The Sociological Contribution of Karl Marx to an Understanding of Contemporary Society

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The Sociological Contribution of Karl Marx to an Understanding of Contemporary Society

This essay will discuss how the Karl Marx contributed his knowledge to

the understanding of contemporary society. Karl Marx is often referred

to as the ‘intellectual father of modern day Marxist economics’. Karl

Marx was a philosopher, a social scientist and also a historian. He is

also known as a revolutionary whose ideas and theories are known as

scientific socialism or Marxism.

Marxism helps us to understand society and the way in which

individuals within society behave and the reasoning behind this

behaviour. Marx explained how employers can exploit and alienate their

workers; this is described in more detail and is known as ‘the labour

theory of value’. Marx also goes on to explain how in a business

falling rate of profit can lead to an inevitable crisis, revolutions

can emerge and then finally leading to the socialist state. Marx also

goes on to explain that if workers start to earn more money and gain

more wealth then he becomes poorer in values and the more his

production increases in power and range of materialistic substances.

One of Marx’s sayings to support this theory was “The worker becomes

an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates”.

Karl Marx was largely ignored by his scholars during his lifetime;

however his theories and ideologies came to surface after his death

during the labour movement. Now his theories regarding capitalist

economy, historical materialism, class struggle and surplus are used

as the basis of the socialist doctrine. Therefore it can be said that

Karl Marx by developing Marxism has given us a mu...

... middle of paper ...

... and means of production,

all of which would be self-inflicted.

Marx has helped us to understand how we all live in a world which has

been shaped by the economic and social forces he identified. Now his

work has also to a great extent the political forces of today all of

which his work inspired. In my point of view It is no exaggeration to

say that of all theorists of society Karl Marx is a revolutionary

and has deeply touched and affected all our lives. Our modern

political field reflects his ideologies and is under much of his

influence. For example the Labour Party and the Conservative Party

were both profoundly affected by the challenge of Marxist movements.

It can be said that as the political landscape undergoes further

changes, Marxism will indefinitely be consulted to help shape society

for the better.

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