Karl Marx

Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818, in Trier, Prussia. He attended the university of Bonn and later the university at Berlin, where he studied in law, while majoring in history and philosophy. After his education, Marx associated himself with the "Left Hegelians," along with Bruno Bauer, which were a group who formed atheistic and revolutionary ideas from Hegel's philosophy. The Young Hegelians practiced philosophical idealism. Here he first meet Arnold Ruge and Ludwig Feuerbach. In 1842 Marx and Bruno Bauer were asked to contribute to the Rheinische Zeitung, a German paper, in Cologne.

At the time Marx started, the paper had only 400 subscribers. Marx in October of 1842, became editor-in-chief, and decided to move from Bonn to Cologne. As the paper became more and more revolutionary and widely read, the government decided to censor, and eventually suppress it. The paper was banned in March of 1843. At this time, it had more than 3,400 subscribers from all over Germany.

Karl Marx was married to his childhood friend Jenny von Westphalen, in 1843. Later in the fall of that year Marx along with another Left Hegelian, Arnold Ruge, moved to Paris and began publication of a radical journal entitled Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher. Due to the problems in publishing such a radical paper, only one issue appeared. Karl met his closest friend in September of 1844, when Frederick Engels arrived in Paris. Together they participated in the activities of many revolutionary communities. They formed the theory and ideas of revolutionary proletarian socialism, also known as communism.

Also in 1844, Marx wrote a revolutionary book called the Holy Family. It is a materialist view of the history of man. Basically, it was a critique on his former philosophy group, "The Young Hegelians." It expressed the view of history being mans activities. "‘History' is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his own aims." Finally in 1845 Marx was banished from Paris as a dangerous revolutionary. He wrote satirical poems for revolutionary-democrats.

The paper, "Vorwärts", was attack by reactionary papers asking for government banning or censorship, but instead they banned Marx from Paris. He decided to head for Brussels, where he and Engels joined, in 1847,...

... middle of paper ...

...pital is placed on exploitation of wage labor. Marx discovered the fact that it is not labor itself, but labor power that is the commodity which the worker sells and the capitalist purchases. This is the key discovery for the connection for the determination of the commodity value by labor. Capital also establishes two main points. The first is that the capitalist can increase the rate of surplus value by prolonging the working day. This is absolute surplus value.

The second is by increasing the intensity of the working day. This is relative surplus value. Marx covers every aspect of capitalist economy, and depicts every flaw. Though never completed, it is the work of his life time. On December 2, 1881, His lifelong wife passed away.

Marx's health declined due to his strenuous work with the International and the Capital. And just more than a year later Karl Marx died peacefully at his home. Both were buried at Highgate Cemetery in London, where they still lie today. Marx has affected nearly all aspects, whether it be economy, politics, natural science, Darwinism, or even philosophy. His impacts have positively changed the world even still today, Marx's ingenious all around us.