Karl Heinrich Marx Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Karl Heinrich Marx - Essay Example Marx’s theories argue that all societies advance through the language of class struggle: a disagreement between the class that is in charge of controlling the society’s production (ownership class) and the lower class responsible for labor input. He called capitalism â€Å"dictatorship of the bourgeoisie† while criticizing the society’s then-current socio-economic status which the wealthy classes were running purely for their own interest (Mehring 47). He predicted a replacement of the socio-economic system with socialism system after its destruction brought about by an internal tension. In the â€Å"dictatorship of the proletariat†, the working class would govern the society under socialism. He also believed that socialism would be replaced by communism eventually, a society that is stateless and classless. Despite strongly believing in socialism and communism, Marx fought for the implementation of socialism with the argument that both the underprivileged people and the social theorist are accountable for bringing about transformation in the socio-economic form by getting rid of capitalism. Marxist concepts were adopted by various revolutionary socialist in different countries by the 20th century. This resulted in the emergence of socialist states, for example, the Soviet Union (1922) and the People Republic of China (1949). His ideas also influenced various workers’ parties and labor union all over the world. Marx is one of the most prominent figures in the history of human. However, since 1989, Marx’s influence went down after some of his predictions got nullified by the revolution of 1989 (Wheen 29). The philosophy of Marx has various interpretations both from Marxist interior and exterior movement. Some philosophers have separated the work of Marx into a â€Å"young Marx† and â€Å"mature Marx†. Other philosophers have classified Marx’s work as purely economical work, philosophical works, historical and political intervention. Therefore, Marx’s philosophy is inextricably connected to his workers’ movement historical i ntervention. An example of this is the ‘Communist Manifesto by Engels’ and the â€Å"critique of political economy†. The philosophical roots of Marxism resulted from three sources: the French republican and extremism, English political economy and the philosophy of German idealist. Even these three sources model is oversimplified as it still holds some truth. During his early career as an intellect and an activist, Marx created an ample theoretical understanding of reality in politics by radical and critical adoption of the thought categories of a German idealist from 18th and 19th century, the most significant one being the Appropriation of Aristotle’s Organicist and Essentialism by Hegel (Wheen 18). Marx analyzed four contributions that Hegel made towards people’s philosophical understanding. They include Aristotelian Essentialism and organicism, the progressing of the world through stages, the difference existing between historical (dialectical) and natural change and finally the thought that historical change is brought about by the thing contradicting itself. Marx polemic with his fellow thinkers was mostly through critique which made him popular as the first to implement critical method into social science. He criticized philosophical