The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Karl Marx

1818–1883

Philosopher and revolutionary who analysed history in terms of material production and class struggle, and capitalism as a system that alienates workers.

Photograph of a seated man with a full white beard and swept-back hair
Photograph by John Jabez Edwin Mayall, 1875.John Jabez Edwin Mayall · Public domain · See the original

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The Communist Manifesto, section 1, translated by Samuel Moore

Karl Marx trained as a philosopher, with a doctorate on ancient philosophy, and began among the “Young Hegelians” who radicalised Hegel’s thought. He worked closely with Friedrich Engels, with whom he wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848).

His “historical materialism” explains the development of societies by the way they organise production, and sees history as driven by conflict between classes. His early writings describe how labour under capitalism alienates workers from what they make, from one another and from their own nature; Capital analyses how capitalism generates profit from labour. Though often seen as more activist than philosopher, he argued closely with philosophers from Hegel on, and his ideas inspired the communist states of the twentieth century.

Key ideas

Alienation
Alienation is a problematic separation between things that belong together, such as workers and their work. Marx held that it flows from capitalist social relations, not from industry and technology, and that a classless society would be free of it.
Historical materialism
A society’s productive forces, its technology and labour, tend to grow more powerful over time. They explain its economic structure, which in turn explains its political and legal institutions.
Exploitation
Capitalism is driven by the pursuit of profit, which comes from extracting “surplus value” from workers. They are paid for less labour than they actually perform.
Ideology
Widely shared misunderstandings can help keep class-divided societies stable. This makes Marx, with Nietzsche and Freud, one of the “masters of suspicion” who cast doubt on how we understand ourselves and our world.
Religion as “opium”
Marx called religion “the opium of the people”, a harmful, illusion-generating painkiller. It arises from alienation, including the need to acknowledge our life in common, which religion does only in a distorted way.
Tradition
Western

Influences

Influenced by

Karl Marx1818–1883

Influenced

Influenced by

Karl Marx1818–1883

Influenced

Where these links come from
  • Karl Marx drew on and argued against G. W. F. Hegel. Source: Jonathan Wolff and David Leopold, Karl Marx, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Karl Popper argued against Karl Marx. Source: Stephen Thornton, Karl Popper, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Theodor W. Adorno drew on Karl Marx. Source: Henry Pickford and Lambert Zuidervaart, Theodor W. Adorno, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Jean-Paul Sartre drew on Karl Marx. Source: Jack Reynolds and Pierre-Jean Renaudie, Jean-Paul Sartre, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Simone de Beauvoir drew on Karl Marx. Source: Debra Bergoffen and Megan Burke, Simone de Beauvoir, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Simone Weil drew on and argued against Karl Marx. Source: A. Rebecca Rozelle-Stone and Benjamin P. Davis, Simone Weil, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Michel Foucault drew on Karl Marx. Source: Gary Gutting and Johanna Oksala, Michel Foucault, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Jürgen Habermas drew on and argued against Karl Marx. Source: James Gordon Finlayson and Dafydd Huw Rees, Jürgen Habermas, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Key works

  • The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), 1848
  • Capital (Das Kapital)

Sources

  1. Jonathan Wolff and David Leopold, Karl Marx, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy