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Karl Marx Research Paper

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Karl Marx was born into a middle class family in Prussia during the 1800’s. This was a time when the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history and brought significant social and economic changes. The Industrial Revolution was the period of time when technology advanced to the point where we could rely on machines to manufacture goods instead of tools. It created jobs and many opportunities for people but it also had made life worse for others. “While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes.” [1] While the poor were subject to bad living …show more content…

Since these factory jobs didn’t pay a livable wage, child labor was also common during this time. Like adults, children worked very long hours and endured dangerous working conditions, but they only received a fraction of an adult’s wage. These social conditions had a significant impact on Marx’s political theory. Marx’s political views were influenced by several philosophers and political economists, one of whom was Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and scientist and is regarded as one of the most influential European philosophers in history. Kant believed that everyone had an innate right to freedom and that reason was the source to morality. One of his greatest contributions to political philosophy was his book, Critique of Pure Reason, which went into great detail about the nature of reason, perception and knowledge. Kant’s philosophy also had a significant influence on G.W.F Hegel. Hegel was also a German idealist …show more content…

Marx’s theory of human nature played a vital role in his critique of capitalism and communism. Marx believed that people were competitive and that their actions are directly influenced by the environment in which they live. “Marx's concept of a general "human nature" encompasses humankind's common material needs, as well as the potential for free development of intellectual, creative, and social needs and capacities. These needs form the limits of the capitalist mode of production, that is, the limits to exploitation.” [5] Marx also believed that the purpose of a capitalistic government was to protect the economic interest of the elite while exploiting the working class. Marx found capitalism unfair and rejected the idea of a capitalistic government while favoring communism. Marx argued that materialism and greed was a major source of conflict and society has been negatively influenced by class struggles. Marx believed that a utopian society should be absent of social classes and state. Marx thought an ideal government should control the means of production and other factors of life so the power wouldn’t reside in the rich and everyone would essentially be equal. In Marx’s book, The Communist Manifesto, he attempts to explain his political ideas, the goals of communism and how they could be achieved. It was intended to inspire people join together and take action against the

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Marx wanted everyone to believe in communism and argued that everyone could be equal there. The book uses some primary and secondary sources of research such as books, speeches and articles and some of Marx's personal letters and notes to have a better understanding of

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He believed that “the people” should own the means of production and would not have to fear exploitation. This thinking had an impact on many societies, particularly the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) in the twentieth century. In the “Communist Manifesto” Marx writes, “They (the communists) openly declare that their ends can be attained (achieved) only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.

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Karl Marx Karl Marx was a German sociologist who contribution to sociology is known as Marxism (Rubel, 1968). Marx’s influence paved the way to a new theoretical perspective known as conflict theory. Unlike Durkheim, this paradigm suggests that society has conflict due to specific groups struggling to obtain scarce resources (Lindsey et al, 2009). Marx looked at two classes, the bourgeoisie, also known as the capitalist, and the proletariat, also known as the working class. He stated that the economic structure is the reason for the inequality and that those who have wealth have the power to control society (Coser, 1968).

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Marx felt that the current system of economics, and in general the free market system although containing some benefits was at its core unfair. He felt that only the capitalists received true benefits and exploited the labors for their own personal agendas. The people who owned the means of production received all of the benefits and therefore had power of the labors. He felt that this would create a class struggle between the capitalists and labors which would eventually be the destruction of capitalism. This appealed to him, due to how he believed that capitalism would be the last mode of production (the economic system being the base of society) that driven by an upper class.

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Karl Marx, most well known as the author of “The Communist Manifesto”, shaped the political and economic theory known as Marxism, which is the most well-known and practiced variation of Communism, around the theories of others. Aspects of his theory came primarily from Hegel and British political economy. Hegel is a writer of French socialist utopia and was the hopeful result from how he saw the current environment (Hegel). This being that up until this point, progress of society and mankind had been driven by class conflict.

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Everyone is equal and have equal values as everyone else, is not the case for Marx. Karl Marx is a German philosopher, social theorist, and revolutionary thinker, well known for his manuscripts, for example The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. This manuscript specifically talks about the exploitation and alienation of humans because of the new arriving concept, capitalism. Alienation of workers is the result of capitalism and turns human labor into a commodity that allows the dehumanization of workers, by taking away their creativity, and exploitation of their rights.

