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Karl Marx is the revolutionary founding father of communism and Marxism, while Niccolo Machiavelli expounded upon the concept of realism through his work The Prince. These two concepts have been the foundations that various countries and governments have tried to utilize in hopes of constructing a utopian society.
Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier Germany, studying history, philosophy, and law at the universities of Berlin, Jena, and Bonn. Karl Marx did not like the production portion of Capitalism; he found it to be a signal of great trouble. Marx believed that the production stage of capitalism worked in a way that the rich owners of these companies benefited whereas the poor workers did not. So the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. (Marx 1994, p119-142) Marx believed that the need to meet society’s individuals’ desires leads to production, that practical activity in a practical world leads to the desire to meet the needs of the people in society. This economic philosophy ties into Marxism; the concept that any given political development was a result of class conflict, where the exploiter class comprised of the wealthy and powerful who would eventually come into conflict with the exploited, creating a revolutionary change. From this revolutionary change would appear a new set of exploiters and exploited, where the cycle would continue over and over until there were no classes but all were equal, creating a utopian communism where everyone enjoys the results of their hard work equally. (Taylor 2011, pg 104) Karl Marx believed that the driving factor that would enable Marxism to work is the fact that every individual played a vital role in the sustainment of the society. If one piece was missing then all pro...
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...uman flaws we have that lead to the corruption that power brings. I believe there is no perfect government; just one whose benefits outweigh the costs.
References
Cropsey, Joseph, and Strauss, 1987. History of Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hausman, Daniel. 2007. The Philosophy of Economics. Cambridge University Press.
"Karl Marx", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/marx/. (accessed March 3, 2014).
Marx, Karl, “Ideology and Method in Political Economy,” in The Philosophy of Economics, 2nd ed., ed. Daniel M. Hausman (New York: Cambridge UP, 1994), 119-142.
Political Realism. International Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/polreal/ (accessed March 3, 2014).
Taylor, Steven. 30-Second Politics. New York: Metro Books, 2011
Kreis, Steven. “The History Guide: Lectures on modern European Intellectual History”. http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html October 18, 2013
Marx, Karl. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." marxists.org. marxists.org, 20/9/2009. Web. 26 Mar 2010. .
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The Marx-Engels reader. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) is a German philosopher and revolutionary socialist. Karl Marx born in Prussia on May 5, 1818. He began exploring sociopolitical theories at university among the Young Hegelians after that he became a journalist and his socialist writings expelled him from Germany and France. In 1848, he published The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and then he was exiled to London, where he wrote his first volume of Das Kapital.
At this time in history, mankind was moving forward very rapidly, but at the price of the working-class. Wages were given sparsely, and when capital gain improved, the money payed for labour did not reflect this prosperity. This, therefore, accelerated the downfall of the proletarians and progressed towards a justifiable revolt against the oppressive middle class. The conclusion of this revolt was envisioned to be a classless society, one in which its people benefit from and that benefits from its people. The overthrow of capitalism would create a socialist society eventually flourishing into communism. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 - 1883) was the philosophical analysis who created communism and saw it as an achievable goal. Marx denounced religion and created what were thought to be radical ideas, which resulted in the banishment from his native land of Germany and then France, eventually ending up in England.
The German thinker, Karl Marx (1818-1883), wanted to understand and explain the changes that occurred in society at the time of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. (ibid) In 1843 Marx met Engels in Paris. It marked the beginning of a lifelong of friendship and professional collaboration. In 1848 Marx and Engels published “The Communist Manifesto”. The Manifesto outlined the struggles between classes. From then onwards it has become apparent that Marx was not an economist. His theories are a combination of economics, history, sociology and politics. Marx moved to London in 1849 where he spent the rest of his life.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Trans. Paul M. Sweeny. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998.
Marxism is a philosophy coined by Karl Marx with the help of Friedrich Engles in the early nineteenth century. Marx’s writings inspired many progressive thinkers throughout the European continent and the United States. The Marxist doctrine stated that first a bourgeoisie revolution, which will ignite a capitalist fire. The political philosopher believed that communism could only thrive in a society distressed by “the political and economic circumstances created by a fully developed capitalism” With industry and capitalism growing a working class develops and begins to be exploited. According to Marx, the exploiting class essentially is at fault for their demise, and the exploited class eventually comes to power through the failure of capitalism:
Karl Marx, the preface, “a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,” written 1859, Progress Publisher, Moscow, Translated by S. W. Ryazanskaya 1999
Bender, Frederic L. Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ed. 1988.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and political theorist. He developed the socio-political theory of Marxism. One of his most famous works is The Communist Manifesto that he co-wrote with Friedrich Engels. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx discusses his theories on society, economics and politics. He believed that “all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle”. He criticized capitalism, and referred to it as the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Marx believed that capitalism was unfair because the rich middle and upper class people manipulated the system and used it for their own benefit while we get the short end of the stick. We, being average Americans— like myself— who go to college full-time, juggle a job, and yet are constantly struggling just to make ends meet: the unappreciated, exploited and underpaid every day h...
As a German philosopher, a politician, and an important figure within the Communist League, Karl Heinrich Marx birthed a new way of looking at things through his beliefs, ideas, and writings. Karl Marx was considered to be “…certainly one of the most important minds of modern times”(1). He wanted to know more about philosophy, so that he might understand the political and social system better.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the communist party. CH Kerr & Company, 1906. Print.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.