Karl Marx was one of the most influential philosophers, historian and a revolutionist of the 19 th century. His philosophical works still apply in the present day, in spite of the fact that fellow scholars of his time ignored most of his work while he was still alive. It was not until his death that the enlightened started to consider the truths in Marx’s theories. In the recent times, political dynasties have exited based on the Marxist theories, making Karl Marx of great significance in both political and social living. However, the modification of the ideologies of Karl Marx to fit into contemporary politics goes without say. This paper seeks to discuss Marx’s life and contribution to the field of philosophy, history and sociology through his postulations.
Karl Heinrich Marx was born to a middle class family on the 5 th day of May in 1818. The birthplace was in Trier, in Germany. His father was a renowned lawyer during the time and was a staunch protestant. Karl’s father had learnt the Voltaire and Lessing, which he had spent great time in his youth gaining knowledge. Coming from a Christian family, Karl Marx himself did not have much dedication in religion, which made him to investigate human living, rule and economy at the time. He would later explore the intricacies of human existence, comparing capitalism and his theory of communism ( Howard & King, 2014) .
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After finishing high school at the age of seventeen, Karl Marx joined University of Bonn to study law. After spending a year in Bonn, his father sought a transfer and moved him to University of Berlin, expanding his knowledge in law, social living and political ideologies. In 1841, the University of Jena acknowledged Karl Marx with a doctorate in philosophy and later he joined the editorial panel of Cologne newspaper. He also married his long-term friend, Jenny von Westphalen, whom he had met in University of Bonn. Jenny was a daughter of a famous associate of the Trier society, Baron von Westphalen ( Marx, 2015).
Karl and Jenny moved from German to Paris, and reconnected with a former accomplice Friedrich Engels, whom he would later collaborate with in writing his philosophical works. In Paris, Karl and Engels became great revolutionists, describing the suffering of the working class whose tireless efforts the ruling aristocrats were misusing. This led to an expulsion that would lead to the two moving to Brussels, where they continued to spread their ideologies. Marx and Engels produced a pamphlet they named “The Communist Manifesto”, which gained huge influence all over Europe. In this publication, Karl and Engel insisted on the history of the people as being a record of continued struggles as people strived to gain class. In this proposition, the capitalists, who own the wealth of the nations, would be pressed to give in to the demands of the proletariats. According to Karl, societal reshuffling would occur, dismantling the hierarchy of the people according to economic classes ( Veblen, 2015).
Before the chase from France, Karl had joined various activist groups, which fought for the rights of the working class. He also made publications that explained the social-economic disenfranchisement that existed in the economies in France, German, England and the larger Europe. The realization of the sense in these works did not occur until after the death of Karl Marx when his friend Engels officially published Karl’s writings. Some of the work addressed the gap that had existed between the French socialism and the infamous German Hegelians. Explicitly, Karl put across his view of the societal economic arrangements that he thought would be beneficial to the liberals at the time in the works he termed as Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. Most of these works dwelt on the alienation between the working class and the wealthy. Karl noted that the hardworking in the fields and the factories were not the real owners of the economy but the few, who composed of the ruling class and the so-called capitalists. This observation was inspired by the dissertations by Ludwig Feuerbach ( Veblen, 2015).
In Brussels, Karl had committed to the study of historical of human stratification. He conceptualized the idea of human struggles to overcome the odds of poverty and achieve economic dominance in a society that was highly capitalistic. He did part of this work in the article he published and named as the German Ideology. The center of this writing was to dissect through the materialistic nature that drives human existence. Karl descried how history had depicted humans in as industries of wealth, centered in and on advancements in production and accumulation of wealth. According to his observation, Karl termed the growing capitalism as a transitional state that communism would soon replace ( Nicolaievsky & Maenchen-Helfen, 2015).
