Karl Marx and His Beliefs About Society

Karl Marx and His Beliefs About Society

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, several aspects of life were coming together for those that lived in Europe, and especially for those that lived in England. The Scientific Revolution had ended in the late seventeenth century; consequently, leaving the lingering aspects of science as a proven way to show that some ideologies of the Catholic Church were incorrect. The Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century had caused all of England and Europe to decide where to let their lives lead them in terms of faith; either towards Christianity, or towards Protestantism. The final time period that had a major impact on the English and European society was the Industrial Revolution, which introduced new ways to make life easier in terms of the production of goods, and make life as simple as possible. These three main time periods gave Karl Marx the reason and drive to reform the way that society was run, as shown in the words that he wrote in the Communist Manifesto pertaining to the life of the individual in terms of faith.

The society in the time of Marx’s writing dealt with many past events in which their faith and social standing was questioned. The latter part of the Scientific Revolution, around the middle of the seventeenth century, greatly influenced a change in faith with the public as a whole due to the new developments brought about by scientists. Up to that point, the Church, which controlled the thought process of Europe throughout most of the previous centuries, had not ever really been challenged in terms of the theories taught. The Church said that Earth was the center of the universe, whereas philosophers, such as Copernicus and Galileo, proved oth...

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... was ready to change the way life was lived.

Endnotes:

1. Paulos Mar Gregorios, A Light Too Bright the Enlightenment Today: An Assessment of

the Values of the European Enlightenment and a Search for New Foundations (New York:

State University of New York Press/ Albany, 1992), 7.

2. Peter Gilmour, Philosophers of the Enlightenment, (Trenton: Barnes and Noble, 1990),

133-134.

3. Colin Gunton, Enlightenment and Alienation: An Essay Towards Trinitarian Theology

(Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985), 125.

4. UD Humanities Document Binder, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), 41, 52.

5. UD, 41,53.

6. Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

2000), 141.

7. Plantinga, 367.

8. UD, 41, 52.