Karl Marx
1818 — 1883
Biography
Karl Marx was a philosopher, economist, revolutionary. His teaching had an enormous influence on the history of the 20th century.
Marx 'inverted' Hegel's dialectics: it is not consciousness that determines being, but social being that determines consciousness. History is the history of class struggle.
In 'Capital' he analyzed the capitalist mode of production, revealing mechanisms of exploitation. Philosophers have only interpreted the world — the point is to change it.
Key Ideas
- Historical materialism
- Class struggle
- Alienation of labor
- Base and superstructure
- Dictatorship of the proletariat
Works
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Capital
(1867)
Critique of political economy
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The Communist Manifesto
(1848)
Program document (with Engels)
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Theses on Feuerbach
(1845)
Philosophy of praxis