Karl Marx: Political Leader and a Revolutionary - Essay Example

?Karl Marx Introduction: Far more than a philosopher, Karl Marx was a political leader and a revolutionary. He is the founder of modern “scientific” socialism, a view which presents the idea that in society no property should be held privately. Karl Hienrich Marx was born in Trier, Rhenish Prussia (modern day Germany) on May 5th 1818. His father Heinrich Marx was a lawyer by profession and the descendant of a long line of Rabbis. His mother, Henriette Presburg Marx, had a very similar genealogy as well. Hienrich Marx had to convert to Lutheranianism just before Karl was born because Jews were not allowed to practice law at the time. Karl was also baptized in the same church at the age of six in the year 1824. Karl was also sent to a Lutheran elementary school in his early years. He attended the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Trier and graduated in 1835 at the age of 17 having studied for 5 years. In school, Karl excelled in languages and learned to read, write and speak both Latin and French very fluently. His language learning abilities would not abandon him throughout his life as later on he taught himself to read and write various European languages such as English, Scandinavian, Russian, Italian, Dutch and Spanish. After completing school, Marx enrolled in Bonn University in Bonn to study law and fulfill his father’s wish. Marx did not want to study law and was more interested in philosophy and literature so he spent most of his time at Bonn drinking a lot and partying. He also piled up a mountain of debt during his time at Bonn University. (Encyclopedia of World Biography) He also got engaged to Jenny von Westphalen in his time at Bonn. Jenny was the daughter of Baron von Westphalen, who was a notable member of the Trier society. Marx became also started reading up on and became interested in Sino-Simonian politics and Romantic literature on the advice of his to-be father-in-law. (Kreis) Karl then moved to Berlin where he joined the University of Berlin. It was here in Berlin that Marx started blossoming into the radical philosopher who would go on to shake the roots of Europe. The University of Berlin was a hot bed of brilliant thinkers who were debating and challenging existing ideas and institutions, including ethics, religion, philosophy etc. Marx joined these philosophers and studied in Berlin for four years and finally finished with a doctorate in 1841. It was during his time in Berlin that Marx abandoned romanticism for Hegelianism. (Kreis) After completing his studies, Marx started preaching his radical ideas through a newspaper which was soon shut down by the Prussian government and Marx was forced to migrate to France. In France, Marx became active as soon as he reached and soon became a communist. He also met Friedrich Engels in Paris who would later become a lifelong ally. Marx was soon expelled from Paris as well and had to move to Brussels. In Brussels Marx worked further on his concept of Communism and gave the materialist conception of history. He later wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848 and the industrial revolution broke out in Europe at the same time. Marx witnessed firsthand, the sufferings of workers all around Europe. Marx moved to Paris again in 1848 but was soon forced to move to London. In London Marx wrote his most famous book “Das Kapital”. Marx had 7 children, only 3 survived past childhood. Marx passed away quietly in his armchair on 14th March 1883. (Encyclopedia of World Biography) Contribution to Ethical Philosophy The major contribution that Karl Marx made to the study of ethics is his concept of Communism. Marx was a stark critic of the capitalist system and the concept of free trade and free markets. As mentioned above, Marx had witnessed firsthand, the sufferings of the labor class in England and the rest of Europe. Marx believed that the sufferings of the labor class were only symptoms of the extremes of inequality that Capitalism produces. Since the capitalist system offers only two sources of income: sale of one’s own labor and ownership of the land, raw materials and other factors of production a massive divide develops in the society. The society is divided into two classes: the proletariat and the bourgeois. The bourgeois, the owners of the factors of production, do not pay the proletariat, the labor class, the full value of their labor. And since the labor class cannot produce anything on their own because they do not have access to the factors of production, they are forced to submit to these low wages which are only enough for them to subsist. As a result of this phenomenon, the rich get richer and the poor become relatively poorer. Marx’s communist views are directly in opposition to John Locke’s and Adam Smith’s concept of free trade and free markets. To describe the main shortcoming of Smith’s free market system Marx used the term alienation. Alienation refers to the state of estrangement that workers suffer from in a capitalist economy. Marx believed that all human beings have an innate need to be in control of one’s own life and to be able to satisfy one’s own needs. Capitalism causes workers to lose control over their lives and forces them to satisfy needs that are not their own (Bramann). Furthermore, he also believed that capitalism alienates workers from the products of their labor because workers have no control over the products they make with their own hands. Capitalism also alienates workers by giving them almost no control over how workers relate to each other and forces them into antagonistic relationships with each other. Capitalism also divides the society in two hostile camps: The proletariat and the bourgeois. Marx’s final criticism of Adam Smith’s and later capitalist philosopher’s work was that capitalism alienates workers from themselves by instilling in them false views of what their real human needs are. Marx described the continuous striving for money and economic goods as “the renunciation of life and human needs” (Velasquez) Marx concluded in his writings that the only way to break this vicious cycle for the proletariat was to unite amongst themselves and launch a mass revolution against the ruling class. Marx ends one of his most famous works, The Communist Manifesto, with the words “Workers of the world unite”. Marx believed that after overthrowing the ruling class, a classless society and a classless government should be established. In the classless society, the factors of production would no longer be private property and instead be property of all workers. All workers would be allowed to make a contribution to society’s production according to their own abilities and receive from the production according to their needs. The classless society would be a society without poverty, exploitation and unemployment. (Velasquez) Conclusion: The lasting effect of Karl Marx’s ideas started to emerge in 1917 when Vladmir Lenin took control of war-torn Russia in the October Revolution and laid the foundation of the Soviet Union based on the ideologies of Karl Marx (BBC History). The Communist system in the beginning took the Soviet Union from a war-torn country to a world super power initially but its effects started to sour a bit later on and after 70 years of communist policies the Soviet legislature voted to switch to a free market economy on Septmber 24th 1990. The demise of the Communist system did not signal the complete end of Communism however, and countries such as Cuba, China and Venezuela still employ Communism albeit in modified form to the one that Marx suggested. Many critics have pointed fingers at Marx’s concept of Communism and have claimed that Marx’s claims about capitalism being unjust are not provable. They also claim that justice (distribution according to contribution) requires free markets because free and competitive markets ensure that workers get the value of their contribution because each person’s wage will be determined by what that person adds to the output of the economy. Another criticism of Marx’s theories is that Capitalism instead of causing alienation, actually causes the community to strengthen because the freedom afforded by Capitalism results in communities choosing to associate with each other in whatever form they prefer (religious, nonreligious etc). Finally the biggest criticism of Marx is that his prediction of immiseration of workers did not come true and in fact the condition of workers in capitalist societies has improved. (Velasquez) The lasting legacy of Marx’s works can be seen in a different way all around the world today in the form of mixed economies. A mixed economy can be defined as an economy which retains a market and private property system but relies heavily on government policies to remedy their deficiencies. The latter part of a mixed economy originated from Marx’s concept of communism. Sweden, Norway, France and Ireland are some countries which employ a mixed economy system. (Velasquez) Bibliography BBC History. BBC - History. 22 October 2011 . Bramann, Jorn. Marx on Alienation. 22 October 2011 . Encyclopedia of World Biography. Karl Marx Biography. 22 October 2011 . Kreis, Steven. Karl Marx, 1818-1883. 30 January 2008. 22 October 2011 . Velasquez, Manuel G. Business Ethics. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2011. 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