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Karl Marx was a social scientist and a philosopher. Although he was one of the greatest social thinkers during the 1800's, most of ideas and intellect were not recognized until after his death. Marx was born in 1818 to a middle class German family. Marx became a communist when he moved to Paris in 1843. This was when he wrote the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. These writings outlined communism and were not published until the 1930's. While Marx was in Paris he met the man who would become his life long friend and partner, Friedrich Engels. It was with Engels that he wrote the Communist manifesto in 1848. Engels helped Marx survive by being one of his major sources of income during the 1850's when Marx was not able to do it with only his writings. Another manuscript that was published after his death was called The German Ideology. The idea behind this discussed how an individual's nature is affected by the material conditions that determine their production.
Karl Marx believed that social change is what was needed for a better society, and to get social change there must be class conflict. Marx's major concern of social change was economic change. Marx's most well known work dealt with class conflict, the opposition between the capitalists and the working class. The capitalists are also known as the bourgeoisie. They are the ones that are responsible for controlling the land, factories, etc. The working class, which is also known as the proletariat, are the workers that are being exploited by the bourgeoisie.
One of the larger manuscripts that Marx ever wrote in his life was called The Grundrisse. The Grundrisse (which means outlines) also was not published until after Marx's death. This manuscript was 800 pages long and discussed things such as capital, labor/wages, property, etc. This was completed in 1857. It was ten years later that he finally published the first part of Capital. Capital was a work that outlined the capitalist process in detail. There were several other parts completed to this work, but they were not published until Engels did so after Marx's death.
Marx is now known as one of the founders of Communism, modern Socialism, and Sociology. Since his death Marxism has led to socialist thought and much more. Karl Marx died in 1883.
Copright 2001 Jason Smith
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