Karl Marx

Born in Treir, Prussia on May 5, 1818, Karl Marx grew up in a middle class family of Jewish beliefs. Growing up Marx received a classical education during which he studied law, much as his father did seeing as he was a very well respected lawyer. By the age of seventeen, Marx had enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Boon. During his time there Marx became engaged to a women by the name of Jenny von Westphalen. Jenny’s father was Baron von Westphalen, who was a very prominent figure in Treir. It would be the Baron who sparked Marx’s interest in Romantic literature also in politics.

Marx’s studies of law were slowly out ranked by his interest in philosophy. His stay at Boon would not last for very long though and he left after only a year’s stay. His time there were brought to an early end after his parents withdrew him. His early withdrawal from school was due to his incarceration for fighting a duel with a fellow student and drunkenness. His father then decided that he would send him to a more serious school and decided to send his son to the University of Berlin.

While there Marx abandoned his interest for Romanticism for an interest in Hegelianism. The main tenants of this philosophy can be stated in a central point which is, "the rational alone is real". This philosophy places the ultimate reality in ideas rather than in things. Marx became very involved in this philosophy and joined into the Young Hegelian movement. This group confronted every major tradition and establishment whether it be religion, ethics, politics, or even philosophy itself.

After graduating, Marx began writing for an influential newspaper called Rheinische Zeitung. Soon after starting into journalism Marx became the paper’s editor in 1842. ...

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...oited because they were being paid less for the value of the product that they were putting out. Marx believed that Communism, where if the workers own the means of production instead of a business, there would be no cause to exploit labor for profit.

His theories had a huge impact on societies all around the world as evidenced by the revolutions following in his wake and by his followers. But Marx’s theories are not without flaws of their own and have now been discredited due to their errancy in actual practice. But his theories do point out certain quirks in Capitalism such as how the larger companies have some advantages over smaller ones such as that the smaller ones can be absorbed into the larger company. The last point that Marx’s thoughts can highlight in Capitalism is that income distribution can somewhat incline to lead to the wealthy and the not wealthy.