Karl examined the work by Proudhon P. J. Against the ideologies of Proudhon, Karl explained that the advent of new system of wealth was inevitable in a state, which faced radicalization from the working class. Karl then joined the Communist League in support of the increasing enlightenment of the middle class. The Communist League was a creation by the immigrant population into German that sought address of the mistreatments that the workers faced in the factories, from long working hours, disproportionate compensation and lack of social rights for the factory employees. The capitol of the movement was in London, and the movement of Karl and Engel to London together with their declaration of support of the communists had a great significance in its growth. Seeking refuge in London after his stay in Paris became difficult due constant antagonism from the government of the day; Karl remained focused to spreading his ideas across Europe ( Marx et al, 2012) .
In London, Karl oversaw the revolution that was eminent in most countries in Europe. After settling in England, Karl commenced on the duty to educate the masses. He wrote two of the most influential pamphlets named The Class Struggles in France and the infamous The 18 th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. In these works, Karl was optimistic of an oncoming revolutionary change that would topple economic stratification. Karl maintained that the revolution would occur on the onset of a crisis that would not only affect the economic cycles but also the political arena of Europe. To understand this further, Karl committed himself to further evaluation of political economy ( Marx, 2015).
The greatest work by Karl was probably the publication he named Capital. In this writing which composed of over 800 pages that descried the capitalistic nature of the economy. He described factors of production such as land, capital and labor, how they interact in an economy to bring in either profit or loss according to their utilization by the investors ( Howard & King, 2014) . There was great delay in the publication of this work. However, in 1857, a large part of the work was out to the public. Production of this work occurred in a continuum, seeing a major release in 1860 when Karl described his theory of the Surplus Value in conjunction with an in-depth analysis of the political economy. Karl explained the forces that control production and the importance of balancing these in order to realize profits for the industries and achieve economic growth. He also noted the uneven distribution of wealth, with those who toil in the fields and factories facing oppression due to the low wages. In its own way, this was a great enlightenment to the stakeholders in the industrial production, who evidently had begun to project their panic in the face of an educated workforce ( Marx, 2015).
With great enthusiasm, in Capital (Das Kapital), Karl explained that the rich did not give laborers the priority they required since they were the single most important contributors to the success of industrial production. Karl explained that the commercial law of motion posed an intricate and rather dynamic system in which production aimed at profit making. Karl foresaw such as system as unstainable since it assumed so many other contributors, making it vulnerable to a fall. Replacement of capitalism with communism was not going to be a one-day occurrence but once it occurred, communism would shift all the dynamics of economic and political relationships. Karl continued with his publications until his health deteriorated in 1882, making him unable to concentrate on writing. He met his death on the 14 th day of March in 1883, after a long battle with a lung disease ( Howard & King, 2014) .
In conclusion, Karl Marx was one of the greatest revolutionist in the 19 th century. The significance of his works remains up to date. Having been raised from a middle-class family, Karl strived to earn formal education and a doctorate for that matter, which highly contributed to his later studies on economic theories. He was a revolutionist, historian, and a conscious philosopher whose insight guided him in the writing of Capital, one of his greatest works. In this work, Karl described the inevitable replacement of capitalism with communism. He described the uneven distribution of the factors of production as the very seed in capitalism that would lead the system into self-destruction. Death of his wife, his daughter, and an illness that afflicted him in his last days destabilized Karl from his focus on writing subsequent volumes of Capital.
References
Howard, M. C., & King, J. E. (2014). A History of Marxian Economics, Volume II: 1929-1990 (Vol. 2). Princeton University Press
Marx, K. (2015). Capital: a critique of political economy, Volume 1 . Arsalan Ahmed.
Marx, K., Moore, S., Aveling, E., & Engels, F. (2012). Capital, volume one: A critique of political economy . Courier Corporation.
Nicolaievsky, B., & Maenchen-Helfen, O. (2015). Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (RLE Marxism) (Vol. 8). Routledge
Veblen, T. (2015). The socialist economics of Karl Marx and his followers . Read Books Ltd.
