ipl-logo

The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels

996 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Relations between the bourgeoisie and proletariat

In the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, these two philosophers discuss their views on the mid-century how society is always in a complicated arrangement that mainly separates into two great classes known as the bourgeoisie who control the means of production and the proletarians who control the means of labour. This essay will then examine their perspectives on history, the stage of struggle in the mid-19th century, and why their interpretation is accurate and right.

To begin with, the two philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels viewed history in the mid-19th century as a fight between the Proletariat and the bourgeoisie over power and wealth. They refer to this quote, “ the history of all hitherto existing …show more content…

The philosophers expand on how the bourgeoisie's goal in this capitalist society is to increase wealth and profit whereas they then must figure out how to increase production, outpace their competition, and invent more efficient tools for manufacturing. Whereas, they end up over-exploiting the low working class by trying to gain as much value. In addition, this quote stated, “ He becomes an appendage of the machine” (pg,18), which means that when workers are alienated from the products they create and from the whole process they become alienated from their humanity, dehumanizing them more into a tool than a human. On the other hand, the proletarians were still forced into doing even unpleasant jobs since they had zero bargaining power against the bourgeoisie to demand better wages and working conditions. Karl Marx says, “ therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases,” showing his observation on how capitalism leads to the exploitation of workers impacting the proletarians who now had to work twice as hard, like taking more shifts. This continued until, “ But with the development of industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more,” which brings new information disregarding how the proletariats were tired of being exploited and forced to endure hard labour while the bourgeoisie who did nothing got all the wealth and wanted to fight back as a revolutionary class. Karl Marx envisioned that in the future the proletariat would win due to how the proletarians increased in numbers and the ideology of communism would exist. This illustrates how the bourgeoisie has over-exploited the proletariats by giving bad wages, and horrible working conditions plus dehumanizing the

Show More
Related

Karl Marx And Samuel Smiles: A Comparative Analysis

812 Words | 4 Pages

Wealthy elites or the bourgeoisie continued to earn high profits while the poor proletarians continued to take part in labor intensive work in factories. Marx and Smiles both saw this as a major problem in their society. In Marx’s Communist Manifesto, he wrote, “ not only are they [the proletarians] slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself…” What Marx means is that the bourgeoisie is looking down at the proletariats and using them as merely a way to earn profit. In contrast to Marx, Smiles said, “...they [the proletarians] resemble the savage tribes, who know no better, and do no worse.”

Read More

Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

1210 Words | 5 Pages

From 1790 to the late 1800’s, the Industrial Revolution recreated industry as Europe knew it with ground-breaking inventions and mass-producing factories. The Industrial Revolution widened the social gap with the bourgeoisie on a pedestal and the proletariat baring the weight of being the work class that would make the Industrial Revolution happen; this strife would lead to many riots and revolutions across Europe as many men like Karl Marx would develop solutions to the proletarian’s problems such as communism. The question arose of how the proletariat were to rebel against the bourgeoisie. The fact was that a revolution was inevitable.

Read More

Fall Term Assignment: Sexuality And Marxism

858 Words | 4 Pages

Marx argued that there are two classes of people that exist in society, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie refer to the upper class that own the means of production and whose central concern is the value of property. On the other hand, the proletariat describes the working class wageworkers in a capitalist society. Marx argued that the bourgeoisie simply exploited the proletariat, and the physical labor produced by the proletariat generated more wealth for the capitalist, leaving laborers under payed and machine-like. During this process, Marx believed that through this system of mass production, laborers were stripped of individual imagination and as a result, left individuals feeling alienated to their own emotions and erotic feelings in order to maximize production and wealth.

Read More

Communist Manifesto: Forgoing Battle Between Economic And Social Classes

325 Words | 2 Pages

Marx believed that the Bourgeoisie class exploited the Proletariats and used their labor for capital gain. In fact, at one point, the goods and services

Read More

Marx And Engels In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

1169 Words | 5 Pages

German philosophers Karl Mark and Friedrich Engels worked together throughout much of their lives as social activists, often co-authoring many pieces of literature on a socio-economical ideology. In 1848, they were commissioned by the Communist League to write a pamphlet that would serve as an explanation of their concept of socialism, and how it was an expected result of the class systems that were created by the capitalist system. Within this pamphlet, called The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels explained how history has proven over and over again that class struggles always exist; there is always a group of people who unethically exploit others, own most of the capital, and become dominant, and there is always a group of people who are the ones exploited and oppressed. These class systems, and their accompanied class struggles, eventually change society by affecting both its political and intellectual history.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

390 Words | 2 Pages

In the beginning of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution caused a massive economic spike from small-scale production to large factories and mass production. Capitalism became the prevalent mode of the economy, which put all means of production in the hands of the bourgeoisie, or the upper class. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argue that capitalism centralizes all the wealth and power in the bourgeoisie, despite the proletariat, or the working class, being the overwhelming majority of the population. The manufacturers would exploit the common proletariat and force them to would work in abysmal conditions and receive low wages, furthering the working class poverty. “The Communist Manifesto” predicts that as a result of the mistreatment

Read More

The Communist Manifesto: Comparing Marx And Engels

1517 Words | 7 Pages

The Manifesto teaches us about the hardships that the proletarians face at the opposition of the bourgeoisie. We learn about the mindset of the working class, instead of the logistics of their labour. In Engels and Marx’s view, the proletarians have lost all of their individuality and have been reduced to simply cogs of a machine. Unfortunately for the proletarians, their availability of work and the amount of their income are directly tied to the market, and the supply and demand factor. We are told that they are “slaves of the bourgeoisie class” and “privates of the industrial army.”

