Immanuel Kant's Contemporary Karl Marx

Immanuel Kant was an 18th century German philosopher who was born on April 22nd, 1724 in Konigsberg, Germany. Kant was most notable for his work on ethics and wrote various books based on his primary objective to determine the limitations and capacity of pure reason. Immanuel Kant’s contemporary, Karl Marx was born on May 5th, 1818 in Trier, Germany. Marx was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist. He was the “inventor” of Marxism along with philosopher, Friedrich Engels, which conveyed the idea of demolishing capitalism and a having a communist society. The scope of this essay is to acknowledge the similarities and differences among the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant and his contemporary Karl Marx. First this paper will manifest how Marx’s view of religion, of the opium of the masses, greatly contrasts with Kant’s idea of the existence of God. Secondly, this essay will highlight how Kant’s

Looking at it through Marx’s point of view, he dwells on the fact that religion blinds people from the truth of their own reality. As stated by Marx, society was identified as two classes: the bourgeoisie (the rich) and the proletariat (the poor). He believed that the wealthy people would have all the power and would continue to gain money off of the work of the proletariat. Therefore Marx concluded that this capitalist system had established a feeling of alienation for these workers, thus religion was an excuse for them to accept their predicament in life. Marx didn’t seem to believe in unseen truths, which is why he argues that humans should be guided by reason and that religion seemed to be covering the truth and deceiving followers. He believed that religion was like an opiate; giving a sense of security. In spite of that fact, Marx stated that this was all an illusion. This is best understood from the following