Leadership: Karl Marx

Leadership

Karl Marx Within Sociology

Index

I- Introduction

a. Who was Karl Marx?

b. Important Basic Aspects of Marxist Theory

II- Body

a. Marx’s Life

i. Milestones

ii. Books & Productions

b. Marxism & Sociology

i. Historical Materialism

ii. Labour Theory of Value

iii. Class & False Consciousness

c. Marxism after Marxi. The Frankfurt School

ii. Marxist Feminism

III- Conclusion

Introduction

Who was Karl Marx? As a basic answer to the question, it is possible to answer by highlighting some crucial aspects of what he did and why he is worldwide known. Karl Marx was a philosopher, political economist, sociologist, even a historian, from a German origin, and Jewish roots, whose communist andrevolutionary ideas happened to play an extremely important role within society and the perspective of different environments such as sociology, politics and economy. Marx is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of the 19th century, effect of his many creations and ways of understanding society and its different aspects, but, due to the fact that many of his writings were published longtime after their creation, his ideas began to be accepted and, put into action, after his death in 1883. Marxist theory, at first sight, seems pretty difficult to understand since he created a number of new terms to explains his main ideas, which, far from being a barrier between him and the person studying him, creates a bridge between both in order to enable the understanding of his aims andideas.

His theory, often referred to as Conflict Structuralism and its bases can be depicted in a particular phrase of Karl’s and Engels’ creation, The Communist Manifesto (1981) where it says: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. This perspective establishes that the dynamo of society is the class struggle between two main classes which change fromepoch to epoch: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the haves and the have nots, the oppressors and the oppressed. During the development of this paper we will intend to explain the Marxist theory and its relevance in sociological fields.

a. Marx’s Life

According to Rob Sewell and Alan Woods, in their article What is Marxism (2000):

“Neither before, nor since the lifetimeof Marx and Engels have any superior, more truthful or scientific theories been advanced to explain the movement of society and the role of the working class in that movement.”

Karl Marx was born in Trier on May 5, 1818. Of Jewish origins, his family had to convert to Protestantism at the age of 6, in order for his father to pursue his career as a lawyer and survive facing Prussia’santi-Jewish laws. In 1841 he finished his studies as a lawyer with a Hegelian perspective of the world. His first steps towards becoming a leader came in 1842, when he became editor-in-chief of a paper in opposition to Prussian Government, called Rheinische Zeitung founded by some radical bourgeois in Colognein touch with Left Hegelians such as Karl and Bruno Bauer (both invited to be chief contributors).Despite the fact that the paper was suppressed by the government after applying double, even triple censorship on it, Marx was able to realize of his acquaintance with political economy and gave a true picture of him as his criticisms about almost everything appeared and his appeals towards mass classes and proletariat increased.

Along with one of his closest friends, Friederich Engels, theyproduced in 1845 their first work titled The German Ideology, in which they criticized Left Hegelians such as Bauer and they developed the basis of Marxism. In this work we can depict Karl’s personality and intention to change the world when he says: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” in his outline for the beginning of the book (Theses...