Read More

What Is The Effect Of The Industrial Revolution In The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx

1337 Words | 6 Pages

The Industrial Revolution cast its shadow upon European cities and towns. Some enjoyed this shade while others suffered tremendously because of it. Those who enjoyed the luxuries and wealth that the Industrial Revolution provided, the bourgeoisie, depended on the needs of the poor, the proletarians, to increase the size of their monstrous factories and ultimately their wealth and influence. In “The Communist Manifesto” Karl Marx discusses the effects of the Industrial Revolution in further dividing society by creating new social and economic hierarchies. In addition to his observation of the division of labor, Karl Marx believed, that due to the technological shift from craftsmanship to machinery this also caused division of labor and the appreciation of proletarian handmade goods was disregarded.

Read More

Industrial Revolution Effects On Women

951 Words | 4 Pages

Industrialization also enhanced the capitalism which is focused on the issue of more profit and conflict between capital and workers. While owner of productions take more profit with less labor, workers take less profit even with much more labor force. Karl Marx is one of the thinkers who criticizes this situation of capitalism in terms of workers and capitals in industry, especially he focuses on the situation of

Read More

Karl Marx's Approach To Social Inequality

926 Words | 4 Pages

It is argued that social inequality occurs because of the conflict between the upper-class and the working-class, or as Marx defines it, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. Based on the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels, 1848), the divergence emerges because the aim of the Bourgeoisie is to obtain a surplus-value that is produced by the work of the Proletariat. On the other side, the Bourgeoisie provides the Proletariat with the minimum required, such as a place to live and a minimum wage, in order to keep the society under control and avoid a rebellion. However, Marx did predict a revolt of the working-class that would eventually lead to a communist regime. When it comes to applying this theoretical approach to reality, it is evident to notice that no global revolt in regards to capitalism has occurred.

Read More

Ideas From The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels

1079 Words | 5 Pages

The idea behind this according to Marx is that history is a series of stages, defined by their mode of production and the struggle between classes: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. " According to Marx, the current historical stage is the capitalist historical stage. This is the conflict between the bourgeoisie (middle class) and the proletariat (working class). This theory is supported by the historical stages preceding the capitalist historical stage which can easily be defined by their modes of production and class struggle, or lack thereof.

Read More

The History Of Class Conflicts In Karl Marx And Engels

764 Words | 4 Pages

The proletariats are the wage earners or the labour class, in a capitalist society the proletarians don’t have much wealth, and their main asset is their labour power. The bourgeoisie is the class that owns the means of production, their class interest lies in the value of property and the preservation of capital, and this ensures their perpetual economic supremacy in society. According to Marx, in the capitalist mode of production, a worker slowly loses the power to decide upon his or her life and destiny, they lose their Gattungswesen (“species-essence”), and this is a consequence of living in a socially stratified society, where human beings become a mechanistic part of a social class. Even though human beings are self-conscious and autonomous, in a capitalist society they are nothing but an economic entity whose acts are dictated by the bourgeoisie, with the aim

Read More

What Is Karl Marx Theory Of Exploitation

1074 Words | 5 Pages

According to Edwards et al. (2006) Marx thought that within capitalism there would be an increased divide between the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class in the future. The proletariats are lower of the two classes, the people who have to work for wages in order to survive. The bourgeoisie are the people in society who controlled and owned the means of production in a capitalist system.

Read More

Marxist Politics: Frederick Engels

1118 Words | 5 Pages

Marxist Politics – Introduction Frederick Engels painted a clear picture of Marxist politics and the ultimate reason for revolution, “the State is nothing more than a machine for the oppression of one class by another. ”1 In Marxism, the struggle to control the forces of production is the dynamic force behind human development. The economic system determines other features of a society, including its political structure. To Karl Marx, the “economic structure of society [is] the real foundation on which rise moral, legal and political superstructures and to which definite forms of social consciousness correspond.”

Read More

The Father Of Capitalism And Marxism By Karl Marx

1140 Words | 5 Pages

Capitalism, according to Karl Marx is divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie, which is the minority of the class system, own the means of production such as land, machinery, factories and raw materials whereas the Proletariat, which is the majority of the class system, having no means of their own production and have to work to earn wage for a living. Karl Marx has his own theory that history is made up by class struggle which he mentioned in his book – Manifesto of the Communist Party: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1848) and had predicted that the Proletariat would lead a revolution to overthrow the Bourgeoisie. Karl Marx believed that there will be intrinsic conflict like exploitation, alienation of labour and commodity fetishism between both of the classes.

Read More

More about The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx And Friedrich Engels

Related Topics

Open Document