Karl Marx

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Essay on Karl Marx


“Man was born free and is everywhere in chains.” This, the view of famous philosopher Rousseau, parallels to the writings and views of Karl Marx. Karl Marx, born in Germany in 1818, throughout his 65 years of life wrote many powerful papers. Of the most notoriety; The Communist Manifesto, will be discussed thoroughly due to its importance in reference to Marx life and ideals as related to Rousseau’s quote. Marx was a liberal reformist who analyzed the relationship between the proletariat and the bourgeois, and believed, like Rousseau, that society was not in fact free, especially when concerning the proletarians. This is shown through his positions on; alienation, social change, and religion. As well as his ideologies of false consciousness, his belief of capitalisms need for reform, inequality and exploitation of the working classes could be addressed and abolished, that society is not defined by that of natural rights, but defined by the nature of our class status.

In 1844 Karl Marx wrote and published The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, better known as “The Paris Manuscripts.” (http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Archive/1844-EPM/ ) This was Karl Marx’s first work, where he writes a study about alienation of workers. What does one mean by alienation? Karl Marx states that the alienated person feels a lack of meaning in his life, or a lack of self-realization. Alienation happens when you sell your labour power. There are four ways that one may feel alienation. The first type of alienation is alienation from labour. The second type of alienation is alienation from his or her product of labour. The third type of alienation is alienation from others. And fourthly, one may feel alienation from oneself and their creativity. These four forms of alienation are interconnected, and Karl Marx describes the connections between them. This is the core of his approach to the p...