Karl Marx
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Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Prussia, educated in Germany, and a writer in London. Marx was an economist who sought to set socialism and communism on scientific bases. He was a jew.
Marx saw "primitive" socialist thought as a fundamentally moral movement with no base in practical science. Marx's solution was to create an analysis of society on his principle of dialectical materialism.
The system Dialectic which was employed by Marx was developed by German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Though concepts of dialectics had existed in philosophical theory since Plato, Hegel systematized the idea more thoroughly than any previous thinker. For Hegel, reality is a reflection of the unfolding of Absolute Spirit, roughly meaning knowledge. Thus Hegel saw the contradictions of Enlightenment philosophy (such as between subject and object, mind and nature, etc) as phases in the development of Absolute spirit. These contradictions would be resolved dialectically through the progress of Absolute Spirit.
Marx argued that Hegel's dialectic was upside down. Instead of being based in human knowledge, the dialectical contradictions were based in human social reality. For Marx, the contradiction between subject and object in philosophy was a reflection of the actual contradiction between workers and employers under capitalism. The difference between the ideal spirit and reality translates into Marx's view that man had become alienated from his true nature. Man had been created different from animals: he is creative, this is essential to his nature. However, in modern days, man is just automatically producing: he works to earn his wage, but has no tie to the product of his labor at all. This is the alienation from his true nature.
The necessity for material sustenance gives rise to an imperfect means of production, which changes as the internal contradictions of thesis and antithesis work themselves out. A key feature of Marx's theory was his contention that competition for resources splits society into mutually antagonistic classes ("The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.") whilst the operation of the dialectic serves to continually reduce the numbers of classes until, in the Industrial Age, society was almost wholly split between "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat".
Capitalism, according to Marx, is just one system in a long series of economic systems in the world. He held that a so-called "capitalist society" had strong internal contradictions. In the development of capitalism, capital would be increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people. [1] The difference in income between the poorest and richest would always increase. Through economic crises, the poor laborers could be inflamed to believe that the system would always be disadvantageous to them.
Das Kapital (Capital) seeks to explain that the "bourgeoisie" make profits by exploitation of the "proletariat." The exploitation arises when the value of the goods produced by workers is much more than the wages paid, thus creating "surplus value" over and above the value of the wages advanced. Marx sought to agitate class envy by alleging that the competition amongst the bourgeoisie forced them to exploit their workers as much as possible. If an individual bourgeois refused to continue the "exploitation" he would soon be forced into bankruptcy or be taken over by someone who would. The result is persistent low wages among the proletariat who, eventually, would rebel and replace the existing capitalist system with a socialist/communist system.
It's important to note, however, that Marx never argued in any sustained fashion that socialism was inevitable: he knew there are too many factors in history to make a prediction possible. He did not have a clear idea about what the next stage after capitalism would be. The increasing concentration, he thought, would facilitate a communist system. In that system, however, man also would have to eliminate his "alienation." One possibility, which Marx imagined, was complete mechanization of production, so that any man could do any job[2]. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx went into greater detail about how this revolution would unfold. As well as proposing an economic system, Marx also advocated education for all including women and the lower classes who at the time were without any education.
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Critique of Marxists
Mikhail Bakunin observed how rather than discussion of issues, the tried and tested method of leftism and Marxism was spread through the art of character assassination, [3] close associates of Marx were adept in the art of
| “ | cowardly, odious and perfidious insinuations. They seldom make open accusation, but they insinuate, saying they "have heard - it is said - it may not be true, but', and then they hurl the most abominable calumnies in your face. | ” |
Views on Religion
Marx' view on religion is mostly based on Ludwig Feuerbach's ideas[4]. Marx is considered very controversial in religious circles for his statement, "Religion...is the opiate of the masses." This was written in his 1843 work "A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right" and expresses Marx's belief that religion offers a false palliative to assuage the suffering of "the oppressed", which in his view essentially blames faith in God as the hindrance to carrying out the Marxist program.
Karl Marx is often labeled an anti-Semite or a "self-hating Jew" for statements such as, "Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist", "The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange", and "What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money."
It should be noted, however, that Marx's metaphorical use of Judaism and money was standard for Jews of his time. Moses Hess, for example, self-consciously Jewish and proto-Zionist, used language almost exactly similar to Marx's in his "On the Money System." The equation of Judaism with money was standard for Marx's period, even by Jews.[5]
