Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883)
Major Text: Communist manifesto
• Soviet Union subsidied publication of Marx into 45 volumes and multiple languages
What has happened in the political world since Rousseau’s death (1778)?
• First person to be struck by the concept of inequality in humankind
• Rousseau influenced the enlightenment of the French Revolution (1789+)
● The importance of the french revolution to Marx, the FR starts over bread prices in Paris. Then 10 years
later the metric system been extended to Europe besides England. All of a sudden people seem to realise
history have a logic of its own and no one can tell/predict. the FR brings about the understanding that
underneath the appearances of our lives are underlying themes and factors among out society.
● Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit - questions the appearance of our history:
● the power of others depends on us accepting their position of power
● what i do as a weak person will ultimately lead to my triumph, the people of the bottom will always
triumph over the top
Implications of Hegel’s theory:
a. Morality is human made
a. There is nothing in the world that requires that one treat it with special reverence
a. It is possible for an active self (people doing things) to create a world
b. There is no natural limits on human freedom
c. What counts as good or just? Kant and Rousseau: for something to be called good or properly human it has
to be universal to all people
d. Any existing institutions that are not made form the universal will must be destroyed because they are not
good
● The last line fo the greek revolution/proletariat singing “we shall be all”
Karl Marx Biography Part 1:
• Family religion = Converted Jews
● Well educated
● From Germany
● Married but had affairs
Karl Marx Biography Part 2:
● Marx PhD dissertation on Democritus
● Goes into journalism due to concerns over public matters
● Writes for Rheinilche Beitung
● Writes radical articles
● 1848 = Moves to London
● Makes close friends with Engels, rich left-winger
● Marx gets involved with trade union and socialist movements
● 1863 = Becomes President of First International
● First Publication = Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (1867)
● What has to be the case for what we call Capitalism (the current economic system)?
, ● this is not an empirical book, it discusses that given there is something called capitalism what is ti that
makes it for us to call it capitalism? i.e. normative arguments
● Marx dies in 1883
The Core of Marx in Quotes:
• “The philosophers have only variously interpreted the world; the point is, to change it.” (Theses on
Feuerbach, 11)
● the philosophical conceptions comes from the way the world is, if you want to solve the philosophical
problem you dont just give an answer to the problem, you change what gives rise to it
● “All that is solid melts into thin air” (Manifesto)
● Nothing that we think is permanent or given is under the impact of capitalism going to remain permanent it is
going to be everde
● “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under
circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead
generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.” (XVIII Brumaire of Louis Napoleon)
● “Right can never be higher than the be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural
development which this determines….In a higher phase of communist society … ‘From each according to
his abilities, to each according to his needs’.” (Critique of the Gotha Program)
● what counts as morally right will be directly related of the nature and organisation of a society at the specific
time
● Every one of us under communism can do what we can and get what we need but there is no
necessary relationship between what i do and what you do
● Abolish property
Karl Marx: we live in a world that is morally and epistomologically wrong, that denies us or hides form us our
“species being”, our humanness…
•In Capital this is expressed in these oppositions.
①Ideology -> reality
②Phenomenon -> essence
③World of appearance -> real world
④External appearance -> laws
⑤Superficial movement -> real movement
⑥Representation -> concept
⑦False consciousness -> true consciousness
⑧Representation -> theory or science
What is species-being?
Our species-being is that of which is universal about us
• Reality
• “Man is a species-being not only in that he practically and theoretically makes as his object his own
species as well as that of things, but also – in that as present and living species he considers himself to be a
universal and consequently free being.” (Econ.Phil.Mss: section on “Alienated Labour”)
What is the point of species-being?
1. What is real is repressed, hidden.
1. Freud: think about your unconscious process of why you do the things you do
● Therefore, we live in a world of abstraction, like property. It allows you to pretend to yourself and
others that what we do is necessary.
Major Text: Communist manifesto
• Soviet Union subsidied publication of Marx into 45 volumes and multiple languages
What has happened in the political world since Rousseau’s death (1778)?
• First person to be struck by the concept of inequality in humankind
• Rousseau influenced the enlightenment of the French Revolution (1789+)
● The importance of the french revolution to Marx, the FR starts over bread prices in Paris. Then 10 years
later the metric system been extended to Europe besides England. All of a sudden people seem to realise
history have a logic of its own and no one can tell/predict. the FR brings about the understanding that
underneath the appearances of our lives are underlying themes and factors among out society.
● Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit - questions the appearance of our history:
● the power of others depends on us accepting their position of power
● what i do as a weak person will ultimately lead to my triumph, the people of the bottom will always
triumph over the top
Implications of Hegel’s theory:
a. Morality is human made
a. There is nothing in the world that requires that one treat it with special reverence
a. It is possible for an active self (people doing things) to create a world
b. There is no natural limits on human freedom
c. What counts as good or just? Kant and Rousseau: for something to be called good or properly human it has
to be universal to all people
d. Any existing institutions that are not made form the universal will must be destroyed because they are not
good
● The last line fo the greek revolution/proletariat singing “we shall be all”
Karl Marx Biography Part 1:
• Family religion = Converted Jews
● Well educated
● From Germany
● Married but had affairs
Karl Marx Biography Part 2:
● Marx PhD dissertation on Democritus
● Goes into journalism due to concerns over public matters
● Writes for Rheinilche Beitung
● Writes radical articles
● 1848 = Moves to London
● Makes close friends with Engels, rich left-winger
● Marx gets involved with trade union and socialist movements
● 1863 = Becomes President of First International
● First Publication = Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (1867)
● What has to be the case for what we call Capitalism (the current economic system)?
, ● this is not an empirical book, it discusses that given there is something called capitalism what is ti that
makes it for us to call it capitalism? i.e. normative arguments
● Marx dies in 1883
The Core of Marx in Quotes:
• “The philosophers have only variously interpreted the world; the point is, to change it.” (Theses on
Feuerbach, 11)
● the philosophical conceptions comes from the way the world is, if you want to solve the philosophical
problem you dont just give an answer to the problem, you change what gives rise to it
● “All that is solid melts into thin air” (Manifesto)
● Nothing that we think is permanent or given is under the impact of capitalism going to remain permanent it is
going to be everde
● “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under
circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead
generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.” (XVIII Brumaire of Louis Napoleon)
● “Right can never be higher than the be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural
development which this determines….In a higher phase of communist society … ‘From each according to
his abilities, to each according to his needs’.” (Critique of the Gotha Program)
● what counts as morally right will be directly related of the nature and organisation of a society at the specific
time
● Every one of us under communism can do what we can and get what we need but there is no
necessary relationship between what i do and what you do
● Abolish property
Karl Marx: we live in a world that is morally and epistomologically wrong, that denies us or hides form us our
“species being”, our humanness…
•In Capital this is expressed in these oppositions.
①Ideology -> reality
②Phenomenon -> essence
③World of appearance -> real world
④External appearance -> laws
⑤Superficial movement -> real movement
⑥Representation -> concept
⑦False consciousness -> true consciousness
⑧Representation -> theory or science
What is species-being?
Our species-being is that of which is universal about us
• Reality
• “Man is a species-being not only in that he practically and theoretically makes as his object his own
species as well as that of things, but also – in that as present and living species he considers himself to be a
universal and consequently free being.” (Econ.Phil.Mss: section on “Alienated Labour”)
What is the point of species-being?
1. What is real is repressed, hidden.
1. Freud: think about your unconscious process of why you do the things you do
● Therefore, we live in a world of abstraction, like property. It allows you to pretend to yourself and
others that what we do is necessary.