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The universe of names as objects of research does not have limits. The interest in names can be linguistic or philosophical, theoretical or practical, legal or political, ethnographic or religious; however, an analysis of characters’ names in Harry Potter from all these perspectives would be practically impossible. In order to narrow down the scope of this research, the data collected, that is, some characters’ names, will be described from the point of view of etymology – the study of the origin and history of words and their meanings (Pinker, 1999:24); semantics –the study of meanings as expressed through language (ibid.). Another perspective from which names can be analyzed is metaphorical level will be to explore how, names meaning is different

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Simply put, humans are humans because of their social interactions with each other that are necessary for maintaining a functional society. Take a salad for example, it takes a farmer harvesting the lettuce, truck drivers to get the lettuce to the factory, workers to prepare the lettuce for packaging, truck drivers to get it to the store, etc. with the point being that it takes a chain of individuals working together to provide the necessary items for life. The biggest downfall that Marx identifies is capitalism. Capitalism is bad for society because it alienates individuals from everything they do.

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Karl Marx Karl Marx a revolutionary, socialist, historian and economist once said, “We know that the individual is weak, but we also know that the society is power.” Marx was born on May 5, 1883, in Trier, Western Germany. Son of Heinrich and Henrietta Marx, Karl was the oldest surviving boy of nine children. Through his theories and works, he is thought to be one of the founding thinkers of sociology and is widely known for his critiques of industrial capitalism and concept of material capitalism. Karl Marx had a average family life.

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His work was mostly concerned with economic issues, but as he was concerned connecting the economic problems to social institutions, his work remained rich in sociological insights. The European industrialization that took place in the 19th century transformed the society drastically. It was beneficial for the society in many ways, but it also lead to protests and revolutions. Karl Marx’s during this period of time observed the society and tried to understand why the protests and revolutions took place when the societies were getting wealthier. And he came to the conclusion that it was the industrial capitalism that lead to the conflict in the societies, and believed that it was found as an exploitative system of class relations and had to be over

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Marx saw capital and liberal democracies as the fundamental reasons for the low standards of living and the low social conditions of workers. Karl Marx in particular is especially concerned with the political assumptions behind these two ideologies. According to him, these two types of government should be replaced by communism, since communism would provide a more equal and socially just society. Although this statement may seem unusual, since we tend to associate communism with Stalin and China, the type of communism implemented in these countries is different from the communism that Marx and Engels envisaged in their Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels’ vision of communism is based on the principle of equality among the people and freedom

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Marx observed society in any possible way he found that he could and through this, he discovered the laws influencing/causing societal and economic evolution (Bowens, Carroll; 2013; 7). Thus the first contradiction of a capitalist society is introduced. Marxism is a universal perspective and method of observing society in such a way that helps to understand the transition from capitalism, which Marx saw as a system that was destined to end, to a society that is much more structured, making social revolution inevitable and a new system replacing capitalism (Heywood; 2003; 113). The single distinguishing factor of Marxism from any other approach is that the theory of historical materialism is firmly believed in (Heywood; 2003; 113). The first key concept introduced, is historical materialism, and this is a theory of Marxism which believes that, “material or economic conditions ultimately structure law, politics, culture and other aspects of social existence” (Heywood; 2003; 113) and that class struggle/conflicts and revolution are two important factors when attempting to encourage and implement a societal

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This work will look at Marx’s concepts of exploitation and how Marx’s comes to his theory of exploitation. This will include looking at how Marx viewed capitalist society and how this capitalist society was created. This will enable an explanation of exploitation. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is thought of as one of the founding fathers of sociology and his work in the mid nineteen hundreds is still discussed and taught today throughout the world. Marx developed an understanding of the term capitalism, as historic events such as the French Revolution 1789-1799 and the Industrialisation became key to a change in society.

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Marx understood capitalism to be founded upon a class division between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. He believed society goes through five changes; Primitive, Ancient Slave owning, Feudal society, Capitalist and Communism being the final stage. A Capitalist society was considered to be the modern society where there will be conflict due to people striving for things that will benefit themselves, hence persons are self-interested. The devaluation of the human world increases in direct relation with the increase to the value of the world of things. Thus there is the alienation of the worker in the capitalist economy; the worker lacks control over the' disposal of his products, since what he produces is appropriated by others, so that he does not benefit from it.

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Introduction Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 to 1883) was one of the greatest geniuses to have graced human philosophy, economics, political science and other social sciences. So great has been his impact on the social sciences that Marxism as a way of thinking transcends the borders of discipline and thought. Born in an environment mired the ravages of 19th century capitalism and the rise of the industrial proletariat, Marx presented to us his version of class theory which, despite its many drawbacks, continue to mesmerize us, even today. The class theory as propagated by Marx provides an alternative way of thinking and looking at things in almost every sphere of life.

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