wanted to continue his career as legal personnel.

For college, Marx attended the University of Bonn. During his time there he was imprisoned for

intoxication and also for fighting with another student. After that, he was enrolled at the

University of Berlin, at his parents’ requests. Here at the university of Berlin, he studied

philosophy and Law. At the University of Berlin is where he met Professor G.W.F. Hegel, who is

mentioned in our required text. He also joined a group called the “Young Hegelians”. In this

group they challenged existing institutions and ideas such as religion, philosophy, ethics, and
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politics. Marx wrote his doctoral thesis on ancient philosophy by comparing the theologies of

Democritus and Epicurus. After completing his higher education, Marx decided that he would

become a journalist then turned editor for the Rheinische Zeitung in the year of 1842. The

Rheinische Zeitung was shut down a year later in April by the Prussian authorities. By June

1843, Marx married his wife, Jenny von Westaphalen, who was his childhood sweetheart. This

union produced seven children and only three would survive to adulthood. Within the same year

Marx moved to Paris and met his longtime collaborator and good friend, Friedrich Engles. In

1845, Marx was expelled from France; the Prussian government intervened to get him expelled.

Marx and Engels moved to Brussels, Belgium and this is where Marx renounced his Prussian

citizenship. In 1848, he left Belgium before being expelled by that country’s government. He

briefly returned to Paris and to Germany before settling in London; in London is where he would

live the rest of his life. He was never granted British citizenship, but he worked as a journalist

there as well being a correspondent for the New York Daily Tribune for ten years. He never

earned minimum wage but was supported financially by Engels. Marx passed away on March 14,

1883, from pleurisy and bronchitis.

Marx has numerous of works that he was worked on from the time he achieved higher

education until the time of his death. He and his lifelong collaborator, Engels created many

works that would become impactful on modern society of today. Throughout his lifetime, Marx

has published no less than fifteen complete multi-volume books. Besides these published works,

he has published pamphlets, numerous articles, and essays. During his time in London, they say

he would be spotted in the London British Museum writing and reading. Marx has two most

famously published works that are known around the world for his ideas and theories about

society and capitalism. Those two works are “The Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital”.
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The Communist Manifesto is a summary of Marx and Engels’s theories about the nature

of politics and society. This work also goes to explain the goals of Marxism, which is later

named socialism. This work was published in 1848, about the time when Marx and Engels were

living in Brussels, Belgium. When writing this, Marx and Engels explain and describe how

unstable capitalism was and how the capitalist society at the time would soon be replaced by a

socialist society. It was to clarify the Communist Party platform and it laid out all the roles and

goals of this particular party. This work was purely influenced by the theories of G.W.F. Hegel,

although Marx inverted Hegel’s theory. Hegel thought that the spirit and mind drove history,

while Marx thought that material reality was the drive of change. Marx and Engels wrote this

knowing that there was a growing sense of a revolution soon coming. This work was initially

published as a pamphlet.

The next work that Marx worked on was ‘Das Kapital” which translates to Capital in

English. This work was a critique of capitalism which totaled to be three volumes. “Das Kapital”

explains all of Marx’s theories on labor markets, the social division of labor, commodities

production, and the understanding of the rate of return to owners of capital. This work can be

categorized as “one of the most influential books in the history of the world” (Magee, 165). Marx

published the first volume, and it has been claimed to be a “masterwork of economic theory”

(History.com, 2009). He wanted to express his desire to reveal the economic law of motion of

modern society. Marx also described how capitalism is its own dynamic system that “contained

the seeds of its own self destruction and subsequent triumph of communism” (History.com,

2009). By time the third volume was finished, Marx passed away and was published

posthumously by Engles with only Marx’s notes. It is said that many critiques and ideas of
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capitalism remain relevant such as the ideas of “persistent employment, mega corporations, and

the general struggle between workers and employers” (Kenton, 2023).

Marx described communism as “a society in which each person should contribute

according to their ability and receive according to their need” (Wolf et al, 2021). According to

Marx, this was a theory of justice. In Marx’s writings, it is suggested that communism would be

a society of abundance; we are not sure if that is true or not. His work had laid out foundations

for leaders to see if his theory is true or not about communism. Leaders such as Vladimir Lenin

and Josef Stalin have led their countries based of the form of Marxism and not communism due

to communism contained the seeds of its own destruction. Marx had his own ideas of how

capitalism leads to communism. Marx believed if all countries become a capitalist country which

develop a productive capacity, workers would soon naturally revolt. This leads communism

where workers would become the dominant class and control the means of production.

Today, Marx is known a controversial subject where some are open to read and learn

about his ideas whereas others turn away and frown upon it. Nevertheless, he and Engel’s work

still remain relevant. His theories about capitalism and communist revolutions that would follow

proved to be false and incorrect. But his intellectual legacy in society wouldn’t be philosophy,

but critique in today’s time. Individuals can argue that Marx did leave an impact on politics, how

society is viewed, and how philosophy works. He just wanted workers of all lands to unite and

come together to make a better place for them.

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Works Cited

“Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto, Theories & Beliefs.” History.com, A&E Television
Networks, https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/karl-marx.

Kenton, Will. “Karl Marx: His Books, Theories, and Impact.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 28
Mar. 2023, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/karl-marx.asp.

Magee, Bryan. “Karl Marx.” The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley, New York, 2016, pp.
164–171.

Wolff, Jonathan and David Leopold, "Karl Marx", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/marx/