Karl Heinrich Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in the city of Trier in the Rhine province of Prussia, now in Germany. Marx was an economic theorist who composed the idea of communism which included the idea of all the people owning all the property and infrastructure. These theories played a large role in international politics and the cold war in the mid to late 20th century.
Marx was the oldest surviving boy of nine children. (Perhaps this is where his theory on equality of resources began. Competing with eight brothers and sisters for attention would have seen an unequal distribution of the parent’s resources to the children) His mother, born Henrietta Pressburg, was from Holland. Both parents were Jewish and were descended from a long line of rabbis, but, a year or so before Karl was born, his father--probably because his professional career required it--was baptized in the Evangelical Established Church. Karl was baptized when he was six years old. Even though Karl was baptized as a youth he still faced discrimination because of his Jewish background. (Marx may have seen from this discrimination that religion wasn’t necessary and was “ the opium of the masses)
In October 1835 Marx matriculated at the University of Bonn. The courses he attended were exclusively in the humanities, in subjects such as Greek and Roman mythology and the history of art. He participated in the usual student activities got involved in a fight and spent a day in jail for being drunk and disorderly.
Mark left the University and enrolled at the Berlin University to start a law degree. Here Marx joined a Hegelian club these clubs followed the teachings of a philosopher called Hegel. The club denounced religion particularly Christianity.
In January 1842 Marx began contributing to a newspaper newly founded in Cologne, the Rheinische Zeitung. It was the liberal democratic organ of a group of young merchants, bankers, and industrialists. By October 1842 Marx became editor of the newspaper. Marx built up the circulation and began writing controversial editorials. Eventually the Prussian authorities suspended production of the newspaper because it was seen as being too controversial. In June 1843 Marx married his fiancée of seven years, Jenny von Westphalen. They moved to Paris which was at the time the centre of socialist thought. Marx met his life long buddy Frederich Engels here and they wrote the French – German yearbook.
In the movie Into the Wild Chris McCandless, the main character, held many of the same transcendentalist ideals that influential transcendentalists such as Henry David Thoreau held; however, Chris is a prime example of someone who missed the point by a long shot. In accordance to the transcendentalist beliefs, Chris decided that after going to college he would go out into the world by himself instead of going into the workforce. From there, he went on a long and exhausting journey to eventually end up in Alaska. He did this based on his gut feeling at the time, something that Thoreau urged people to follow. As with many transcendentalists, Chris valued his individuality and broke off all ties to society that he had during his journey. Chris
Transcendentalism plays a key role in all of our lives. Many commonly shared values are rooted from the transcendental keys. Some devote their entire lives to try and live as transcendental as possible. For example, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were huge undertakers in these ideas and virtues. Chris McCandless looked up to these great thinkers and many others to find an outline for his life. McCandless dedicated his entire life to following many transcendental keys such as non-conformity, reducing dependence on property, and self-reliance.
Chris McCandless is believed to be a transcendentalist for many reasons one of them being his self reliance. One of the main concepts of transcendentalism is relying
Chris grew up reading the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Jack London. From these authors, Chris got his inspiration to lead the life of a transcendentalist. Chris became a transcendentalist by developing a closeness to nature, by practicing individualism, and by disregarding materialism. Ever since Chris was a transcendentalist, he enjoyed the serenity of being alone by
To Chris the civilized world of the present is toxic, it must be left behind for hopes of achieving transcendentalism. Gaylord Stuckey describes Chris’s hopes before entering the Alaska interior to Jon Krakauer when being interviewed about his encounter with Chris. Stuckey says, “‘He didn’t want to see a single person, no airplanes, no sign of civilization” (159). Chris does not believe it will be possible for him to reach the same type of enlightenment he seeks with human civilization around him. To him this enlightenment must be reached through nature, pure nature. Chris sees human civilization as suffocating, one can never truly escape if any form of it is still around. It ties people down to their world, not letting them be free. Chris also believes his enlightenment will come from solitude, and in his eyes solitude is impossible to find if any piece of civilization is around, because then there is always someone with him in his mind. In order to reach his enlightenment Chris must be alone in his quest, he cannot have too much contact or help from someone, because then he never would have survived on his own in the wilderness. So for Chris to achieve his goal of transcendentalism, he must abandon all civilization in the hopes of finding true wilderness without too much assistance, that is the only way for his great odyssey to
An important aspect of Transcendentalism is respecting nature and viewing it as a gift. Chris used nature's resources by killing his own meat, and finding plants with the help from his books. He explored the land because he wanted to experience the allure of nature as an escape from the society he never believed in. His mother Billie said “He’d find some animal in a trap, take it home, amputate the injured limb, heal it, and then let it go again.” (108) Clearly from early on, Chris had a connection with nature and he as a human wanted to use his knowledge to help other species that were danger. A passage Chris highlighted in one of his books stated that “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” (117) He travelled to find truth from within himself, different people he met and from nature. Throughout these new experiences his opinions were not distorted by society because nature provides the freedom to be a free thinker and find that truth. Due to his interest in learning about wildlife and the comfort it provided him, Chris was positively impacted by the transcendental value of
Up until the age of twelve, Marx was educated at home, most likely from his mother. From 1830 to 1835, Marx attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium, which was the Jesuit high school located in Trier. He was classically educated in subjects such as history, mathematics, literature and other languages. Marx learned to fluently read and write in French and Latin. As an advanced scholar he continued to learn by teaching himself to read English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian and Dutch. Although he could articulate the English language relatively well, Marx never lost his thick German accent. In an attempt to fulfill his father’s desire that he become a lawyer and follow in his footsteps, Marx began studying law at the University of Bonn inn1835. His stay was short-lived due to unsatisfactory behavior according to his father. Marx was frequently disturbing the peace, was rebellious, was imprisoned for being intoxicated and got into physical altercations with other cohorts. In 1836 his father enrolled him in the University of Berlin. He remained more grounded and focused while studying both law and philosophy. Marx then received a doctorate from the University of Jena in 1841. His aspirations of becoming a professor were put to an end because of his radical political views and he had trouble securing a steady
Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Prussia. A well-known philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary that studied law at the University of Bonn. He then switched to philosophy and continued education at Berlin. Together with Friedrich Engels, Marx produced some of his major works ‘The German Ideology’ (1846), ‘The Communist Manifesto’ (1848), and ‘Das Capital’ (1867). Das Capital remains to be Marx’s greatest achievement, a powerful insight that
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.
Chris Mccandless can be seen as a transcendentalist however, some people may argue that he is not. For example, some could say that “Christopher Mccandless as another boy who felt too much, a loopy young man who read too many books and lacked even a modicum of common sense.” However, that is not the case. Chris chose to live minimally and be one with the land while relying on himself to face challenges that came his way (Krakauer 184). Therefore, Chris can be seen as a true transcendentalist because he can make do with bare minimum while living with a
Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in the city of Trier in the
Welcome to CHSBS! | Central Michigan University. Karl Marx. Retrieved January 27, 2014, from http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/fattah/COURSES/modernthought/marx.htm
Individual simplicity is one of the main characteristics of being a Transcendentalist and along with the founding father of this movement Christopher McCandless was able to demonstrate this characteristic in his life. Although, coming from a model family and moving towards success Chris’ drastic changes towards a Transcendental life due to his beliefs shows his individual simplicity. McCandless truly embodied this trait in his reasoning behind his long journey to the Alaskan wilderness and his reflection on why he had made such radical changes in his life.
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.
In high school, Marx was a good student, whom often expressed interest in the peasant community. He also evolved into a reader of new romantic literature. In 1835, he was a student at the University of Bonn and had ...