Marxism And Marx's Analysis Of The Material World

We do not live isolated lives, that much is clear. Our actions and our attitudes toward our situations and the people around us undoubtedly affect those we come in contact with. Over the history of western thought, great thinkers argue about just how strong of an impact the environment has on human existence. While this is yet to be settled, authors apply this idea of connectedness to other concepts. In WIT 202, we have discussed the material world, in context of the city and nature, and its relationship with the ideological world in light of texts from the 18th and 19th centuries. The ideas of Darwinism and Marxism, along with their impacts on the history of thought, illustrate that these two worlds are utterly intertwined; what happens

Marx and Engels turn to history to understand the world and argue that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" (Manifesto 65). These class struggles, based on who owns the capital, are the Marxists ' way of reading history. According to Marx and Engels, the current bourgeoisie, with their power and the growing industrial city, is "itself the product of a long course of development" and the final bourgeoisie to exist before the proletariat revolution (Manifesto 67). By stating this they illustrate the understanding that material possessions are what have driven history, ideas, and progress. They see the end result as a place where "class distinctions have disappeared" (Manifesto 84). By this the authors mean that private property, and any other type of personal material wealth will disappear, leading to the best society. The entire premise behind the ideas of the Marxists is that it is the wealth - the capital - that directs society and these class struggles. While these ideas describe the power wealth has on the ideas and history of a society, the impact that Marxist philosophy even further solidifies the relationship of the two seemingly separate